Baseball and Steriods

Baseball and Steriods

Certain Major League Baseball players should not have their hall of fame ballot affected because they took performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). There are multiple reasons for this. Yes they went against league rules but don't they still deserve it?

Not voting players like Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa would mean none of these players played well enough to make it to the Hall of Fame. All of these players were playing when steroid testing was not intact. Which means they didn't expect to be caught. Yes it's cheating but if you think no one will find out and it will only help your stats why not. I mean the all time homerun king may not reach baseball immortality because he wanted to take the easy way to be better. A-Rod who is likely to break Bonds record in a few years may have his votes because of what he did in high school.

ESPN baseball reporter Buster Olney says " Steroids have been tied to baseball for a better part of 2 decades. If every deserving player tied to steroids was not allowed into the H.O.F then we would be left with an entire generation of few or no inductees".(bleacher report). We couldn't prove if certain players took steroids or not.

Barry Bonds has 762 career homeruns most all time, and Roger Clemens who has 354 career wins with a 3.12 ERA should definitely be in the H.O.F. those numbers are amazing.(all stats from ESPN.com) if they don't make it to the hall then that damages baseball and the voters. Id understand if they lived their life off of steroids but if it's a few occurrences I mean come on they earned it either way.

According to "The Carolinian" MLB owner Bud Selig should take the following steps. First, pardon all previous offenders so that all unsure users will come clean. Next, regular drug tests on every player even in the minor leagues, and in the off-season. First offenders should be suspended with out pay and second offenders should be banned from baseball. Now this would assure that the game is clean in the future. The baseball hall of fame voting rule book says that "voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team which the player played. A poll by USA Today says 68% of people would vote yes to Sammy Sosa, 62% yes to Roger Clemens, and 61% yes to Mark McGwire. I would vote Bonds as well but only 41% said yes to him for some odd reason.

Taking steroids is worse than throwing spitballs but not as bad as throwing a game, it lies somewhere in between. Yes they should be punished but to a certain extent, taking away the hall of fame is too far. From now on thought those who test positive should be severely punished because now they all know its wrong. This would help have a cleaner game and prevent the argument of being allowed