Steroids in Baseball

Steroids in Baseball

            One of the most controversial topics in the all of sports for the past two decades has been the effect of steroids in baseball.  A whole era has basically been deemed as tainted, and great baseball players are having all of their numbers voided because of alleged or proven steroid use.  The “Steroid Era” has been filled with great players, but all of them are going to basically be shunned by the hall of fame and become forgotten due to when they played the game.  I am a huge baseball fan, and I am more realistic than the average fan.  I have played baseball basically my whole life until college, and like to think that I played at a pretty high level during high school.  I have a different appreciation for Major League Baseball players, and have a very strong opinion on how steroids are not the problem in baseball.  I am choosing to talk about steroids in baseball because the media has blown everything out of proportion, and convinced the general public that steroids make these players as good as they are.  Baseball is America’s past time, but is losing all of its popularity and honor with all of the steroid drama and suspensions.  MLB needs to start keeping the problems within their league and now release elaborate press releases like they just caught Osama Bin Laden.  I absolutely love the game of baseball and everything about it, but I hate how political and media driven the sport has become.

            The biggest obstacle I have to deal with while doing my podcast is that the majority of people do not understand exactly how steroids work.  Steroids will not make these guys super human, or help their ability to play baseball.  Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and anybody else you can think of were already elite athletes before their alleged steroid use.  Most of the time, steroids are taken to help a player stay healthy, or be able to endure such a long season.  The baseball season is 162 games, in terrible summer heat, and filled with travel and labor.  These players are expected to be able to go out and compete at a high level, every day, and if they slide for two or three days, they are considered to be slumping or losing it.  Major league baseball is not completely filled with steroids, not even 10% of the players that were in the confidential study tested positive.  The media has made it seem that every baseball player from 1984-2010 were taking steroids, and that steroids are the only reason these players have made it to the position they are in.   The hardest part about convincing people that steroids are not as big of an issue or aid is that people just do not know enough about baseball because my generation has given up on the sport.  Baseball’s popularity is slowly dying due to the media and all of these scandals.  The image of baseball is being ruined by a select few individuals, and it is unfair but nobody seems to be pointing it out.

            The research for this project was easy since I have been following all of it since the Mitchell Report was released.   I have actually done many papers and projects on the subject at hand, and the MLB needs to take a page out of the NFL’s book on how to handle substance abuse problems.  The NFL will just suspend a player for substance abuse, and it is left at that.   There is no extra information, not federal investigation, or basically have their own little party showing they are trying to clean the game up.  Finding information on steroids in baseball is easy because the MLB practically discloses all of the information when a suspension is handed out.  Everything is available for the public to read, but sporting news sites such as ESPN and other sites will make it seem as if the world is ending and baseball is a sport full of cheaters.  ESPN has basically ruined how people perceive Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, but embrace David Ortiz.  David Ortiz had been linked to multiple steroid allegations, but it is impossible for the media to make him out to be the villain.  Instead, they turned to his teammate Manny Ramirez because he was an easy target.  The baseball media seems to really stretch for stories, and right now steroids are the hot topic so they will try and find anything they possibly can about steroids and baseball to talk about.  The best player in baseball right now is a 23-year-old kid from New Jersey.  He is the fastest player, gold glover, and hit the longest homerun in the majors so far this season.  Not one person has come out and accused him for steroids (yet), because he is media friendly and can become the face of MLB.  Mike Trout is expected to dominate the game of baseball for the next 20 years, and take over the reign as the face of the league since Derek Jeter is retiring.  The worst part about the steroid era is that some of the guys that are the most effected, have never tested positive in any test, and have the worst reputation of all.  The media dictates who gets treated fairly or is the villain, and it all depends on how nice you are to them.  Everybody knows that Barry Bonds hates the media, and the media hated him, yet he hasn’t tested positive for steroids once in his life.  Ryan Braun tested positive, multiple times, but yet nobody really cares about it.  It is an unfair system filled with politics and needs to be changed.  Hopefully Bud Selig’s successor can find a way to get baseball out of the public eye.

