Anyone who has been linked to steroids should not be inducted to the hall of fame, plain and simple. If anyone in the Hall of Fame comes out and admits to using ‘roids or has gotten in trouble for ‘roids then they should be taken out of the hall of fame.

Yes, one may say, “well, everyone in the league is doing it, so what’s the big deal?” The Big deal is that it is ruining the game in many aspects. I know this cliché is lame and overused but, if one person jumped off a bridge, would you? Just because everyone is doing something doesn’t make it okay.

First of all, it ruins the integrity of the game; it isn’t fair to clean players such as new inductee Frank Thomas and future hall of famer Ken Griffey Jr. To me, if you can overcome an unfair game and still succeed, then that is a true hall of famer.

It is also bad for the youth who look up to players on performance enhancing drugs. Today’s youth and future athletes see what players on ‘roids are doing and want to be just like them. So, they start taking PED’s to improve their game, it’s an endless cycle.

There is no doubt that players such as Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa were good players, but with the steroid implications it puts a huge grey cloud over their head. Who’s to say how good those two would have been without steroids? No one knows. It is quite possible that a player linked to steroids may have gotten hurt if it wasn’t for steroids.

Griffey, who as far as the fans know, was clean his whole career and was injury ridden, but still managed a lengthy career and hit 630 home runs. Whose not to say that Sosa or Bonds wouldn’t have got hurt and shortened or ended their career. If that happened then they wouldn’t even been in Hall of Fame talks.

Yes, that is a big “what if,” but it happens in baseball often. Just look at pitcher Mark Mulder whose career was cut short because of a shoulder injury or former Cy Young winner Brandon Webb who had to retire because of multiple injuries. Webb piled up 87 career wins and a 3.10 ERA is just five years. Who knows the potential of players like this?

My whole point being is that steroids have a huge “what if factor.” What if Webb or Mulder took steroids? Who knows how good they would really be? They could still be playing and potentially be talked about for the Hall of Fame IF they were on steroids. But they didn’t, they took the high road and stayed clean.

Bonds, Sosa as well as some other sluggers did not, and it was a huge advantage for them. People may argue that, “well, they still have to hit the ball and perform.” Yes, that may be true, but steroids enables people to train harder and helps athletes recover faster. Faster recovery, and harder training leads to a stronger and more endurance as an athlete. A stronger athlete leads to more hits, home runs, stolen bases, nice players, the whole nine yards.

Yes people love seeing clutch hits and home runs, which steroids definitely helps, but they ruin the game and have negative side effects. Steroids have been linked to increased anger known as “roid-rage” and have been known to be damaging to athletes body.

Yes, that was a long rant about steroids, but it comes full circle to my original point that people who used PED’s or have been linked to them should not even be considered for the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame is the fountain of youth for baseball because a player if forever immortalized, and is the ultimate goal for an individual who excels at the game, and anyone who took steroids to gain an upper hand shouldn’t even be put on the HOF ballot. It creates more damage than thought and they are terrible not only for the MLB, but all of baseball as well as other sports.

If Pete Rose who leads all of baseball in hits by a landslide isn’t in the Hall of Fame for gambling and lying then any cheater deserves no spot in Cooperstown.