There have been numerous scandals in the MLB, but how did the MLB handle the spotlight? The biggest scandal would be the steroid era of the MLB. During this time players such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Alex Rodriguez were taking part in a practice called “juicing”. This so-called juicing was simply them taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs to gain an edge on their competition. Although there was backlash for taking these drugs, the ratings of the MLB were at new heights thanks to the big hits and the home run chase in 1998 between Sosa and McGwire. The race ended with McGwire having 70 home runs while Sosa had 66. Overall, even though there was backlash the steroid era brought undeniable evidence that the viewers love the competition it brought.
Another scandal that occurred recently was focused on the Houston Astros. They were videoing the signals of opposing teams to gain an edge on what pitch was coming. Here is a video of an Astros playing telling his teammates to keep his jersey on because he is wearing a wire (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHBi5xKbqgE). This scandal brought the attention of every sporting station and the MLB commissioner didn’t handle it well. When asked about the consequences he referred to the championship of the league as a piece of metal, so it wouldn’t do much taking it away. That left die-hard fans in an uproar! How could the commissioner disrespect his own league like that? Things only got worse as more teams began to get their names brought up, some quickly dismissed, but others faced repercussions as well. The Boston Red Sox were one team that got involved after the initial reports because their manager was managing the Astros during the time of the recordings. This scandal was one that the MLB hasn’t recovered from and doesn’t seem close to recovering yet either.