            Overall, I love baseball enough to where I will still watch it everyday, but there are so many things wrong with the game still.  The players taking steroids during the 90s and early 2000s should not be hunted down.  They beat the system; many of these guys actually played college baseball and were stud athletes at their universities.  Baseball is struggling right now with its image due to how the media is allowed to portray their players and access information that should be kept internal.  The hunting parties should be laid to rest, and if a player tests positive during a test, go about it the proper way and suspend them.  Just because a player has been linked to a pharmaceutical company doesn’t mean they will test positive for steroids or banned substances.  I am a firm believer that if they pass all of their tests during the season, they are clean, and shouldn’t be pursued any further.  If the MLB wants to help their image and gain popularity, stop having such large scandals brought to the public eye, and quit searching so hard to find dirt on everybody.  It isn’t worth it, and it shows that a lot of these guys do not need steroids to be successful.  Nelson Cruz was suspended last year for his role in Biogenesis, and is leading the AL in home runs this year.  Steroids are not as big of a problem as they are perceived to be, and maybe baseball should focus on the players that have chewing tobacco in their mouths at all times during the game, and the fact that Tony Gwynn just died from throat cancer.  That should be the bigger issue now than guys that are just trying to play a few more games a year.

Baseball issues

Just a little precursor to what my podcast is going to be about.  If anybody has ever talked to me about baseball and all of the media and steroid drama that the MLB has been surrounded by the past 15 years, you know I am highly opinionated.  I am one of the few that believe the players are getting a bad rap for taking steroids, and people do not understand that steroids really don't make a player better.  I hate that the media gets all the say on the Hall of Fame, and can control the images of certain players.  Barry Bonds is the best baseball player that we have ever seen (Mike Trout is probably going to take that throne eventually), but since he was not media friendly and played during a certain era, he is going to get snubbed.   It makes no sense to put all the power in the press.  There is a reason that these people are sports reporters.  They couldn't play competitively.  They are envious of some of these guys talents, and have an unrealistic view on what steroids actually do to players.  I can talk about this subject for a long time, and I can't wait to speak about it in my podcast.  Maybe I can go viral with it!

Rick Rolled

In 2008, Rick Astley saw an enormous boost in his popularity by people making false videos on YouTube that would eventually show is music video for the song "Never Gonna Give You Up."

The music video itself was taken off of Youtube, but then Vevo put up the same video but more high def.  I for one know how frustrating it was when "RickRolling" was in its prime popularity.  On April 1, 2008 it got even more out of hand.  YouTube.com linked every video on their home page to the Rick Astley music video.  I used to basically live on YouTube during my senior of high school, so needless to say, I did not appreciate that April Fool's joke.

The Rick Rolling videos are hilarious though.  People would put them on videos that are in high demand, and you never knew if the video you were clicking on was actually the real thing.  The first video that started the trend was a trailer for the high anticipated Grand Theft Auto video game.  It was suppose to be the first trailer released of the new game, and ended up being a prank on millions of people that probably have never seen or heard of the song.

Rick Astley benefited greatly because of this even in video history, and has even seen more opportunities to perform.  His newfound popularity has gotten his song played at large sporting events, and even holiday parades.  Even though Rick has been happy with the whole situation, there have been certain groups that are extremely upset with people creating Rick Roll videos.

In 2008, a group of people decided it would be a good idea to Rick Roll the Church of Scientology.  The Scientologists did not find it entertaining, and found it quite offensive.  I think the Rick Rolling should just stay with flash mobs or internet videos.  That way it stays funny, and doesn't really attack people personally like that.  I think its hilarious when people go to show you a video and it happens to be a Rick Rolled video.  It has been about 6 years now since the initial video, and popularity has died down.  Viral videos don't tend to be around really long time, but I do like being reminded every once in a while when I click on a video and get a blast from the past.

Barry Alvarez- Pioneer of College Football

This Sutton Impact assignment has been a bit confusing to me on exactly what we needed to do.  The Mark Cuban example just showed how Sutton appreciated and respected a lot of things that Mark Cuban did, and I am going to do the same for a man that I met this summer.

