Drug Use In Baseball: From “Doping” to Now

The inherent drama found within the game of baseball is one of America’s, and now many other countries’ biggest thrills. Bottom of the ninth theatrics often fill stadiums across the globe with a high-pitched intensity that explodes with a howling roar from the crowd, culminating in a festive celebration at home plate. Baseball players in the majors know that the pressure and ability to deliver big is what brings the fame and the glory, while simultaneously overjoying team owners with plenty of butts in the seats to see the show. The immense pressure can drive players to seek an edge to maintain performance and health over their entire careers. It can be innocent enough through superstition, like wearing the same undershirt, socks, or even hat every game. However, people often reach the edge through drug use instead.

Many things have remained the same throughout Major League Baseball’s (MLB) long history: wooden bats, bad umpires, and especially chemical enhancement. 

Why Do MLB Players Choose to Use Performance Enhancing Drugs? 

Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) get the bulk of attention when it comes to their relationship with the sport of baseball. From the 1980s through the early 2000s, players in Major League Baseball widely used steroids, human growth hormone (HGH), and other performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). This era saw legendary athletes like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire shatter historic records. However, after MLB began testing for these substances in 2003, evidence confirmed their use of anabolic steroids and HGH, which ultimately tarnished their legacies despite their jaw-dropping statistics.

There’s no way to understand each player’s reasoning behind using any PEDs or substances that provide another edge or level of ability. Still, the rationale usually trickles down to a few select reasons. 

The Big Contract, Health, and Longevity

Pro Baseball in America is unlike its pro basketball and football counterparts. Scouts evaluate players in those respective sports during their college careers and draft them, often offering big contracts early in their professional journeys. In contrast, MLB organizations require players to prove themselves by progressing through three levels of minor league baseball—A, AA, and AAA—before being called up. Few players make it early on, for others it takes until their mid-20s, while most never make it past A ball at all. 

MLB players still don’t even get paid the big bucks until well after their first few seasons, as a result of the contract and arbitration rules that exist. The first few seasons of an MLB player’s career are around the league minimum of $760,000. Once a player enters season 4 of their rookie contract, they can negotiate a larger salary based on performance and production, a process known as arbitration. It isn’t until a MLB player’s sixth season that they can get a veteran’s contract that pays the big bucks. The New York Mets currently have outfielder Juan Soto signed to a 15-year, $765 million deal in his 8th pro season. 

Pro baseball players find waiting to get paid the hardest part. This is the reason why many players aim to stay healthy and productive, so they’re still at their peak when it’s time for a veteran contract after six years. Performance-enhancers can keep that longevity in effect by staving off injury and making for faster recovery time that won’t keep players off the field for extended periods.

High-Stakes Pressure of the Spotlight

Tens of thousands of fans in the stands at any given game aren’t the only eyes on pro baseball players; there are millions more at home watching. Many baseball fans pay attention to every pitch like their life depends on it, so performing at the pinnacle of your potential on the biggest and brightest stage brings a lot of pressure. The crowd may boo a player for poor performance, or coaches may replace and forget them after an injury. PEDs offer the sparkly glow of extended glory and might.

Power and Production Reign Supreme

Anabolic steroids and HGH add an incredible amount of muscle mass to the human physique. They also have pretty bad side effects, like cardiovascular, hormonal, and mental imbalances, just to name a few. Some pro baseball players overlook the negatives in their pursuit of getting more power, strength, and production as a result. 

A Mental Boost to Stay Hyper Focused

The psychological boost that some PEDs can provide to baseball players is no longer a clubhouse secret. The cat has been out of the bag for quite some time now regarding factors like cocaine and amphetamine usage and how it fueled some of the legends of the game. Players can often feel “indestructible” as a result, allowing their sheer confidence and focus to take their game to another level. 

Other Drugs and MLB Players: Old and New 

PEDs don’t just include steroids for anyone keeping track. A lot of players have used and continue to use different substances to fly under the radar of testing nowadays, while the players of old got down with many different substances before testing came around. 

Steroids: Then and Now

The images that remain of the heroics of many MLB players from the “Steroid era” of baseball from the late 1980s through the early 2000s are no longer of their on-field heroics. Fans are instead reminded of many superstars admitting to career-long anabolic steroid and HGH usage in front of a congressional committee in 2005. Since then, the majority of those players have not been admitted to the Hall of Fame despite legendary numbers, and MLB began to crack down on banned substances. 

