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| Yes | 31% | 232 votes | Total: 758 votes | |
| No | 69% | 526 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesBefore we can discuss who should be in the Hall of Fame, we should first come to an agreement as to WHAT the Hall of Fame is supposed to be. I think it's appropriate to use the mission provided by the Hall of Fame itself: Preserve history, honor excellence and connect generations.
Preserve History
The "preserve history" portion of the Hall of Fame's mission statement is pretty straight forward. It should be a museum that tells the full story of baseball... the good, the bad, and the ugly. Along this line, the Hall includes players from the Negro Leagues and acknowledges that they were unfairly excluded from the major leagues for most of the first half of the twentieth century. The Hall should also openly address the Black Sox scandal and the events that led to the throwing of the 1919 World Series. Finally, the Hall should acknowledge the rampant use of steroids and the effect that they've had on the game and its records.
Honor Excellence
The mission statement's "honor excellence" statement is tricky issue. Many will argue that those who "cheated" don't deserve to be honored, but it's hard to put the blame solely on the players themselves. While the NFL first came out with a steroids policy in the late 1980's, baseball pretty much took a "don't ask, don't tell" approach until Congress threatened to impose their own policy on them in early 2005. It was no secret what was going on, and there's no way that baseball officials and owners could have missed what was going on. Kevin Towers, the Padres general manager, told ESPN, "We went through a real difficult time in 1994, with the strike. Then some amazing things happened. Home runs were up. Fans were flocking to ballparks, lining up to watch batting practice. But we all realized that there were things going on within the game that were affecting the integrity of the game. I think we all knew it, but we didn't say anything about it."
In that environment, no one will ever know exactly who did and who did not use performance enhancing drugs. So, the choice comes down to punishing all from the Steroids Era or punishing none of them.
I think the Hall will have to take a "punish none" approach and treat Steroids Era players much like it's had to treat the Negro Leagues. Instead of trying to compare the players against major leaguers from the past, the Steroids Era players need to be compared against one another, with only the cream of the crop earning induction rights. Those Steroid Era players who do eventually get inducted into the hall should be clearly labeled so that their accomplishments are put into the correct perspective. For example, the plaque for Barry Bonds should read something like, "Barry Lamar Bonds, Steroid Era Player. Seven time NL Most Valuable Player. During Steroids Era, established many single season and career records. His most notable marks were single season home runs (73), career home runs (762), RBI (1996), and bases on balls (2558)."
Connect Generations
Finally, we come to the "connect generations" portion of the mission statement. Again, like the players in the Negro Leagues, I don't believe the Steroids Era players can be compared directly against those from other times. Otherwise, we're trying to compare Rafael Palmeiro with the likes of Ted Williams.
Like it or not, many of the sacred records that fans have held so dear for so long no longer mean anything... they've been artificially inflated by performance enhancing drugs. The same goes for the "automatic" Hall of Fame marks of 500 home runs and 3000 hits. Whether or not they can ever regain their luster is subject for another debate.
Learn more about this author, Jim Hyatt.
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No
In today's society money and power mean everything. Baseball players who have taken steroids to give themselves an advantage over others obviously conform to today's society. They seek fame and glory by becoming the best at all costs. When it comes right down to it, more home runs, more hits, more RBIs, and more stolen bases all equal a higher salary. With regards to the one's who do take steroids to gain this advantage, I believe money, power, fame, and glory is all they seek. They do not care about winning a World Series. They could care less if they were voted an All-Star. The more Major League Baseball allows its owners to pay these ridiculous high priced salaries to these players, the less these players care about winning. They only care about their own stats, so they can get paid. If a professional athlete disregards his own body and his own health for all the money, power, fame, and glory then he should not be allowed in the Hall of Fame. The athlete doesn't even care about his own body and his own health, so why would he care about anything else? People like that do not belong in any type of Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is reserved for great players, who have given their lives striving to become the best at what they do, people who did things the right way; people such as Cal Ripken, Jim Thome, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, etc. On top of it taking steroids is illegal in professional sports. Let me say that again, it is ILLEGAL. Betting on baseball is illegal and members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, were banned from the sport because of it. Pete Rose has been banned from the sport and from the Hall of Fame because of it as well. With the high salaries these players make today, which is in the millions, should we even be allowing an athlete to retain his position with his employer if he commits a crime of any kind? I honestly do not think we should. For one, anyone of us "average" people would be fired. Two, it's not like these athletes would be starving in the streets if they were to get fired. Taking steroids, whether they new they were taking it or not, is illegal. Taking steroids in order to heal an injury faster is also illegal, but should be distinguished from the players who are obviously taking steroids to gain an advantage. Brett Myers of the Phillies should have been fired for his incident in Chicago when he committed assault. Any player who is caught smoking or in possession of any type of drug, including Marijuana, should be fired because the "average" person would be, and everyone knows it. Maybe the problem is that this country is a country of second chances, a country where anyone can achieve their dreams. When professional athletes do illegal things and keep doing them and are allowed to earn that much money and retain their careers they shouldn't get a second chance because we already gave them a second chance when they became professional athletes. Becoming a professional athlete is a privilege yet they take it for granted. I am almost certain that every professional athlete will tell you that they were given a second chance just trying to get to the pros, whether they did something illegal or were simply injured or were at one time cut from the team, so why should we give them another one when they mess up at the top of the world? On that pedestal, they have no room for error and that needs to be the mindset to restore the greatness of our national past time.
Learn more about this author, Michael Lochel.
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