Barry Alvarez has been the face of the Wisconsin Badgers athletic department since the early 90s and continues to play a crucial part in the world of college athletics.  He set the standard of how Big 10 schools should recruit, act, and carry themselves.  Academics is one of the biggest parts of Wisconsin tradition now, and they take pride in graduating their players.

Next is he is taking an aggressive approach to how the NCAA should change, and is helping collegiate athletes get treated better.  He is on board with full scholarships covering the cost of expenses for school, and is hoping that everything will start changing to give the larger conferences more power.

He is now the AD at Wisconsin, and on top of his responsibilities to the school, and Big 10 conference, he is on a committee that will choose the 4 BCS playoff teams this coming season.   Not just everybody can do the jobs that he is asked to do.  College football is a billion dollar industry, and making sure the right teams are playing for the national championship is crucial in the amount of revenue which will be gained.

Coach Alvarez is all about tradition, and that is how many college athletic programs can sustain their high level of competition.  College athletics is all about being successful, keeping the boosters happy, and being able to maintain a high level of competition.  The schools that get in trouble tend to have NCAA sanctions, or a patch of a few years that causes huge problems.  The power house colleges don't allow themselves to get in trouble, and Barry Alvarez has gone his whole career doing everything the right way, and has built an empire in Madison Wisconsin.

Meeting with Coach Alvarez was an amazing experience, and he is literally a living legend on the campus.  He hasn't coached in about 10 years, but everybody still refers to him as coach and he knows everybody at the stadium.  Security guards, grounds crew, anybody and everybody respects him and he gives it right back.  The infrastructure at Wisconsin is strong, and everybody feels important there even if they aren't directly involved in athletics.

The biggest aspect he talked about is making sure the boosters are happy.  Money drives everything, and Wisconsin wouldn't be where they are now if they didn't have the support of the alumni, and large amount of corporate donations, specifically Kohl's.  The boosters make everything happen, and want to be able to say they contributed to a national championship run, or a teams success.  The job of an AD is to make sure the right people are in the right positions to succeed, and the supporters feel that they have actually contributed to the better of the team.

College athletics is all about public relations and making sure the fans are in the stands.  The colleges that do it right, have the 100,000 capacity stadiums, and still sell out every game because the people respect the program.  I know first hand that Nebraska had a few bad years, but the fans still would fill the stadium because it is tradition.  Professional sports doesn't have that aspect of the business, and tend to not have long lasting traditions.  Tradition is a huge selling point, marketing pitch, and a way to gather excitement around the program.

Metting Coach Alvarez was a great experience for me, and let me meet one of my idols.  He does everything the right way, is respected throughout his profession, and even took time out of his busy day to talk to me for over an hour.  I'm interested to see what everybody is going to do for this assignment.  It was one of the more difficult ones since Sutton seemed to change his format weekly.

Social Media In High School

http://www.thesuburbanite.com/article/20140706/SPORTS/140629526/10782/SPECIAL

Being able to write about anything could get me in trouble, so I will pick something I'm less opinionated on.  I was going to write about steroids in baseball, but I figured I didn't need to get all worked up tonight.  Instead I'm going to talk about how social media can actually be a bad thing.  

We have all been there, our favorite football team loses because of a bone head play by a big name player, and we take to Facebook or Twitter to let the world know we are upset with them.  But where do we draw the line?  Are we only allowed to be upset with professional athletes?  College athletes?  High school athletes?  

It is unfair for high school athletes to have to see bad things written about them.  The press never writes anything bad about what happens in games, just tries to turn it around into a positive for others.  In the article I found, it shows exactly how social media can bring a team down, and be a negative influence on a season.  Some high school girls team was actually feuding through twitter, but one of the girls said she was joking around.  Context is extremely hard to determine through 140 characters or whatever it is on Twitter.  Some people can read something negative about them and brush it off.  Others take every little criticism to heart and it eats away at them inside.  Being a former athlete, I know when I made a mistake, but I certainly hated other people talking about it.  Especially if they are incapable of doing anything better.  High School kids do not deserve to be criticized like professionals because they are just kids.

