What should happen to the guilty?

Here's the next question in the Major League Baseball steroid saga: What should happen to those players found to be using steroids during their career?

Should they be banned from baseball's Hall of Fame? Should their names be wiped from the record books? And should different penalties be applied to players who used steroids before MLB banned them?

Or should nothing happen at all?

Sound off with your opinion: What should happen to players who used steroids?

Comments

[DELdaBULL]

They should be banned! All of them.

[Rit-Dee]

I really don't care that they used the drugs...I like sports where people score. That is why soccer is so boring to the USA...not enough scoring. Steroids and home runs saved baseball! People need to understand that. If the highlights were about base hits then I can understand being upset at people using...but ESPN shows and keeps track of who went deep aka hit a homer. You need power to do that. These guys risked thier lives to play this sport...how cool is that...most people risk their lives and have nothing to show for it. Smokers are not sponsored buy the companies that destroy their health and no one bashes them...juice on pro athletes!

[Holly]

Should we be surprised by any of this? No! As for the Hall of Fame...I am still waiting for Pete Rose to get in; it's doubtful. Although, you cannot dispute HIS baseball record; it is what it is.

As for the current mess...ban them all from the Hall of Fame!

[cw]

Pine tar & feather them.

[CJ]

Rit-Dee, you're a moron!!! Players before Roids had power to hit the long ball, pitchers could last more than 4 innings and there were a lot less injuries.

The only way these pampered roid boys risk their life playing this sport is the risk they take using these drugs.

Guilty of using, clear their record, ban them!!

Pete Rose for hall of fame.

[smythe]

Before, st. pete has any further talks over a new stadium, they should make it clear that a stadium deal would be conditional upon every player for every team who takes the feild being tested for steroids before a game. To see that baseball will only discuss this in 2011 when the contract is up is discrasefull. Before one dime of citizens money is spent the least the government can do is assure the public that steroids or any other substance we would not want our children using are not involved.

[Joe]

People look at steriods is an illegal drug if taken by some not needing it. If they were doing coke, meth, crack and it helped there game would this be OK. Heck no it would not be.

Ban them for life from the 'hall of fame'. It's fame for a reason, your special if you get in. Special and not a cheat. Let's see people jump on them like they did bonds.

[J Free]

To Rit Dee:
Soccer is not boring, have you ever watched? Baseball is boring when comparing the two. At least in soccer there is constant movement. Baseball players have it easy and make billions, ban them and end this. The players won't do it anymore if they face being banned, plain and simple. If someone gambles their banned, so why not illegal drugs? If it's illegal then BAN THEM. Pete Rose was an awesome player, Clemens is a cheater.

[scooter]

WOW! I always wondered about Clemens. Lots of names in the report make sense when you look at their careers and how they left the game due to "steriod" injuries.

[JL]

Tim Tebow should be on that list!

[Clark]

If we're talking about protecting the integrity of the game, that's a big umbrella and it allows you to compare apples to oranges. Based on precedent, lifetime bans would be in order. I'm not sure if this is good news or bad for Pete Rose but he should have company.

Rit-Dee: How cool is that? Not at all.

J-Free: A yo-yo is in constant motion too. That doesn't mean it isn't boring to watch.

[J]

They should go to jail just like anyone else who uses steroids illegally. Just because they are big money stars shouldn't give them a pass a normal "Joe" wouldn't get.

[Jay]

The IOC strips cheating athletes of their medals. The same should apply to MLB -- no HR records.

[dutch57]

Any titles that they have aquired should be stripped, they should be banned from baseball, and absolutely banned from the Hall of Fame. And it appears that there are sme people on herethat are just narcissistc. You know, whatever it takes to please them.How pathetic is that??????.

[Wade]

I love it!!! What was Selig saying about integrity and baseball in relation to Pete Rose?? Can someone remind me?? Yeah, there is so much integrity in sports. I love how people give the ex-coach of the Falcon's a hard time for bailing. People forget that Falcon's ownership contacted him during the college football season. They were fine with him bailing from Louisville. Now they are crying. How about Mckay bailing on the Buc's with 3 games left...That was okay though..Yeah right?? How about Selig getting a new stadium for the Brewer's while he was commissioner. How about the Falcon's players preaching about morals..I wonder how many out of wedlock kids they have??? Yeah, integrity in sports.....Too funny.

[JL]

This list is a bunch of crap....Why is Sammy Sosa not on the list???????

Are you kidding? I guess we have to wait for the non-english speaking group!

[Chris]

They should be banned immediately, as should Selig. He had the power "to act in the best interst of baseball" and instead he watched this whole circus take place and let George Mitchell do his dirty work, After Bud and the other owners made their money on McGuire, Sosa, et al.

As the Sicilians say, "The fish stinks from the head down".

[Jon]

Got another name for you...How about Tony Gwynn? and maybe Ripken too.

Compare the careers of Gwynn, Boggs and Carew. Boggs and Carew had the best years of their careers before 32. Gwynn had his from 32-38 and his BA went up by about 50 points.

