Barry Larkin, the former short stop for the Cincinnati Red from 1996 to 2004, was among the top players of his era. Larkin’s era happened to coincide with the so-called ‘steroid era’ in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Larkin, who was never linked to the use of anabolic steroids, received 75% of the Hall of Fame vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on his third year of eligibility.
Larkin does not believe there is any place in the Hall of Fame for his fellow baseball players who made the choice to use steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.
It is very important to keep steroids users out of the Hall of Fame particularly since Larkin feels that no steroid users have currently been inducted. At the same time, Larkin thinks that baseball players should only be denied if they have admitted to or been proven to be steroid users.
” If you can prove a guy did cheat, then I don’t believe he belongs,” Larkin told the New York Daily News. ”I don’t believe that there are any guys that did cheat, in that respect, that are in the Hall of Fame. So I think opening up the doors to guys that admittedly cheated or are proven that they did cheat, it kills the integrity of what the Hall of Fame stands for.”
Larkin ultimately thinks that great baseball player who are admitted or proven steroid users will eventually be recognized in the Hall of Fame but not as “members”. Instead, they will be treated like Pete Rose.
Rose had a record 4,256 hits and was considered a “shoe-in” for membership until he admitted gambling on the sport of baseball. Now instead of a plaque, Rose only has an exhibit in the Hall that commemorates his accomplishments.
“Pete Rose did cheat in that respect. He admittedly said he gambled on the game. I go to the Hall of Fame and I look, and I see 4,256 hits, and I see the Hit King and things that commemorate what (Rose) did in his career,” Larkin told the New York Daily News. “And I really believe that’s probably what’s going to happen with many of the guys that have that kind of (steroid/PED) allegation along with them.”
The good news is that steroid users like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire still have a chance at being in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The bad news is that they will likely not be inducted as members; their accomplishments will be relegated to exhibits in the museum.
If this is the case, then the Hall of Fame will need to add an entire new wing to the building to accommodate all the great steroid users in baseball!
Photo credit: Rdikeman on en.wikipedia
Source:
Red, C. (December 12, 2012). Barry Larkin can’t see steroid users getting into the Hall of Fame, says cheating ‘kills the integrity of what the Hall of Fame stands for’. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/steroid-users-kill-integrity-hall-fame-larkin-article-1.1218778
