There will always be players who are willing to go first and test the waters.  Steroid abuse was not always illegal in baseball.  When Mark McGwire admitted to taking androstenedione during the 1998 season, it was not banned in Major League Baseball.

Getting an edge on the competition is part of human nature.  It is something people seek in a working environment to make them stand out and get a job done better.

Working men and women are always after the latest technology to make their lives easier, and if your job is your body, then steroids during this latest era was that technology.

I have been good friends with some men who admit to having used steroids in the past.  Their claim at the time (2004) was if steroids are taken in the proper dosage and are used on a cycle, then they would have no adverse health effects.

Researchers have discovered that use of anabolic steroids can lead to, among other things, tumors, acne, and infertility.  Since my friends were not qualified researchers, one must take the word of the scientists who did the study.

In defense of the friends though, their claim was made before Major League Baseball was under investigation, and steroid research findings had not yet been brought to the forefront.

This has been another positive outcome of baseball's steroid scandal—these friends have since stopped using steroids because they are now aware of what could happen to their bodies if they continued abusing steroids.  They may not have found out if baseball had not made it a front page issue.

It is a situation similar to tobacco use in the past.  People used to think that it could not hurt you but now know better thanks to high profile research.  Without Major League Baseball's scandal, steroids may never have undergone such high profile research.

Baseball players are part of a fraternity, and that fraternity is governed by the rules set forth by Major League Baseball.  If one player like Jose Canseco found success with the help of steroids and had no repercussions from the league, other players who might not have taken steroids on their own would have taken his lead and begun using themselves, thinking that under the new circumstances, it was completely acceptable.

Doris Lessing wrote in her essay “Group Minds” that it only takes one person in a group to step over the line of what is acceptable without anyone else in the group stopping him for that thing that was once immoral and unacceptable to all of a sudden become acceptable.

The players waited for Major League Baseball to stop them, and Major League Baseball felt it had too much to lose by putting an end to their practices.  This stalemate could have continued indefinitely had Congress not stepped in.

For all of its strengths and weaknesses, the steroid era brought about the revival of fans.  In 1993, the last full season before the strike, the average Major League team drew 2,509,212 fans over the course of the season.

In 1995, the first full season after the strike, the average team only drew 1,802,472 fans over the course of the season.

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