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Today’s MLB players don’t fit the bulky, artificially inflated steroid stereotype that once tainted the game during that dark era. However, they still employ a few clever strategies to get bigger and stronger. “Designer” steroids are now harder to drug test for, allowing players to stay one step ahead of the rules. Some designer steroids metabolize quickly and leave the system fast, while others alter hormones and can be masked with legal substances.

Many modern steroids have advanced so much that the league might not even test for them yet. While HGH and steroid use no longer dominate the sport like they once did, a few players today still get caught using them.

Amphetamines, Cocaine, and Uppers 

Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt played from 1972 to 1989. Schmidt wrote in his 2006 book, Clearing the Bases, that amphetamine use in baseball is very common and has been going on much longer than players abusing steroids. He also admitted to using them himself. 

Some of the greatest in the game, like Schmidt, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Hank Aaron, have used amphetamines (also known as speed). The amphetamine pill (nicknamed ‘greenies’ by players) enhanced focus and gave a warm sense of invincibility on the field. In a court case known as the “Pittsburgh drug trials”, heavy cocaine usage by Hall of Famer Willie Stargell and several other Pittsburgh Pirates teammates was also uncovered. 

Modern era baseball players also like to seek a bit more focus and invincibility on the field from amphetamines, albeit legally prescribed ones like Adderall. MLB players can receive a therapeutic use exemption to use adderall for treating Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It’s not very hard to get an exemption, according to many league insiders,  so the number of players using Adderall as modern-day amphetamines is most likely pretty high. 

Tobacco Has Long-Standing Ties with the Game

Tobacco has been part of the game of baseball for as long as the crack of the bat. Tobacco companies began including baseball cards featuring player images and information in cigarette packs as early as 1886. Players and coaches regularly smoked cigarettes and cigars in dugouts, while many chose chewing tobacco as their preferred option. This smokeless form of tobacco became their top go-to not only for its effects, but also for its ability to keep the mouth moist during long games. 

Players spitting tobacco juice onto the ground used to be a common sight during a ballgame. This widespread usage demonstrated not only the players’  addictions to tobacco, but also the promotion of it for countless children watching. Players like Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn would have wads of it in their cheeks throughout the entire game. Tobacco would ultimately take Gwynn’s life from salivary cancer at the age of 54 to spur action in 2016, banning tobacco in the MLB for any new players going forward. 

Since the ban, players still find ways to get tobacco into their system. Oral nicotine pouches like Zyn have quietly spread through clubhouses, as they’re smokeless, spit-free, and technically not tobacco, just nicotine. Nicotine gum is also another option some still players use, often mixing it in with bubble gum, and keeping the tradition alive of trying to find an edge in the daily grind of baseball’s humbling 162-game stretch. 

READ: MLB Meets LSD: Dock Ellis’s Historic No-Hitter

Cannabis, CBD, and Replacing Painkillers

Compared to other drugs, the combo of cannabis and baseball is a more subjective performance-enhancing experience. Cannabis can put some players “in the zone”, mentally locked in and feeling invincible. The more relaxed and laid-back nature of the cannabis high isn’t the most conducive for a lot of people performing at the highest level while 99 miles-per-hour fastballs are being thrown in your direction.

Cannabis is more of an after-the-game sort of thing due to its reported ability to provide anti-inflammatory and sedative effects. The MLB changed its stance on testing for cannabinoids in 2020 as a result of the prevalence of states that have legalized it, prohibiting players from using it during games, team events, or having it at the stadium. 

CBD in particular is a now-legal option for MLB players to use; they can even promote it! Some veterans, like former pitcher David Wells, have mentioned how much they wish CBD were a legal substance when they played. Many players like Wells used narcotic painkillers with highly addictive side effects to manage pain and recovery from injury. The hope is that now that the stigma and potential consequences of using cannabinoids are gone, players can manage pain and inflammation without the lethal side effects of pills like hydrocodone and Percocet. 

The Traditions of Baseball Have Mostly Stayed the Same, So Has Performance Enhancement

Major League Baseball is one sport that has stayed relatively the same for over a century. Other sports like football and basketball have made a lot of rule changes and technological advancements, while baseball has only updated a few of those until recently. Performance enhancement has also remained a constant in baseball’s rich history. The game will always make players chase any edge, chemical or otherwise, to produce as much as possible on their way to glory.