12-1-09

We did an outline on Latin american baseball and Mr. schick cried because we were doing an outline and no one else was. Here is the outline

Latin America Baseball
a. History
I. Origin
II. Effect
III. How it is Spreading
b. Baseball Academies Pros and Cons
I. Pros
a. Often it's the first time these boys will sleep under clean sheets or eat nutritious meals. The firsts don't stop there: Some of these boys encounter a toilet for the first time. Or an indoor shower.
b. The academies offer good equipment, nice uniforms and the dream of a better life.
c.
II. Cons
a. Signed as a teen by the Chicago Cubs in Venezuela in the late 1990s, Quiroz was jerked around for several years, never given a copy of his contracts, paid less than he was told and.
b. This compared to the treatment of baseball prospects in the U.S. and Asia, where amateurs are showered with million-dollar signing bonuses and given the best training regiments.
c.
III. What They’re Like
a. Players practiced and played games for eight to 12 hours a day in sweltering heat with no water. Alexi lived in a house that crowded 10 players to a room, without running water. Their daily meals amounted to two small bowls of plantains and rice.
b. He dislocates his shoulder. The team unwilling to pay for a proper medical attention brings him to a utility shed where a "doctor" stomps on his shoulder to pop it into place. He was never able to play again and never regained full use of his arm.
c.
c. Steroids in Latin America Baseball/False Documentation
I. How they Get Access
a. Buying steroids in many parts of Latin America is no different from buying aspirin in the U.S. Steroids are prominently displayed and sold over the counter, affording Latin players home for the off-season and Americans playing winter ball easy access to steroids for weeks and months.
b. During the regular season, ballplayers are known to make day trips into Mexico for restocking purposes, according to a minor league outfielder who asked not to be named.
c. "I've heard of a few guys getting together on an off day and going to Mexico for steroids," the outfielder says. "
II. How They Get Away With Using Steroids
a. Still, customs agents in 2000, the last year for which statistics are available, did make 8,724 seizures involving steroids with a street value of $38 million. That represented a 46% increase in seizures from the previous year.
b. Transporting steroids into the U.S. is illegal. Emmanuel recommended to an SI reporter that he throw away the packaging and syringes and conceal the vials on his person while driving back across the border into the U.S.
c. Stopping ballplayers or steroid suppliers with vials concealed inside their pants is not a high priority for U.S. Customs inspectors on alert for terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. Recreational drugs, including cocaine, amphetamines and marijuana, also rank as a higher priority than steroids.
III. History of Steroid Use
a. The attempt to synthesize hGH began in the 1930s when Dr. Choh Hao Li, at the University of California's Experimental Biology Laboratory, sought to isolate hormones. In 1971 he successfully synthesized hGH from the pituitary glands of human cadavers.
b. The 2003 anonymous samples and test results were the benchmark to determine whether random testing would be needed in professional baseball. The Baseball Players Union and MLB agreed that if 5-7% of the anonymous tests came back positive, stricter testing with penalties would begin in 2004. It was originally believed that 90 MLB pros tested positive. Now, it appears that the number of positive tests was 104 bringing the percentage to over 7%.
c. It assumed by most players including David Wells who states, “40 % of MLB players use some sort of performance enhancing drug whether it is anabolic steroids or HGH(human growth Hormone).
IV. Effect On the body
a. For example, anabolic steroids can weaken the immune system -- the body's defense against germs and diseases. They can also lead to liver damage or cancer, even in young people. They can also permanently stop bones from growing in teenagers. This means that a teenage steroid user may not grow to be his or her full adult height and will be shorter for life.
b. Anabolic steroids in the brain may trigger really aggressive behavior. Some outbursts can be so severe they have become known in the media as "roid rages."
c. In guys, anabolic steroids can interfere with the normal production of testosterone. They can also act directly on the testes and cause them to shrink. This can result in a lower sperm count and reproductive ability. They can also cause an irreversible loss of scalp hair
d. In girls, anabolic steroids can cause a loss of the monthly period by acting on both the hypothalamus and reproductive organs. They can also cause loss of scalp hair, growth of body and facial hair and deepening of the voice. These changes are also irreversible.
INTRODUCTORY: Although baseball was founded hundreds of years ago in the early 1800’s it is still having a huge impact on the Latin America area today. Baseball, which has the highest paid players of any sport, is increasingly bringing in illegal players and players that have abused banned substances to give themselves an unfair advantage. Although it is also a good thing because it is a chance for kids born into poverty to have a good life and get education and shelter by doing the thing they love. Latin American baseball is constantly sending new players to the MLB every year, although the road they traveled to get there was not always a clean and fair way.