Daily Research News Online no. 3130 - Public's View of Drugs in Baseball

Public's View of Drugs in Baseball

May 14 2004

Almost all US adults believe that professional baseball players use steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. On average, Americans believe that around one third of all players take them, according to the latest Harris Poll.

There is also overwhelming support for testing all professional ball players for performance-enhancing drugs and for punishing all who use them. The recent Balco Laboratories investigation and a recent resolution by the US Senate urging Major League Baseball to enact stronger drug-testing policies have evidently raised awareness of the issue despite the distraction of action on the field, where the season began again last month.

The main findings in the survey are as follows:

Fully 94% of all adults, and 95% of those who follow baseball, think that at least some professional players take steroids or performance-enhancing drugs
When people who believe this are asked what percentage of professional ball players take these drugs, on average they estimate that about a third do so
Fully 84% of all adults and 90% of those who follow baseball think that all professional ball players should be tested for the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and almost identical percentages think that anyone testing positive should be punished.
However, there is no consensus as to how they should be punished. Among those who follow baseball, the most popular punishments are: banning for a while but not for life (30%) and placing players on probation (24%). Smaller numbers think that they should be banned for life, fined but not banned, or suspended for a few games.
Most people (63% of all adults and 70% of those who follow baseball) think that the names of all professional ball players who test positive for these drugs should be made public.

“What percent of professional baseball players do you think take steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs?”
	Total	Follow Baseball
	0%	0%
1 - 29	33	44
30 - 49	13	16
50 or more	17	14
Not sure	37	26
Mean	33%	30%
Base: All Who Believe Players Take Drugs (94% of All Adults)

Salary caps for players have also been the topic of recent debate. In common with other sports internationally - Formula One and Soccer being the obvious examples - the discrepancy between the wealth of baseball teams is widely seen as hampering fair competition. The New York Yankees have the highest payroll, at approximately $180 million, while Milwaukee and Tampa Bay have the lowest payrolls, at approximately $30 million each. The average is about $70 million. It has been suggested that baseball teams should have a 'salary cap', or limit on the amount of money that they are allowed to spend on player contracts. There is currently no salary cap in Major League Baseball.

The survey found that most people favor a salary cap for professional baseball teams: 73 percent of the public support the idea (with half the remainder undecided) and 78 percent of those who follow baseball (14% opposed and 8% undecided).

The Harris Poll(r) surveyed 3,698 American adults online between March 18 and 29. As usual, 'Propensity score' weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.