Bans, Steriods, Asterisks: What Future Lies Ahead For the Baseball Hall of Fame?

With the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame induction coming up, you have sit back and wonder how baseball got this crazy. Seriously, just look at the ballot.

Two players from the Mitchell Report are on the ballot. They are Mo Vaughn are Matt Williams. Plus, Mark McGwire is on the ballot. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are sure to be on ballots in years to come.

Many famous players have been accused of using steroids, Bonds and Clemens included. Some of those players are still playing, including Miguel Tejada and Jason Giambi.

If Clemens did take performance enhancing drugs, he wouldn't have won 354. By the time he supposedly took them, he had around 230 wins.

All I can say about McGwire is that if you have only 1626 hits, yet clubbed 583 homers during your career and hit a home runs almost every ten at-bats, you are on something.

Bonds, has been accused of steroids for so long it's ridiculous. He was also convicted of lying under oath about his steroid use.  

But why did they take these performance enhancing drugs? To get an edge?

If these are the people who are up for the Hall of Fame, then why are great players, such as Pete Rose and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, still not reinstated? What about Eddie Cicotte and Buck Weaver?

Now, the Hall of Fame does have rules, and I respect them. The rules misconduct (Rule 21) are posted in each clubhouse. They basically state that betting on games, bribing umpires or other teams to throw a game, or violence is wrong. (For complete rules see http://www.baseball1.com/bb-data/rose/rule21.html)

BUT, in Rule 21 section a, it clearly states:

"Any player, umpire, or club official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in
connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform shall be declared
ineligible for one year."

So why do Pete Rose, Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, and Buck Weaver all have permanent bans?

If you are permanently banned, you can apply for reinstatement. If you are still living, like Pete Rose, you must send an appeal to the Commissioner of Baseball. If you aren't living, like the others, a family member must send an appeal to the Commissioner.

Of course we have Bud Selig right now.

It is a fact that Buck Weaver, who never accepted money but knew about the 1919 Black Sox scandal, appealed to the Commissioner's office every year before his death. But of course, he had to face Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was probably the toughest commissioner ever.

It is also a fact that though Joe Jackson was banned from baseball for life, he would frequently attempt to sneak back in under different names.

Shall Rose or Jackson be reinstated? No one knows, but we do know that once they are the baseball world will be a much better place.