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Hall Of Fame Analysis

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“Baseball's Doping Cheats — Hall of Fame, or Infamy?” was an editorial by the Chicago Tribune. In this article, the authors tried to convince the audience that Major League Baseball players who have taken Performance Enhancing Drugs, or PEDS, should not be allowed into the Hall of Fame. Mentioning some of the most elite players like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds are on the list of potential players to get inducted into the Hall of Fame, the authors state, “It's up to the baseball writers whether Bonds, Clemens or Sosa makes it to Cooperstown (common name for the hall of fame), though we hope they make the right call.” The editorial does not let the audience know enough about the Hall of Fame and the process to get inducted and the …show more content…

The Chicago Tribune said “It's up to the baseball writers whether Bonds, Clemens or Sosa makes it to Cooperstown, though we hope they make the right call.” They left myself and others with a question: how do the baseball writers decide who gets in the hall of fame? Ryan Fagan answered this question I was left asking in his article, “The crux of the issue is Rule 5 of the [Baseball Writers Association of America] rules for election: ‘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.’” I considered myself pretty educated in this subject, but yet I did not know the guidelines they have to follow for the Hall of Fame election. Ryan Fagan also said, “It’s the `character clause’ that has sparked so much debate when it comes to PED-connected players.” Inside Ryan Fagan’s article he left the audience with no questions regarding the process the voters go through. If the Chicago Tribune would have included this information into the editorial, it would have made this more comprehensible, a better read, and would have answered questions from some …show more content…

Steroids saved baseball. When Ben Walker, a journalist in Association Press, was asked about this idea he answered, “Steroids saved baseball. . . When it came to making baseball popular again and turning it into a booming business, nothing did the job like home runs. Particularly 500-foot home runs”(qtd. in Bevevino) This point has a big impact on many people’s view on the use of steroids, even mine. Even though PEDS are illegal and immoral, they did bring back the popularity in America’s pastime. The MLB just recovered from a players strike in 1994, ending the season prematurely. The attendance the next year at MLB games was 12 percent lower and was plummeting. Then PEDS became a fad within the league, in fact the National Baseball Hall of Fame said “In 1996, a whopping 17 players hit 40 or more home runs. The 1993 season saw only five players hit that many long balls. The span from 1996-2001 saw at least a dozen players per season smack 40 or more homers.”. This blasted the popularity driving it up 44 percent. This shows that steroids in fact did save baseball no matter if they are moral or legal.
The editorial board takes a stance that the players who have taken PEDS in baseball should be banned from the Hall of Fame. This debate is mostly on the “steroid era”, which is a period of time from the late 80’s to the early 2000’s, when performance enhancing drugs became a big presence in Major League Baseball,

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