ENG 101
Yoshiaki Furui
12/13/12
Summary
My letter to the Baseball Writers Association of America addresses the issue of the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball and the induction of accused players into the hall of fame. I argue that no player should be left out of the hall just because of steroids for several reasons. Unfortunately, steroids were a part of the culture of the game during the steroid era and it is about time that we accept that. Baseball is a competitive game in which you need to keep up with those around you in order to keep your job and many players felt steroids were the only solution. Unfortunately, the steroid era has cast a shadow over the game under which no player can …show more content…
At this point it has become widely reported about, and steroid use in baseball is no longer the secret it once was. It happened and there is little that can be done about it now. There is no sense in us punishing some of the greatest players of the last two decades for the era that they played in. During the 1990’s and early 2000’s steroid use was unfortunately just a part of the game and there was nothing that the players could have done to help it once it began. Even Senator George Mitchell said when he released his report that baseball has a “serious drug culture” (Mitchell, 2007). Steroid use became so widespread in Major League Baseball that it put pressure on those players who were not using the drugs to keep up in any way they …show more content…
When looking at the careers of these two, it becomes evident that they would have accomplished very little minus the drugs. Sammy Sosa was a defensive liability before using steroids and was a skinny singles hitter who earned his fame because steroids taught him how to hit home runs. McGwire gives us little to work with before he began using steroids. It was only about the second year of his career that you saw him start to transform into a power hitter in an inorganic way. With these two players there really is nothing but steroids that would have gotten them in to the hall of fame, while many players have other arguments. This is where I challenge you voters to really do your research on each candidate and make a fair judgment, but do not just keep them out because their name and steroids appear in the same