Since many players before the peak of the steroid-era have taken performance-enhancing drugs like amphetamines, it's credible to state that the baseball Hall of Fame holds cheaters in high esteem.
It doesn't seem fair to those caught during the steroid-era to be threatened from not reaching the glowing gates of Hall-of-Fame-hood. The statistics compiled over an illustrious career can be deceptive. Players like Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds all made their outs and hit a colossal number of home runs, with or without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Despite whether these noted athletes used doping tactics or not, their numbers are permanently etched into the MLB's records. Joe Sheehan, senior writer at Baseball Prospectus, makes a great point when he says, "[y]ou can't erase history because you don't like how it happened" (Strike Out). Whether it seems fair or not, the impressive numbers should be treated as a difficult feat. Whether doping helps with muscle regrowth, reaction time, or strength, the skill required to reach the level of the revered few in the Hall of Fame is almost unachievable. The use of performance-enhancing drugs increases the longevity of ball players' careers-which gives them the opportunity to break records that they most likely would not have broken naturally. The release of the Mitchell Report in 2007 listed a substantial number of dopers in baseball (Strike Out). Some would argue that select players who were highlighted in the Mitchell Report should not receive different treatment than those who have doped in the past, but have never gotten caught for it.
Although steroid use wasn't officially banned until 2004, an abundance of avid baseball fans believe that Cooperstown has no room for liars and cheaters. Steroid use may not have been illegal at the time when users like Mark McGwire played, but the presence of unnatural performance enhancing procedures has forever tainted Hall of Fame hopefuls (Strike Out).