The year is finally here. One side will win the debate that has been ongoing for years over the allowance of steroid users in the MLB Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa are all on the 2013 Hall of Fame ballot and we will see whether voters will let them in on the first ballot, or in at all.
THE OPINION COLUMN
By: Ryan Welte
Follow me on Twitter @SportsCircus to debate the latest sports topics with me and post questions to be responded to on the next Sports Circus Edition.
Should Proven Steroid Users Be Allowed In the MLB Hall of Fame?
I am strongly against permitting steroids/performance enhancers in sports, but I think that we have to accept that it was part of an entire era in baseball history. The MLB Hall of Fame is meant for baseball history, and I think we should acknowledge it. There is no way to prove exactly who took steroids, and who did not. Therefore, I think that steroid users should not be kept from being in the Hall of Fame, but it should come with some sort of a punishment.
Every player who has been proven to have used steroids in baseball should have an asterisk put next to their name and a notification on their plaque saying that this player used steroids.
When players enter the Hall of Fame, they receive a plaque with their head shot and career summary (like the one below). The way to "punish" them without keeping them from being acknowledged, is to put an asterisk on that plaque that says, "Tested Positive For Illegal Performance Enhancers." I think this fair enough and strict enough at the same time and players and future players will see that and decide that they wouldn't want an asterisk on their plaque, and won't take the steroids. For years I have been an advocate of not
giving them any rights. Suspend them harshly, no Hall of Fame, cut them from your team. But I have thought about it and what the significance of the
Hall of Fame really is, and that is, to celebrate and show baseball's history. If we excluded the players, or didn't put the asterisk, than it is as if the hadn't existed, and we don't want that either.