Baseball has been a sport surrounded by controversy for many years. Players have been fighters, aggressors, even racists. The first black man wasn’t allowed in the major leagues until the 1940’s, yet we still consider baseball one of the best American past times of our country. In the 1980s, baseball fans are struck with a new type of controversy: steroid use. Steroids became something known by the media around the 1980’s, when players like Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire became some of the biggest human beings to ever play the sport. Now, in the 21st century, they are illegal in the sport of baseball. Many players before the steroid ban in 2005 took PED’s, or performance enhancing drugs, to help them with their game and skill. These players should be allowed in the Hall of Fame since they were such impact baseball players at a time when baseball was not popular.

 People who support steroid users being in the Hall of Fame have often been ridiculed because they “don’t want to keep the Hall clean”.  Some of these steroid users made baseball popular again. There was a strike in baseball in 1992 that made Major League Baseball stop completely for a period of time. Once it kicked back up, players like McGuire and Bonds and Clemens brought the excitement back into the game of baseball and made it popular again. There are many good reasons, and many strong resources that explain why steroid users should be allowed in the Hall of Fame. 

In reality, there is no shying away from the bitter truth about these players. They cheated and they can never take that back. As a baseball player, I could never take Steroids because I love and respect the game so much in its natural form that I would never want to taint the sport in any way, shape, or form. My dad played minor league ball for the New York Yankees from 1992-1995. He saw first-hand players taking steroids to improve their strength and skill. He never took steroids because he saw that it did not keep the game in its natural state. The way he thought about this was molded into my mind at a very young. I know many kids even my age that have been taking PEDs since they were 14 or 15 years old, but this does not mean that I think of them differently, it just means that they made a choice and at the end of the day they have to live with it. Taking steroids is also very bad for your body, but this has nothing to do with people that do not support them going into the Hall of Fame. As a somewhat old school baseball player mentality, I understand why these people think this way, because it makes baseball “impure”. 

Even though my beliefs are that steroid users should be in the Hall of Fame, many people believe they should never be in the conversation to be elected into baseball’s most prestigious home. Many people say that these players are just plain cheaters who disrespected the game of baseball and did not become elite in the sport on their own. Jim Bunning is one of the people who believes steroid users are cheaters and should never be elected into Cooperstown, and was an ex professional baseball player who played in the Major Leagues for 19 seasons. In his article discussing the topic, he talked about how all the older players were so good and they didn’t even have steroids offered to them because they never existed. He also brings the argument on more of a personal level, saying that whatever players took steroids or Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) have no dignity for themselves or respect for the game itself (Bunning Baseballs Great Jim…Fame). Jim Bunning is just one of many sources of people who think the exact same way. People who have this strong of a belief about Steroid Era players not being allowed into the hall of fame make this argument very heated and intense.  

Although I think steroids are wrong, I still believe that steroid users should be in the Hall of Fame. One of the main reasons I firmly believe in this is because they changed the game so much in a time when baseball was not as popular. Looking at one of the first players to be questioned about PEDs, Jose Canseco was an outfielder for the Oakland A’s and Boston Red Sox from 1985-2001.  He won rookie of the year in his first season, won the 1988 MVP, two-time homerun champion, and 1988 American League MVP (MLB Jose Canseco Stats). These are accolades that make a baseball fan or anyone stop and read in amazement. However, he is known for bringing steroids to baseball. He was arguably one of the biggest baseball players of his era. People sadly know him only for this even though he was a good player. So why only look at the steroid usage when he had such a great career? Because this is what he is labeled as, even though he was a great player for his era. He even had teammates that drank his “Canseco shakes” (this is what people nicknamed his PEDs he took). The biggest one known to baseball fans is Mark Mcgwire. Mark played for the A’s and St. Louis Cardinals from 1986-2001. He is in 11th place for career homeruns in the Major Leagues with 583. He too, like Canseco, was a really physically dominating player. At 6 foot 5 inches, and 215 pounds, he was built like a football lineman. He broke the season homerun record that was previously broken by Roger Maris in the 1960s. However, he was one of the only steroid users that openly admitted to taking Performance Enhancing Drugs during his career. Since he admitted it like a good man would, I think he more than anyone should definitely be in the Hall of Fame, but he will never be able to. He fell off the Hall of Fame ballot because he failed to get at least 5% of the voters to vote for him while he was on the ballot. This makes me really upset because he is such a good player and did so much for the game of baseball. He brought back excitement to the game for fans by breaking a record held for decades. This is why in my eyes, he is a no doubt hall of famer. 