Social media is a great tool in order to see in to the lives of our favorite athletes, and even communicate with them every once in a while.  Professional athletes handle criticism well because they understand that one game doesn't mean the end of the world.  For some of these high school kids, they take everything to heart and are so afraid to make mistakes.  They will already be down on themselves for the mistake they made, and the last thing we need them to see is their peers making fun of them for it.  It is going to end up with a kid taking his own life, and for no real reason.  Social media is becoming too important, and needs to not consume a lot of the lives of young adults today.  I won't get a Twitter just because I don't feel the need to get one.  I was basically pressured into Facebook in high school because I was one of the only kids left that didn't have one.

Hope everybody had a great 4th of July!!!!  Good luck with the rest of the semester!

MarylandWrestling.com

This week I am responsible for critiquing the website for Maryland Championship Wrestling.  The websites address is marylandwrestling.com which led me to believe that it was going to be more of competition wrestling website instead of a “professional” wrestling website.   I will be critiquing the website on its ease of accessibility, ease of navigation, use of interactivity, use of video, and quality of content.  I do not frequent professional wrestling websites, so this will be a first experience for me. 

The first thing I noticed on the website was that it had tabs on the right hand side to show all of the recent activity they had been involved in with social media sites.  I can easily see their most recent tweets, Facebook updates, Youtube videos, and Instagram photos.   It allows me access to the most recent information at a quick glance, and would allow me not to spend much time searching on the site.  Next is how easy it is to navigate the website.  The website used a nice tab system that made it easy to search and find everything I needed.  I can look up match history quickly, search the roster of wrestlers, and even purchase tickets quickly.  MCW actually has some former WWE wrestlers involved within the company which draws popularity. 

The website is not full of much interaction, but the quick tabs on the side to social media gives allows them to not push videos at the visitor or try and stuff being a twitter follower down my throat.  The tabs allow the visitor to see what they want to see, instead of having it forced on them.  The videos are accessible through the Youtube tab, but are left to the side instead of taking up space on the websites main page.  I like how the videos are kept off the main page, and if I want to see a video, I can go to their Youtube account page and watch the ones I want. 

Overall, marylandwrestling.com is a well structured website that is easy to access and easy to follow.  Basically all information can be found quickly on the website, and they do a good job of putting the schedule right on the front page.  The website was not overly crowded, which is nice, and is user friendly.  I was on the page for about 45 minutes searching around and I didn’t come across any banner ads or push notifications.  I would give the website an 8/10, and wish that some of my favorite teams would have websites as easy as this one.

Technology Deprivation

I chose to do my technology deprivation on Sunday, June 1 because I knew I had to get school work done, and also knew that I was going to be taking many naps throughout the day.  I had a bachelor party Saturday in Omaha, and needless to say, Omaha won last night.  I know some of the other students are worried about exactly how much technology they may miss, but one of my favorite things to do is to just not use my phone for days at a time.

Last summer I went to WeFest and would check my phone every morning just to see if my parents tried to contact me.  Other than morning, it was nothing but the out doors, cold beer, and great country music.  I absolutely love not having to be on my phone all the time.  Everything just seemed easier and more relaxing.  Today I tried to go all day without even charging my phone.  I didn't get back to Vermillion until about 4:00pm and my phone died last night around 11:00pm.  I was happy to go that long without my phone, but once I charged it up, I had to at least read some of my messages.

The hardest part about the deprivation I think was the fact that I didn't really tell anybody that I was doing it.  My parents kept trying to reach me, but I had to honor the assignment and I will have to wait until Monday to see what they wanted.

The hardest part for me was not using my Xbox 360 and watching MLB.tv.  I literally always have the MLB.tv on and just watch baseball every night.  Another part that was extremely difficult for me was not being able to frequently check my fantasy baseball team.  With day games all day Sunday, I have been stressed out not knowing how I performed.

Overall, I like going off the grid every once in a while to just be alone.  Its amazing how upset people get when you do not replay to them or text em during the day.  It felt just like the 90s again where nobody was accessible 24/7.  I might start doing this every Sunday for a few hours just to relax and regroup every week.  I do think I have a bit of an addiction to fantasy baseball though, I may need to slow down on how much I actually think about it.