[Syd Thrift]

I don’t have a study - Game of Shadows is good though - but there’s also the thing where you can use them responsibly and not screw up your post playing career, but:

a. There’s every incentive to over use them now and worry about the consequences later. After all, whatever you do after baseball, you will not have the same opportunity to make millions in that field.

a.a. I should add to that that I think that Jose Canseco in particular didn’t really hurt himself in the long term by using even though he was the face of steroid use for a while. In some sports - football in particular - it seems downright hypocritical that they made such a huge issue over steroid use while turning a blind eye for decades over CTE. You can manage steroid use and live a fit, healthy, and long life. You can’t do that with repeated concussions.

b. However, there is also the chance to abuse, and the thing about steroid/hormone abuse is that you absolutely can improve yourself in the short term while hurting yourself in the long term. There’s a threshold at which returns will be diminished but that just means you have to do more.

c. The most dangerous cohort this affects are not stars like Canseco or Bonds or Clemens but AAAA players who could play in the league for a few years if they just got a little extra boost. It’s the difference between making like 80k a year in the high minors vs making several million dollars over a few years. In that group, if everyone is using to some extent, you almost have to overuse in order to get ahead. To my knowledge there’s no really good way to stop overuse aside from stopping detectable use (which to be sure is problematic in its own way but it’s the best we’ve got).

d. Collectively speaking, both baseball and players as a whole have a vested interest in keeping players healthy during and after their careers. The above is a pure Tragedy of the Commons situation, where individuals benefit but everyone as a whole becomes worse off.