In fall of 1919 the Chicago White Sox competed in the World Series against the Cincinnati Red Stockings.  The White Sox lost the series five games to three.  After the series was played it came out that gamblers had paid members of the Chicago White Sox to lose: the White Sox were favored and the gamblers stood to make more money if the Reds were to win.  Eight members of the White Sox were found guilty of taking part in the scandal and were banished from baseball by the then commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis.  This example of cheating was dealt with by the executives of baseball swiftly with no leniency.  George Weaver the third baseman for the White Sox was banished from baseball for his involvement with the group.  Although he did not receive any money nor did he intentionally throw the series baseball determined that anyone who permitted such a despicable action to occur didn’t deserve to be part of the game any longer.  While baseball then was swift and strict with their punishment for cheating, the game today does not have any punishment so severe for steroids until a third infraction.  While the way the players cheat has changed the punishment has gotten more lax.  This has lead to a negative image for baseball; it is difficult for the everyday person to be a fan of a sport where the best players are using illicit drugs and lying in court.  This image has led to a loss of viewership due to fans who consider baseball a pure sport being sick of the artificial enhancement.  The lack of enforcement on steroid rules also gives the impression to younger players that they can use steroids without any serious repercussions.  Any player that has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs should not be permitted into the baseball Hall of Fame, in order to keep baseball clean and bring athletes back to the type of people kids can look up to.

While steroid use is not allowed in professional baseball, people will claim that the players that used them are still part of the game and have a right to be in the Hall of Fame.  Players that have used steroids have affected the game in many ways including the first member of the 40-40 club, most homeruns in a single season, most homeruns in a career, and most consecutive saves.  These records stand to mean a lot to players and fans forever, and while the players who got them were cheating, it has been a part of the game since its inception.  Ty Cobb, one of the best hitters in baseball history with over 4,000 hits and a lifetime average over .400, cheated: he would sharpen the spikes on his cleats to do damage to opposing players when he slid into a base, dislodging the ball and making himself safe.  Babe Ruth tried a number of things that enhanced his performance “In 1889 Pud Galvin used Brown Sequard Elixir.  That’s a code word for testosterone…Babe Ruth tried it.  So if you think everyone in the Hall is clean you’re out of your mind” (The Herd).  Baseball can’t decide certain forms of cheating are okay to put into the Hall of Fame and others aren’t.  To completely disregard the steroid era would be an injustice to the game.  

Baseball has changed a lot in its 100+ years, the mound has been raised and moved back, the way the ball is made has changed, and the seams on the ball have been raised.  All these changes have influenced the game and yet the stats still stand, players that player before African-Americans were allowed to play are still Hall of Famers, therefore it makes sense that those that used steroids should also be considered eligible for the Hall of Fame.  While using steroids is cheating,  it still takes an incredible amount of skill to hit a baseball solidly.  It is a round ball starting elevated 60’ 6” away, it is coming at you at around 90 MPH, it can move side to side, the batter must then decide to either swing at that pitch or let it go because it is a ball, then swing their round bat to make solid contact with the round ball and make it fly over a fence around 340 feet away.  In all of those little steps, only one of the steps is enhanced by the human growth hormone commonly used in the steroid era.  It did not give the players super vision or the ability to always make solid contact, it only helped, when the player did make solid contact, the ball fly a few feet further.  

An example of a player that was truly talented at hitting is Barry Bonds, a player who has long been suspected of using steroids during his playing years due to his rapid increase of body mass.  Barry Bonds leads all of Major League Baseball in homeruns hit in a single season and in a career.  However, Bonds also holds the record for most career walks.  He knew how to select the pitches he swung at to achieve the highest rate of hard hit balls, if he did use any steroids it was to help those already hard hit balls fly further and help him do it for more years.  The building up of his body not only helped his hitting but also helped his longevity.  Baseball is physically taxing because although it is not the most physical of sports there are 162 games played in 185 days.  Players wear down after playing roughly 140+ of those with many back to back games and travel between time zones almost every week.  Players will spend roughly 12 hours a day for 6 months playing baseball.  This kind of wear and tear makes longevity a huge factor.  A player such as Bonds who can perform at such a high level for a long time creates a commodity that can earn him more money and increase his chances of getting into the Hall of Fame.  Bonds is currently up for the Hall of Fame and continues to get more support each year only a couple votes away from being elected.  He is one of the most notable suspected steroid users and could open the doors to the Hall of Fame for others if elected. 

