PHYSICAL PRIVACY - Coursework Example

Even after they signed an agreement with the league not to do such a thing. When a player is suspended for almost a whole season due to illegal drug use, that athlete becomes a liability for his team. It puts all of the achievements of the team, while he was playing with them, into question. Since baseball is a sport that relies heavily on marketing the team image and highlighting the achievements of their players in order to keep the publicity going during the season, the acts of Cabrerra and Colon only served to tarnish the team's reputation.

In the case of Cabrerra, because his team managed to go all the way to winning the World Series without him, (Stark, 2012) his team somehow managed to turn his suspension into a good thing for their marketing strategy. The same cannot be said for Colon however, who many fans, coaches, and sports professionals view as having come past his prime already and can actually be retired already. (Zinser & Kovaleski, 2012). A player who uses performance enhancing drugs does so in order to improve his game.

He becomes an athletic powerhouse capable of practically anything on that field when he plays. He displays uncanny strength, speed, and stamina. All of which bystanders tend to attribute to his unique athletic ability. His performance on the field dictates how the rest of the team is expected to perform as well. The minute a drug using player becomes the center of the universe for the team, the tendency of the rest of the players is to slack off. Knowing all too well that the star player can reverse any loss in points so that their team can certainly win every game.

The drug use puts the team at a certain advantage whether they know it or not. Which is why players who use drugs should be dealt with swiftly and properly. Let the punishment fit the crime. If a team gets lucky, like the San Francisco Giants did after the suspension of Cabrerra, the team will go on to win the World Series without the offending player. Thus restoring the good name of their ball club and reiterating that one does not need to use drugs in order to win at a game. It is my opinion that the 50 game suspension each for Melky Cabrerra and Bartolo Colon is a just punishment.

A lengthy suspension such as that will allow the players the much needed opportunity to seek the proper medical attention that they need in order to detox and get back into the game, clean and at the peak of their natural ability to play the games. The game suspension after all did not make any difference for their teams. In the case of Cabrerra, his suspension seems to have even helped his team to a clean, untainted World Series victory, which is truly the only thing that any team owner asks of his players.

(Baggarly, 2013) Since not all athletes can be expected to toe the line when it comes to performance enhancing drugs, Lance Armstrong being the biggest disappointment of them all, the question of athletes as role models for the future generation of sports players becomes a question. Knowing that these athletes may discreetly be using drugs is something that can have an adverse effect on a child who is building his own dreams of athletic success upon the work of his sports idol. The influence of a superstar athlete cannot be discounted in terms of influencing a young mind.

The young fans of Cabrerra and Colon may have already been misled by their statements about drug use after their suspension as being a good thing. After all, if a big name athlete does