No rewards for cheaters
January 27, 2016
Steroids. Doping. Performance Enhancement Drugs. Call it what you will, but in my mind, I label it cheating. Seeing this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame class, my hostility to PEDs has been reignited.
A few weeks ago, Seattle Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr. and former New York Mets superstar Mike Piazza were the only players selected for the 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame class. Griffey Jr. set the record for the highest vote percentage from the baseball writers with an astounding 99.3 percent. One of the reasons for such a high percentage was that Griffey Jr. did not take any PEDs during the years he played nor was ever suspected of it. That era of the 1990s has been labeled “The Steroids Era.” Both Piazza and Griffey Jr. have also been known as humble and respectable players, which helped their selections into the HOF.
As I looked at the other candidates, I was shocked at how many of them were well-known PED users, including home run king Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens. What was even more absurd was that their balloting numbers increased by 7 percent this year.
Before taking steroids, Bonds and Clemens were on their way to Cooperstown, as the two players had phenomenal numbers. Bonds already had three National League MVPs in addition to over 1,900 hits and 411 home runs, while Clemens had won three Cy Young awards and over 2,500 strikeouts. Even with the success they were amounting, the two still wanted an extra edge over other players. Then came the steroids. Like many players, the two chose to have their legacies tarnished and thrown in the mud, just for a boost in stats.
After the biggest doping scandal of the millennium in 2003, when over a hundred players tested positive for steroids, the MLB strengthened its drug testing by conducting multiple urine and blood tests.
The league also raised the amount of games suspended if caught for PEDs in 2005. First time offenders would be out for 50 games, second-time offenders would miss 100 games, and third-time offenders would be banned for life. In 2014, the MLB raised the first two offenses to 80 games and 162 games, respectively.
While the game of baseball has improved its policy on PEDs, it hasn’t done enough for the legacy of players. If all-time hits leader Pete Rose is banned from the game of baseball permanently, then PED users should at least be blocked from the HOF. Players who damage the game, which so many have worked so hard to succeed in, should not be recognized as Hall of Fame worthy, but rather what they really are: dirty cheaters.
