At the end of January, the Baseball Writer’s Association of America failed to elect any members to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The next day, the front page of the sports section on “The New York Times” only had the headline, “Welcome to Cooperstown.” The rest of the page was blank until an article about Washington Redskins’ quarterback Robert Griffin III’s injury during the playoffs. 

This is the second time in the last 40 years and the first time since 1996 that a player did not receive the 75 percent of votes required for induction.

The question that lingers over the entire situation is: what role does steroids play in this?

Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire were all members of this year’s Hall of Fame class. They are just a few of the players who have verified rumors that at one point in their careers they used steroids.

Jose Canseco’s book, “Juiced” was the first to reveal the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in baseball.

Major League Baseball (MLB) has been trying to eliminate the use of steroids, which have been banned since 1991. MLB has tested for PEDs since 2003.

In 2003, the rules for PED testing included one random test per player per year. There would be no punishments for the first year. In 2004, the rules changed. Players would have two tests that would be given without any prior warning to the player. There would be a first test and a follow up test up seven days later. If the player tested positive he would be treated for steroids use. If the player under this treatment failed again, he would be subject to discipline: a suspension from an initial 15 days with a $10,000 fine to one year with a $100,000 fine.

There were more changes made in 2005, including that a player who tested positive for the first time would be suspended for 10 days and his name would be released to the public. A 30-day suspension without pay would be applied for the next offense, 60 days for the third offense and one year for the fourth. Alex Sanchez was the first player to receive a steroid suspension.

There have been more changes to the rules about steroids since 2005, but then this article would just be a list of rules (how exciting!). The most significant and noted change is that the punishment for a first time offender is a 50-game suspension.

Melky Cabrera, who at the time played for the San Francisco Giants, received one of these suspensions in the 2012 season. His suspension was issued just weeks after being named the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star game. Within the week, there was another suspension issued to Bartolo Colon, a pitcher for the Oakland Athletics.

Baseball season is now upon us. Pitchers and catchers have reported for their first workouts. Spring Training games begin in a week and there has been news of a PED clinic with links to some of the most famous athletes in the MLB including Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez.

As a baseball fan, this unnerves me. The game where players like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson made themselves household names without steroids is being tainted. Sometimes it’s hard to escape these things, but the game is different than it used to be.

Baseball is very much a part of the American sports culture. With PEDs being part of baseball, that makes steroids a part of the American sports culture. We are now watching our favorite players get suspended for using PEDs. We’re seeing records being displayed with asterisks because of the steroid use by the player who broke it.

This isn’t good for the children who grew up with Bonds, Sosa, McGuire, Cabrera, Braun and Rodriguez as their role models. These players’ association with steroids is likely to cause those children to be tempted to use them as well when the time comes for them to achieve their dreams of being professional athletes.

Children should be able to love the game and excel at it because of their talents, not because they are taking drugs that make them better performers.

I believe the MLB is taking the right steps to help with the prevention of PEDs and steroids throughout the league, but at times when news like this clinic is discovered those steps just don’t seem like enough.

A lasting impression has been made. Some children’s role models are taking drugs to be better performers to learn more money. The Hall of Fame is without new members because of the effects of the steroid era.

Baseball is a changing game and I’m not certain I like the direction it’s headed.

[WRITER’S NOTE: ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE FEBRUARY 2013 EDITION OF “THE PULSE”]