With new additions to MLB’s Hall of Fame, people begin to question why the all-time home run leader (Barry Bonds), and the pitcher with the third most strikeouts all time (Roger Clemens), are not in the hall. The stats make it seem like they should both be almost automatically in the Hall of Fame, but they were both heavily on steroids during the latter part of their careers. Bonds had Hall of Fame numbers before he even started steroids, but once he was in his mid to late 30’s, his stats jumped astronomically. Bonds hit 73 home runs, breaking Babe Ruth’s previous record, but Bond’s number of 73 gets an asterisk by it in the record books because he broke the record while on steroids. Bonds also has the career home runs record but that record also has an asterisk by it. Even in the MLB The Show video game, Bonds is not even given credit for the record, it just says San Francisco Giants. The video game doesn’t even recognize Bonds!!  Same with Roger Clemens, his stats began a steady and normal decline once he got into his mid 30’s but all of a sudden his numbers increased and he was even better than his younger self.

Although these stat increases for both Bonds and Clemens has been proven that they were done with the help of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs otherwise known as PED. both have continuously denied the allegations of steroids in court. The team doctors for both of them have even said in court that they gave Bonds and Clemens PED’s. Despite this, Bonds and Clemens have continued to deny the allegations even though there is heavy proof that they used the substances.

Now it’s around this time of year, every year, that this debate is brought up. Writers need to prove why Clemens and Bonds don’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame each and every year. This is not an issue. They lied. They cheated. They don’t get to be enshrined with the best players of all time. If they really wanted to be in the Hall of Fame, they would not have used performance enhancing drugs.