Hall of Fame Steroids Paper

The Major League Baseball organization is one of many sport organizations that takes a strong stance on athletes that use performance enhancing drugs. Mark McGwire played for the Cardinals in 1998. He had an amazing career as he broke the homerun record with 70 homeruns. Through his accomplishments, there was speculation that he took steroids. He was questioned about it in Federal Court and at first, he denied it. Later on, he admitted using Andro, which is a form of anabolic steroids. Another baseball player had a very similar story. Barry Bonds played for the San Francisco Giants. He likewise had very notable achievements, such as beating McGuire for the homeroom record and he passed Hank Aaron as the career all-time home run hitter.

One of the most controversial subjects in Major League Baseball is that of hall of fame voting. Players who have tested positive should not be eligible for the hall of fame ballot. This is a great honor for players who are truly great and play the game the right way. The hall of fame has no room for players who try to gain unfair advantages through performance enhancing drugs. One of the greatest players of all time, Pete Rose, was denied from the Baseball Hall of Fame do betting on his games. This shows how seriously the voters take being inducted. Players who have tested positive for steroids should be banned from the hall of fame, which is what Major League Baseball is moving toward.

Since Major League Baseball all-star Ken Caminiti openly admitted to Sports Illustrated to have used steroids during his career, steroid use as a muscle and performance enhancer has been uncovered and become a big issue Major League Baseball is wrestling with. The “ongoing and delicate subject, baseball’s dirty, little secret that is no secret anymore,” is a huge and growing problem (Curry B20). Now that light has been shed on the issue, critics are beginning to realize the magnitude of this problem and do not like it. Steroids are a cheating virus that is spreading quickly. Users cheat other players, themselves, the fans, and the game itself. Action must be taken to rid Major League Baseball of this virus

The "steroid era" has been devastating for fans that appreciated the game, but no one cannot say that. Kids and adults were leaving the action players brought to the field every day. Many did not know a lot about the steroids being used by famous players, but there were rumors in and out teams. Having a substance that will guarantee help in hand-and-eye coördination, better endurance, speed, power, agility and more is the miracle substance for any athlete. Being fun and all, there are numbers that alarms scouts, managers, general managers, fans, media, and more when a player is being productive. When a player is having a good year on the field, making a noise and maintaining the level of play throughout the season is coming. Seeing the same player having more than one horrible season is also common. But when players’ stats are constant for many seasons, that is when red flags come up and questions are followed by it.

According to the dictionary a Hall of Fame is a building set aside to honor outstanding individuals in any profession. The Baseball Hall of Fame specifically is an American History Museum and Hall of Fame for Major League Baseball. There are however certain players who have not been allowed entrance to the hall of fame. These players may not have been allowed in for two reasons; the first is possibly because of their use (alleged or proven) of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), or it may also be due to a personality issue. Having players who are widely considered the best to ever play the game not be in the Hall of Fame due to the mindset of people who report on the sport is not a fair or balanced system. Players should be allowed in based on what they did on the field and not what they did off the field.

The steroid era, which began in the 1990s, provided some of baseball’s best entertainment. It was filled with home runs and fastballs, but as Joe Solberg and Richard Ringer say in “Performance-Enhancing Drug Use in Baseball: The Impact of Culture," sports fans can only wonder which records achieved during those twenty years were earned fairly, and which ones were achieved through the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) (92). This blemish on the history of baseball makes stats and record keeping complicated. Barry Bonds, an admitted steroid user, broke Hank Arron’s all-time home run record during this time. This raises questions such as, should these record breaking players be allowed to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame? Bonds, who was eligible for induction into the elite club for the first time in 2013, did not receive enough votes to get in. Fans are now forced to question if a player used steroids, which negatively hurts baseball’s reputation and integrity. However, since increased measures have been taken to improve drug testing, it is assumed that PED use in baseball has decreased if not gotten rid of. This is a cultural impactor because it changed how the fans feel about the game. Baseball has always had a culture of cheating in some way, whether it’s altering the baseball in some way or corking a bat. Now that the steroid era is over, what

     It was a warm, sultry night in September. The fans were crazed in anticipation as Mark McGwire stepped to the plate. With a gentle stretch, he paused, patiently poised, waiting for what would eventually be the greatest hit baseball had ever seen. The pitcher, Steve Trachsel, came set. He shot a determined look to the dirt. In a rivalry such as this (Cubs, Cardinals) he did not want to be the one to give up the great number 62. He cocked his arm back, to let loose what would be an eighty-eight mile an hour fastball that most men would not see fly by, but Big Mac was not most men. With one mighty swing, sixty-one was no more, ney sayers were silenced, and the game

