Are Major League Baseball and Biotech Era to Blame for Illegal Steroid Use?

Performance enhancing drugs have been an issue in professional baseball for what seems like a lifetime. From cocaine and amphetamine use in the 70s to the ritualistic routine PED use by guilty players such as Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun. Who is to blame?

Some believe it's the greedy players who seek any means possible. Others say it's a lack of oversight in the testing system. Many simply say it's "baseball's culture." But has anyone ever considered that Major League Baseball is the one at fault? A study conducted at the University of Texas at Arlington points to baseball's governing body as the main culprit.

Sarah Rose of UT Arlington and Joshua Salzmann of Northern Illinois University have proposed that the free agent market and television revenues have exacerbated PED use and have contributed to obsessive bodily management. Over time, the changes in salary and more lucrative television deals executed by the MLB are believed to be a big factor.

"Baseball is representative of the fact that Americans increasingly live in an age of biotechnology in which bodily modification for profit has become the norm and, often, an unstated job requirement," said Rose in this UT Arlington news article.

In their study, Rose and Salzmann studied the history of MLB contracts beginning in 1954, where they identified a spike in salary increase in the mid-1960s, which coincided with higher television revenue for the sport. By 1979, these television contracts were in excess of $54 million and players' salaries had spiked as well. Through interviews with players, physicians, trainers, general managers, agents and union officials, the authors concluded that the importance of preserving the players bodies has drastically increased over time, ultimately leading to "biomechanical analysis and performance-enhancing drugs to reduce wear and tear on players' bodies," the study concluded.

Rose and Salzmann's article was published in the journal LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. The authors also submitted an opinion piece about Alex Rodriguez's alleged steroid use to the Chicago Tribune that was published last year. To read more about baseball's controversial steroid issue, click the links above.