In the early 1990s America’s national pastime was traveling on a rocky road. More often than not, there were empty seats in every ballpark you traveled to across the country, in addition to a minimal amount of people watching at home before the advent of the television. In 1994, however, almost a decade later, baseball reached its most embarrassing stage. On August 12, after multiple disputes with MLB team owners, the players went on strike and all of baseball’s operations were cancelled. Due to the strike, the Montreal Expos franchise ended, Tony Gwynn’s road to baseball immortality concluded, and Michael Jordan’s brief MLB career with the White Sox was halted permanently. After 232 calendar days, though, baseball returned. Still, there was a handful of empty seats in ballparks all over America. Baseball was in a true crisis in that time, that is until players like Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens emerged from the shadows.

Bonds, Sosa and McGwire could hit the long ball farther than anyone had ever seen and Clemens could throw a fast ball with so much heat that even the best of hitters fanned in their attempts at contact. Soon enough, the seats of baseball stadiums were full again. As years went on these players began breaking milestones that were thought to never be broken, like Barry Bonds passing Hank Aaron’s record for most home runs of all time. It was well known by every baseball fan that Sosa, Bonds, McGwire and Clemens would easily achieve every player’s ultimate goal, becoming an MLB Hall of Famer.

In the early 2000s speculation began to rise that athletes were using performance enhancing drugs, or PEDS, to give themselves an unfair advantage over those who played the game by the rules it had established since its inception. Later in 2003, the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative was indicted by a federal grand jury on the charge of providing steroids and other performance enhancing drugs to professional athletes. Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire were among the many that were rumored to be connected to this immense scandal.

As more and more evidence piled up over the years fans began to turn against players who were rumored to be taking steroids. In 2006 Barry Bonds saw some of his fellow juicers get caught by the MLB. He knew that he could be next, so he began to lie. He lied in front of court more than once and he lied in front of his most passionate fans to try and protect his legacy. Finally, after years of speculation on November 15th of 2007, Bonds was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco. The information was out and the proof was there.

Not only did he cheat, but he lied about cheating.

All the records he had broke along with his fellow juicers were said to be asterisked. Sometimes something or someone can be to good to be true. 

Today, the 2017 MLB Hall Of Fame class will be revealed. To get into the MLB Hall of Fame, 75% of voters would have to mark your name down on their ballot. Experts predict that players like Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell have received enough votes to be inducted this summer, but will that be all? Ten years after one of the biggest scandals in MLB history came to an end, Barry Bonds–who has been proven to have cheated the game–has appeared on the ballot for the second consecutive year. Along with Roger Clemens, Bonds is predicted to at least have a chance at becoming a Hall of Famer.  Manny Ramirez and Sammy Sosa are some of the other notable players who allegedly used PEDs that showed up on this year’s ballot, but aren’t getting too much attention from the voters.

The effects of letting one of these cheaters into the Hall of Fame goes beyond a plaque. Putting a steroid user into the Hall of Fame can lead to younger kids believing it’s okay to use PED’s, which can lead to a shorter life expectancy and many other side effects.. Not only does it also violate the fifth rule of the MLB Hall of Fame, but it also snubs the hard working players who did not take steroids to fulfill their lifelong dream to make it to the MLB Hall of Fame.

PED users have already created a tragic stain in Major League Baseball’s past and now they may jeopardize the future of baseball. If steroid users are allowed and honored in the Baseball Hall of Fame, future players may not only think it is okay to cheat in baseball, they may be encouraged to do so by the lure of fame and fortune that goes along with being a baseball powerhouse and potential Hall of Famer. A study put out by Fox News in 2012 indicates that 5-10% of middle school and high school students are taking steroids and other supplements to become stronger in their given sports category. That percentage is continuing to grow and some of those bad apples in the 5-10% group may soon be represented in the professional sports we love watching.

Adding a player to the MLB Hall Of Fame who did use steroids promotes to the upcoming generation of athletes that it is okay to use life threatening drugs to improve your performance. If a player like Bonds is to be elected into the Baseball Hall Of Fame, expect the use of steroids in young adults to skyrocket. Some of these performance drugs, even enhancers like creatine have become more popular since the mid 90s when these sluggers rose to power. In 2013, baseball prospect Juan Manuel fell victim to steroids at a young age. It is also a proven fact that steroid use leads to brain damage and can leave victims mentally ill in their later years. Letting in a steroid user to baseball’s most coveted honor will promote the wrong message to baseball fans in America and abroad, across all generations. 

Rule five of the MLB Hall Of Fame rule book states, “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.” This rule always makes me wonder why steroid users even get onto these ballots. Rule 5 prevented Pete Rose, one of the MLB’s all-time greats, from achieving Hall of Fame greatness. Never have I once seen a PED user have integrity, sportsmanship or character. The rule indirectly blocks players like Barry Bonds from becoming a Hall of Famer, yet players like him still show up on the ballot each year, hoping that you forgot about their lapses in judgment. On top of potentially letting in the first steroid user to the Hall of Fame, it snubs another player from a spot in Cooperstown, New York who worked his whole life to become a baseball legend authentically, not artificially.

To become a Hall of Famer, players need to go to limits that nobody thought would ever be achieved. The Hall of Fame is reserved for the athletes that have truly changed the game on and off the field. They amazed and inspired people throughout their careers and strive for the goal to be one of the greats of baseball. The MLB does not let many players into the Hall of Fame. Since 1869 when the league formatted, only 250 players have been able to make it. It is something that the MLB does not just give away, so why start now by letting cheaters who changed the makeup of the game negatively into their pristine hall of honor? It’s time to take action against the juicers as well as protect the future of America’s pastime. In 1994, baseball was able to respond and continue to be the prosperous sport that is has become today. But even today, Baseball has now hit yet another road block that is trying to tarnish the game, the steroid era. There was no worse feeling to baseball fans when they learned that some of the legendary players of their era on the road to become an ambassador of the game were caught taking steroids.

The players who broke the hearts of many are up and ready for their second awakening of their baseball life looking to damage the sport even more. It’s now up to the voters to prevent this from happening. Please, for the sake of baseball, keep them out.