On paper, Rafael Palmeiro is a sure-fire Hall of Famer. Unfortunately, in the real world he is not. He is the poster boy for the steroid era, and he in turn sullied the game the same way others like Rose and the Black Sox did.

Despite vehemently denying the use of steroids, he failed a steroid test, was named by Jose Canseco as a user and he was also named in the Mitchell Report. The amount of evidence against him is staggering, and because of that evidence, Palmeiro must be kept out of the Hall of Fame.

So far, the Hall has been able to keep itself uncorrupted from all the problems and illegalities that have plagued the game over the last hundred years. Letting Palmeiro into the Hall of Fame sets a precedent, allowing all other steroid users in, and justifying baseball’s gilded age. For the sake of the purity of the game, we must keep Palmeiro and all other steroid users out of the Hall of Fame.