All the Mitchell report does is spotlight SOME players. I'd bet most of the players we rooted for were roiding.

Except Boggs who seems to have had a very "natural" progression to his career.

[Unliminator]

Just go ahead and start an Unlimited League. If they feel like they need to do that stuff to compete, let 'em. They'll have an audience. People love carnage. Look at the WWF!...oh wait - that's not real either.

[hoshi]

And how much money did we waste on this study? As if we all don't know this happens and exists. It isn't like baseball is what it used be, so if gives a flying care. I could have thought of much better ways to spend the money that told us we already knew. Star athletes don't care about rules and such. They all think they are above the law.

[Kim]

Fire them all.

[Kim]

Fire them all

[Rit-Dee]

CJ,

Are you having a roid-rage? I was talking about them risking their lives using the drugs. I guess that is hard for you to understand. I guess my smoking reference wasn't enough for you. If there were such great numbers before the "roid" era why did it take so long for 477 to be broken by your old men? Plus most of the pitcher don’t last as long because the league is over stretched and talent is very thin..that is why the over seas market is so huge. And why will it only be a matter of years before Bonds' record is gone by A-Rod. So are you still going with those old guys and their records? You think those old guys are better than the power hitters of today? Doubt that. They may have not used the drugs back then but that doesn't make them better. Drugs are a part of all pro sports in this day and age, I am sorry I had to be the one to tell you that...oh by the way Santa isn't real either.

[steve]

Baseball is a great game. What is put on the field by MLB is disgusting and ESPN is just as criminal for thier hype of the home run. Football is the king of professional and collegiate sports and will always be. Baseball is a sissy sport AKA boys of summer. My child will never have a sports figure as a role model. Bud should have a lifetime ban. He was the worst thing that baseball has produced

[jim]

Rit,
Santa is real. He lives in the hearts of those of us who give to others. Just had that talk with my kids the other day. That was an easy one.
The conversation I am not looking forward to is when I explain to my son why Hank's record was stolen by a SOB who decided it was easier to juice than to play it fair.

[GT]

Did you have to show Canseco in a Rays uniform?......

[Kim]

Fire them all!

[glasstique]

If we took those drugs they would lock us up. Selig should send a strong signal to the players and their union. All records garnered by suspicious players should be expunged. None of those players should ever be considered for the Hall of Fame.

[ban the bums bax]

Ban them from baseball and purge their phony records from the books.

[Rit-Dee]

I was just kidding. I'd have to be a cretin to condone all this juicing and cheating. If I did, you have every right to assume I conduct my personal life in such a way.

[- jake]

1. Bud Selig's successor (yes, this wussy of a commissioner ought to lose his job for not attacking this festering infection years ago) should toughen MLB's drug-testing policy, making the tests more frequent and of truly unpredictable randomness. Anyone found henceforth to have used steroids, HGH or other performance-enhancing drugs should be suspended till the same time the next season. Second offense, lifetime ban. Successive penalties of increasing severity should be slapped on offending players' clubs, too.
2. Roid- or HGH-using allegations against all players mentioned in the Mitchell report should be examined by a special panel with the power to seek further evidence and require the appearance of those accused. Players refusing to cooperate would be banned from baseball. Players found to have violated the MLB drug policy (which has existed since the early 1990s) could be suspended for varying lengths of time.
3. The same panel would make recommendations to the commissioner as to whose accomplishments should be expunged from the record books. No worse than what happens to cheating Olympians, right?
4. Oh, yeah, the baseball union: Let 'em strike. They can maybe find new jobs as pro wrestlers while baseball's ranks are being replenished by fresh, honest new players with more respect for the game.

[bax to bax]

Amen. Great post.

You can include the complicit media, too, especially ESPN.

[Steve]

Please understand, the problem isn't isolated to just the players. With the success of the other pro sports in the modern era, everyone wanted their 'piece of the pie'.

Coaches and GM's turned a deaf ear to what was happening in their own dugouts and locker rooms for the chance at success. And the commissioners office hedged the success of these new 'supermen on drugs' would bring new fans and increase market revenue.

What a shame, professional teams are urged to be role models and unfortunately, the Warrick Dunns and Drew Brees' are greatly outnumbered by liars and cheaters, who abuse the system that got them there.

[Eric Hayden]

Ban the players from the game, asterisk their numbers to kingdom come, everything...but ONLY as long as corresponding penalties are levied against all those who effectively sanctioned the steroid culture by turning a blind eye.

Baseball brass made $$$ off steroids. And then to turn around and start a witch hunt once the public voices outrage...disgusting. McGriff is right, everyone is complicit in this.

At the very least, Selig's got to resign.

[S kreuter Cinti Reds fan]

As long as the players didn't bet on baseball it's all ok,right? It is ok right? Let's ask Pete.

[S kreuter]

Nothing. They didn't bet on baseball, what's the big deal?