Before I go on to talk about more players in the steroid era, I want to talk about a topic that hardly no one knows as a baseball fan or as a baseball writer. If I said the name Babe Ruth to any sports fan, they would immediately think of a few things. One being the homerun leader in baseball with 714 homeruns (later broken by Hank Aaron), and the other for being the face of baseball history. But what a lot of people don’t know is that he admitted to taking testosterone, which is a PED in baseball, during his career once he was a member in the first class to get into the Hall of Fame. Colin Cowherd is the host of a talk show on ESPN called “The Herd”. He talks about how Babe Ruth took testosterone during his career, but no one acknowledges it because he is such a dynamic player in baseball. No one would ever take away his Hall of Fame plaque. I think it brings up a great argument since Babe Ruth was such a big time player in his era, just like the players in the Steroid Era. So why aren’t players in the Steroid Era allowed in since Babe Ruth is in the Hall? There is no reason. These players are being penalized for something that was done by one of the most iconic baseball players of all time. 

Barry Bonds is the biggest known name in the Steroid Era. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants from 1986-2007. During his 22 years in the Major Leagues, he was a seven-time all-star, eight-time Gold Glove winner (best defensive player at his position in his league), two-time batting champion, fourteen-time all-star, twelve-time Silver Slugger winner (award for hitters by position and league), and three-time Major League Player of the Year. These numbers are unbelievable in any sport. Barry Bonds might be the Michael Phelps of baseball, seeing that he has so many accomplishments, but he is still not a Hall of Famer. He has been on the ballot for almost ten years now, and still does not have a plaque. The reason for this is because he was accused of taking steroids. He is the most unique player in the Steroid Era because he is the only one that has yet to fail a drug test that is not in the Hall from this Era. But why is that? Because when he was traded to the San Francisco Giants from the Pittsburgh Pirates, he went from being a scrawny player to one of the biggest players in the game in the matter of a year or two. This is why many people speculate Bonds as a PED user since it is basically impossible for a human to gain so much muscle mass in a short amount of time. May fans, however, still support Bonds in getting into the Hall. In a scholarly article written by authors Brian Quick, Natalie White, and Christopher Josey, they discuss how fans base their opinion on these players getting inducted based on how much they were liked when they played and how much on an impact they had on the game (Quick 73-108). A player like Bonds has both of these in his favor, so he will be getting into the Hall very soon.  Barry Bonds is definitely an iconic figure of baseball known by all fans of the game. 

The other very iconic player from the Steroid Era is Roger Clemens. He is a special case because he is a right handed pitcher. He played for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, and Houston Astros. In his 24 years of playing, he won the MVP once, was a two-time triple crown winner (leads the league in strikeouts, wins, and lowest earned run average), two-time World Series champion, an All-Star MVP, seven-time Cy Young Award winner (best pitcher in the league), eleven-time all-star, seven-time ERA title (Lowest Earned Run average), and one Major League Player of the Year. Like all the other players in this era, his numbers are through the roof, but like the others, he is not in the Hall of Fame. Clemens is not in the Hall of Fame mainly because he lied in court about it saying he did not take them and then he tested positive for PEDs later on in his career. I personally think it was really wrong that he lied in court about it, but that still does not take away the fact that he is one of the greatest pitchers of all time. The new writers are starting to vote for guys like Bonds and Clemens because they have such an appreciation for these players since they made such a big impact on the game itself. Voting these guys in is now the new thing and the older baseball writers are just going to have to realize that players like Bonds and Clemens will be in the Hall of Fame.

People always say that PEDs make these players so much better than what they would really be. That’s not entirely true. These players were some of the best players of all time, prior to even taking PEDs. For example, Barry Bonds was one of the best players in Pittsburgh Pirates history, and he was a really small ball player then. He weighed no more than 185 pounds as a Pirate, yet everyone talked about Hall of Fame possibilities when he was there. Now many people compare Fred McGriffs numbers to some Hall of Fame potentials and they are just short. Fred Mcgriff played for many years and has unreal numbers, but is not a Hall of Famer because he “didn’t take steroids”. This argument is complete bogus because these players aren’t getting Hall of Fame recognition because of PEDs, they’re getting it because of the numbers they put up and how much they impacted not just the game itself, but the organizations they played for. Steroids may help your performance, but it is still extremely hard to play baseball. A 95 MPH fastball comes to you quicker than a blink of an eye. Steroids make you stronger, but they don’t help you hit baseballs. 

A lot of the older generation players and writers think that this era is a bad image because it shows future players that they can do this too. Well, as a future player, I disagree. I look at players in the Steroid Era as players that impacted the game so much that they made baseball a whole new game. They made baseball fun again. Baseball went into a huge strike in 1994, and when this happened, players like McGwire and Bonds made sure when baseball resumed, so did their ability to hit baseballs 450+ feet and make thousands of fans cheer them on. They made baseball so exciting and intense since they were chasing the single season record for homeruns, which was beat multiple times by both of these players in their careers.

Steroid users should be allowed in the Hall of Fame. It’s that simple. These guys shouldn’t even be getting chased around and questioned whether or not they took steroids because they were players that played with such bliss that they brought baseball back to the fans again. Baseball needs players like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, and Jose Canseco to ensure excitement in baseball, and the Hall of Fame needs them too. 