Any player caught cheating should be deemed ineligible for the Hall of Fame.  Cheating is still cheating and allowing someone who has cheated to be put into the most sacred place in baseball is disrespectful to those that earned their way in their cleanly.  By setting a precedent that players that used steroids are allowed into the Hall of Fame, the highest individual honor in baseball, it gives new players the idea that if they cheat and perform at a high enough level while using performance enhancing drugs that it is okay to cheat in baseball.  Five years ago Tom Verducci wrote an article about four minor league baseball players, “I wrote about the insidious damage of PED use, telling the story of four righthanded pitchers around the same age and with similar ability on the 19994 Fort Myers Miracle…Only one of them reached the big leagues, and it ws expressly because he was the only one to use steroids” (Verducci).  Stories like this reveal the unfair nature of those trying to play the game.  To allow players who have used steroids to be in the Hall of Fame would be to tell players that if they do not cheat, use a foreign substance that will have negative effects on their health later, they will not make it.  The integrity of the game is lost by allowing cheating to occur.  While Ty Cobb may have sharpened his spikes, players knew about it and made an effort to avoid it.  Sharpening spikes was also legal during Cobb’s time, therefore, he wasn’t cheating as much as using the competitive advantages available to him.  

Babe Ruth was one of the best players of his time due to his massive size and ability to hit balls far.  Ruth was post dead ball era, due to a lack of offense in the game the MLB decided to change the way the ball was made to allow it to fly further and create more bounce off the bat.  Pitchers were used to being able to throw balls up in the zone and, due to the dead balls, would get hitters to pop out.  When the ball changed pitchers had not adjusted and Ruth took advantage.  Any “steroids” he used were not common and due to the lack of popularity would have had little effect.  Steroids allow the body to work harder for longer while also decreasing the recovery time to allow for more rapid muscle growth.  Babe Ruth was not putting time in in the weight room to render the steroids effective.  

While the Hall of Fame may not be the cleanest place, the outright cheating involved with performance enhancing drugs leaves longtime fans with a sick feeling.  When players use performance enhancing drugs it leaves a large gap between the best players and the middle quality players.  When Sammy Sosa and Mark Mcgwire were in the homerun race to break Roger Maris’ single season record the next closest player was 10 homeruns behind them.  The enhanced play made it impossible for even the best natural players (Ken Griffey Jr. who was a number one overall pick and received the most Hall of Fame votes of any player in history) to keep up with the artificially enhanced athletes.  This unfair advantage frustrates current and former players alike who compete without performance enhancing drugs.  Players such as Frank Thomas said, “No, they shouldn't get in. There shouldn't be cheating allowed to get into the Hall of Fame.'' (USA Today).  It should be noted that Frank Thomas did fail a drug test in 2005 however the tests do not have a 100% accuracy.  The accuracy of drug tests came into play when Milwaukie Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun failed a drug test and defended himself to the point where he said the sample must have been mishandled by a worker within the testing company.  After battling the league about his sample, resulting in another test and the firing of the worker, Braun came out and admitted that he had used steroids.  This action resulted in Braun being suspended, but it cost that employee his job.  A player like that should not be allowed into the Hall of Fame, he cheated, and he hurt the reputation of the league by hurting an innocent worker.  The use of steroids by pro baseball players directly influences youth athletes to use if they notice a lack of consequences like what happened in 1998 when Mcgwire was found using steroids, the Mitchell Report states, “After the Associated Press reported in August 1998 that Mark McGwire was using androstenedione, a steroid precursor that was legal at the time, sales of that supplement increased by over 1000%.  McGwire may not have wanted to be a role model, but he was.  According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, by 2001, 8% of male high school seniors had used andro within the prior year” (Mitchell Report).  This reveals the receptive nature of younger athletes.  Mcgwire used steroids, he received no punishment and was revered by fans, in the mind of a high schooler it would appear that nothing can go wrong by using steroids.  Not only does it hurt the league to allow players such as Braun, Canseco, and Mcgwire.  It sends the message that these players can get away with lying and cheating because they produce big numbers.

