Hall Of Fame Debacle

The sports program called, “ESPN First Take,” was nationally televised on the channel ESPN and was discussed by Rob Parker and Skip Bayless. In the episode, “Does Berry Bonds Belong in the Hall of Fame,” both Parker and Bayless state their beliefs that Bonds should be voted into the Hall of Fame. Parker and Bayless have established credibility for taking part in the discussion on a program that is televised to viewers around the world. Rob Parker establishes his credibility by saying, “he is a registered hall of fame voter, he holds this honor and takes it very seriously.” Both Parker and Bayless convince their audience that Bonds should be inducted through the use of strong diction, tone of approval providing statistics and logical reasoning, and the use of syntax that is exclamatory.

In Major League Baseball, numerous players have put up tremendous statistics and record breaking numbers. There are a great amount of players in the league that have done this naturally, however it is not uncommon to see star players get caught taking performance enhancing drugs or steroids. Steroid use in baseball has been an issue since the earliest days of the game, and can be seen very frequently in players today. Jose Canseco was a star hitter in the major leagues, who had admitted to steroid later in his career. Canseco once estimated that 85% of other players were also taking performance enhancing drugs. Though that estimate is not proven, there are still many players today that are taking these steroids, and it needs to remain an issue in the eyes of the MLB. Taking these drugs not only promotes the risk of significant side effects and health problems to the player consuming them, but it makes changes to the game itself as well. The way the game is being played has changed over time due to this issue, and players are receiving advantages that other players are not. Overall, these illegal drugs are unfair to other players in the game and simply are not safe, and should never become legal in the league.

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

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)

According to Ted Berg, a sports writer who currently writes for USA today and sports sites such as For the Win, profession baseball players who use steroids should be allowed in the Hall of Fame as he explains in his article, “4 reasons the Baseball Hall of Fame should include steroid users.” Berg questions the baseball writer’s choice to judge the lives of baseball players and why steroid users are not getting elected into the Hall of Fame. Berg argues that by allowing steroid users into the Hall that the Hall of Fame will get more attention. The reason he thinks more people will go to the Hall of Fame if

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.

“Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez, all of these baseball players have admitted to the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs)” (“Performance Enhancing Drugs”). “Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris’s 37 year old record of 61 home runs. McGwire hit a total of 70 home runs in 1998. Sammy Sosa also broke Maris’s record with 66 homeruns.” In “2001 Barry Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s home run record by hitting 73”. “In 2009 Sosa, Bonds, and McGwire all admitted to using PEDs during their careers” (“Sports Tarninshed”). Many professional baseball players have admitted to the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs through out their career. Performance Enhancing Drugs have given these players an unfair advantage

Later on in the early 2000’s Commissioner Bud Selig had said that the use of steroids and PED's was almost non-existent (Zinser). He seemed to be quite right in his statements as there were only two players suspended in 2010 and only two in 2011. However, there were five players suspended in 2012 and there was a lot of unrest revolving around the Ryan Braun case. After Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were busted in 2011 and 2012 many people thought that the drug issue was finally a thing of the past (Zinser).

Chris Cochrane sports Columnist for the “Chronicle Herald” stated in his article titled “Keep Them Out of Baseball’s Hall of Fame” that “The one weapon the baseball world retains to punish the star offenders is to bar them from its Hall of Fame. For selfishness and arrogance on this large a scale, that’s a justifiable punishment." Chris talks about here that there really isn’t another way to punish these men besides not letting them into the Hall of Fame. There is the usual suspension that anybody can get, but a lot of times people usually find out after the player is retired so the suspension does not good. When a player takes some of the banned substances he is just being selfish and making himself better without even training that much. Many of these players denied the fact that they took substances especially steroids for year, and then later admit to it. Yet, many of these players get suspensions, shouldn’t that be enough? However players get suspensions for anything, even something small. These players can ruin the game, they deserve more than just a suspension. Overall, these players need a rightful punishment for their actions and banning them from the Hall of Fame is that

Do you see any rationalizations for the steroid use or the lack of an effective policy on its use in MLB?

In August 1989, a decision shocked the baseball community as one of the game’s biggest icons, Pete Rose, agreed to permanent ineligibility from major league baseball activities for betting on his own team as both a player and manager. As a result, he was also banned for life from the Baseball Hall of Fame. A month ago, in September 2015, MLB’s all-time hits leader met with the commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred, regarding the possibility of being granted induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. This has once again sparked debate and divides baseball fans everywhere. There is no obvious correct answer and no sign of compromise. While some people firmly believe that Rose should be in the Hall of Fame for his record-smashing career, others believe he should be left out for the betting he did as a coach and a player.

Growing up, I looked up to guys like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds. They were some of the best players to ever play the game. In the recent years, it was revealed that these players were taking anabolic steroids throughout their career. I always thought with hard work and dedication, I could be just like them, but that was not possible because they were all cheating to get an edge. Anabolic steroids were added to the list of Class III Substances in the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990. This act makes it illegal to possess anabolic steroids in the United States without a prescription. Congress passed this in hope to avoid the use of anabolic steroids in sports. However, the majority of steroid users are in fact

“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

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

Using illegal substances to help win? Is that acceptable to any Hall of Fames of sports? “All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.” Scott Alexander. What Alexander is saying in this quote is that cheating and loosing is easy to do and that’s why the real winners and the role models of sports take the hard path and earn what they deserve for being at that level of competition without the easy way. In no way shape or form is cheating acceptable to any of the halls due mostly to that the halls don’t only induct great players but great men. If a man had to break the law to become the “best” is he really the true best? Or are they just the best of the juiced up players? There are