At age 16, Taylor Hooton stood 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds. Hooton was a pitcher on his high school baseball team. His baseball coach told him that if he wanted to be a star player, he would have to get bigger. (Ingram) Taylor decided to take steroids orally and at the same time through injection, to get bigger. During the winter of 2003 Taylor gained 30 pounds of muscle. (Ingram) Taylor's attitude took a dramatic turn. He started punching walls when he was angry and yelling at his closest friends. (Ingram) When he decided to stop using steroids he became severely depressed and a month after his 17th birthday he committed suicide. (Ingram) His coach pressured him to take steroids to become a star, but if Major League Baseball had truly cracked down on steroid use, then Taylor may not have started taking steroids in the first place and may still be alive Today. While many scholars have argued that a suspension and fine will solve baseball's drug problem, banning players for life on their first offense will be a better way to prevent the problem from continuing. Athletes often abuse this drug to help build muscle and improve athletic performance. This is illegal and dangerous to do for your body. Most athletes use steroids to gain an advantage over their opponents so they can become better than them. This can help them improve in the short term. However, in the long term, their body may pay for steroid abuse. Many people do not understand the dangers they may face when taking steroids. These dangers, coupled with the fact that the drug is illegal, could definitely lead anyone down the wrong path. Players use steroids to build more muscles so they can hit the ball farther and hit more home runs, run faster, or even have the... middle of paper......these drugs to be better players in the Le major leagues and that's probably why they won't get the votes to get into the Hall of Fame and will only be remembered for cheating, not for their accomplishments. Cal Ripken Jr., showed us that you don't need drugs to be an everyday player in the Majors and be a Hall of Famer. Major League Baseball is cracking down on the use of performance-enhancing drugs as the years pass with harsher punishments for violators of drug laws. This is the first time MLB has added a lifetime ban for players who continue to use steroids after being caught. Why take the chance to use these performance-enhancing drugs if it will only end in failure? Neither heaven nor hell would question my word that cheaters never win, and if you use performance-enhancing drugs to be better at anything you will forever be labeled a cheater.