While players that used steroids shouldn’t be allowed in the Hall of Fame, it must also be distinguished for those that are suspected of using throughout their careers.  For the system to be truly fair baseball could make the decision to only prohibit those who have failed drug tests during their careers from entering the Hall of Fame.  This leaves the door open for players who are suspected of using without ever failing a drug test.  Without a failed test or a confession it is impossible to know for sure.  Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd spoke on the issue of steroid users in the hall of fame saying, “If you don’t have a complete list of who used and who didn’t, just go to the numbers and let them in because you don’t have a list.  And don’t be arrogant enough to think you know who took it and who didn’t.  When A-Rod first got busted, weren’t we all surprised?” (Cowherd).  While Cowherd believes in letting in known steroid users such as Mcgwire, he makes a very good point about if you know then make a judgement, but if you don’t, there is no reason to assume.  It is similar to the United States government where a suspect is innocent until proven guilty.  Every time a test is developed to find previously unidentifiable drugs, a new drug or technique will come out to avoid that test.  When it comes to preliminary voting the only criteria for eligibility outside those already in place should be whether or not the player has failed a drug test.  If the player has failed a drug test that results in the league taking action to suspend or punish that player then they are deemed ineligible for the Hall of Fame.  From there if a player is elected into the hall of fame and later admits to using performance enhancing drugs then an asterisk should be placed next to their name and statistics.  It is a way of identifying the inaccurate statistics without punishing honesty.  This is similar to Dodger pitcher Brandon McCarthy’s views on steroid use in the hall of fame, “the main purpose of the Hall of Fame: to create a comprehensive, all-encompassing look at the history of baseball. Any truthful telling of that history would recognize Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens as two of the best to ever play. Inside the Hall of Fame, the steroid era can be addressed however is deemed fit — with qualifiers, categories, or explainers” (McCarthy).  While McCarthy is a little looser on his ruling against steroid users his goal is to avoid hurting guys because of suspected use.  This is one of the many good alternatives to the current system of Hall of Fame voting.  The records that steroid users also should stand because they have changed the way the game is looked at.  Even if Barry Bonds admits to using performance enhancing drugs his record of 762 homeruns throughout his career still matters, it is still a goal that other players should work to achieve because it adds excitement and goals that encourage players to go beyond what they thought they could physically do.  This increases excitement to the game and will help to relieve the bad image placed upon the MLB and its steroid issues.  

To allow steroid users into the baseball Hall of Fame is to tell people that cheating is okay as long as you produce a desired result.  It is similar to players who are charged with crimes that are all but forgiven due to their athletic prowess.  Players such as Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger who has been accused of sexual assault twice without receiving any punishment from either fans or from the National Football League.  Kobe Bryant is one of the most well known basketball players in America, however, it is forgotten by a lot of people that Bryant was accused of sexual assault in 2004 and admitted to have sexual relations with two women who were not his wife.  While this incident cost him jersey sales and reputation at the time, it was quickly forgiven by the public once Bryant began setting scoring records and winning NBA championships.  Sports are such a dominant culture in the United States that society allows high performing athletes to do things that would not be considered decent by the everyday person.  In baseball, to allow players that used steroids into the Hall of Fame would be the first step in allowing other illicit activities from pro baseball.  To go down that path would cause a loss in longtime fans and a lack of interest from younger fans who are looking for role models.
