Should MLB Players Who Have Been Caught Cheating Be Banned From The Hall of Fame?

 

Should players such as Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez be banned from entering the hall of fame for being known as players who used PEDs?

Remember when Barry Bonds was chasing Hank Aaron as MLB's all time home run hit leader? During that time, a lot of critics of Bonds and baseball felt that the record should not count because it was tainted. People believed Bonds took steroids, although he has never admitted to knowingly taking steroids. There were discussions at the time that the record should have an asterisk next to it because people believed that without the steroids, Bonds does not hit that many home runs. Whether people like it or not, Bonds is listed as MLB's all time home run leader.

When it comes to MLB's Hall of Fame, should Bonds be allowed in? When Alex Rodriguez retires, should he be allowed in? Fans do not have a vote if players go into MLB's Hall of Fame. The choice of who goes into the Hall of Fame is based upon professional sport writers and other peers of the game. When discussing who goes in the Hall of Fame and who does not, the discussion of steroids usually come up. Writers do acknowledge that certain players were caught cheating and do not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Other writers may look at it from a different perspective and may have an argument as to why this player should be allowed in the Hall of Fame. For those who vote in the Hall of Fame, I'm pretty sure it is tough to separate and dissect the numbers from players who used steroids and trying to figure out, what steroids may or may not have done to separate those numbers.

If known cheaters were allowed into the Hall of Fame, it may set the precedent that it is okay not to do things with integrity in our society and get rewarded. Maybe MLB can do something similar to what the NCAA does and vacate wins and championships but instead vacate hits, home runs, RBIs, and etc. for it players that get caught using steroids during that known period of time where the player was caught using steroids. Maybe it will make it easier to vote who goes in the Hall of Fame and who doesn't. You will have a known set of numbers where you know the player was presumably clean.

If I had a vote in who goes to MLB Hall of Fame, I would not vote for any connected to doping whatsoever. I think the same should go for the people who vote in the MLB Hall of Fame.