Everyone who he named was playing good baseball at the time he said they were taking steroids. For example, Mark McGwire was one baseball player’s name that came up. He broke the record for home runs in a season in 1998. It seemed impossible to break that record at the time, but he did it. Now nobody knows if he was on steroids or not. When he had to come in front of a court recently, and they asked him questions about doing steroids, he said that he could not say not because his lawyer advised him not to and that it might hurt him and his family in the long run. When he did not answer the question, I myself lost respect for him because, to me, that meant he did indeed do steroids. He was the only player that did not answer the question. Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmerio answered that they did not do steroids. Canseco also said that he not only injected McGwire, but also Jason Giambi. Giambi was the most obvious steroid user, and he actually admitted to doing steroids this year in front of a grand jury. If steroids were allowed in the MLB, there would probably be all kinds of new records, but this would not accomplish much because they were broken with the help of steroids.

The MLB is just a giant business. How can you see it otherwise? Steroids in baseball have changed dramatically over the past ten years and a major factor impacting the changes may be players’ use of performance enhancing drugs. Do these players not realize that they are cheating? They are putting a drug into their bodies to make them better then everyone else. In less than four years Babe Ruth’s single season record of 60 home runs has been broken by Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. These were three of the players who were faced with a charge of using steroids and notice how they are three of the top hitters. McGwire just retired too, I think steroid use, and people finding out had a smidge to do with it. All these players aren’t losers, they are all stars and looked upon from all over and know are being accused of cheating. (Kingsbury)

There has been no precise evidence that can relate steroids to Hall of Fame performance. I do agree that steroids will help an athlete a little but, it will not give them all star numbers. For example, steroids will not turn a Minor League player to a first ballot Hall of Famer. It is just not logical, the game of baseball is too complex and there are many other factors other than strength that makes an athlete great. Steroids would give an athlete more power but, even power will not lead to a drastic increase in performance. Not all hard hit baseballs go over the fence for home runs. To best measure power in baseball, they look at the players’ total bases per hit, this is how many bases you get to after you hit the ball. For instance, if you hit

Steroids are a hot topic of debate and controversy in the world of athletes and sports. Steroids fall under the umbrella of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and are a dark cloud that have been hovering over the sports world for a long time. In the world today, steroids are the most relevant in major league baseball. Many baseball players, such as Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and Mark McGwire, just to name a few, have ruined their reputations because of steroids. There are repercussions for PED use in major league baseball, which have cut down on the substance abuse by players but have nowhere near eliminated the problem.

Before steroids Barry Bonds was a lock for the Hall of Fame, now it is believed he will not even get in because he cheated. “Bonds gulped as many as 20 pills at a time and was so deeply reliant on his regimen that he ordered Anderson to start "cycles" -- a prescribed period of steroid use lasting about three weeks -- even when he was not due to begin one”(Williams). Some extreme fans are calling for an asterisk next to his statistics in the record books. Barry still played after the news came out, and the harassment got so bad, that Barry eventually retired. When he went to opposing stadiums fans would hold up signs with an asterisk mark, or they would throw toy syringes at him while he was in the field. Chants of “who’s you’re dealer?” also surfaced at opposing ball parks. The fans took harassment to the next level on Barry Bonds.

“The New Eight Men out.” NY Daily News, NYDailyNews.com, 14 Feb. 2009, www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/news-examines-hall-fame-chances-mlb-new-men-article-1.389225. Accessed 17 Jan. 2017. The article was a list of big time players who had been accused of using Performance Enhancing Drugs at some point in their career. Some of the players used the PED’S because it helped you get better and it kept you away from injuries. Although some of these players may not be fully accused yet for their doings it shows that players will do whatever they have to do to keep playing the game they cared about for so long. I can use this as both a pro and con due to why some players used it and which ones use it. All these player on this are big name players who had a storied career which may be drawn short due to use of steroids.

It’s that time of the year again, for Baseball Writers’ Association of America to vote for who they believe should be candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. The conversation of steroids always pops up at this time because some of the most prolific baseball players have been known to use steroids, such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Alex Rodriguez. These guys have been proven that they used the enhancing drug, but these are some of the league’s best players of all time and they aren’t getting the representation that they deserve. The system needs to be changed because it is keeping great ball players out of this superior club.

The sport that has gotten the most attention on the subject of steroids is Major League Baseball. Due to the suspected prevalence of them from the late 80’s up until the present day, the so-called baseball purists now question all the records and achievements