Your Say: Don't let cheaters into MLB shrine

The Baseball Writers' Association of America will be voting this month for the 2013 inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Several players tainted in the "steroid era" are on the ballot for the first time. Comments from Facebook:

How can you cheat, get caught, and expect to get in the Hall of Fame? You cannot include cheaters right there alongside players who didn't cheat. Barry Bonds is no more a home run champion than I am. What if he hadn't cheated? Would he still have had the same home run numbers? Not likely, but then again, we'll never know. Hank Aaron is still the true home run king in my book.

Richard Turner

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa should be stripped of all the records made while they "juiced."

Michael Hornung

Get off your high horse, everybody. Vote all three of them in. We all turned a blind eye when this was all going on. The owners, the union, the fans, the sportswriters. We didn't ask questions. We just loved watching the long ball and older players suddenly discovering the fountain of youth.

It's too late for any of us to turn self-righteous and not let them into the Hall of Fame. Baseball deserves this egg on its face for not doing something sooner.

Joseph Pintar

What is cheating in one era is condoned in another era. These men should be judged by the numbers they put up while playing. (Once baseball got its act together, these guys had to play clean.)

Many of the players they played against were using the same drugs.

Bob Powell

Letter to the editor:

"Well, Barry, your head grew to be the size of Vermont," columnist Christine Brennan wrote ("Memo to Hall voters: Keep the bums out," Sports, Nov. 29).

Not funny even to a Barry Bonds hater, a club of which I am a proud member. I'm happy the San Francisco Giants lost the 2002 World Series, and even happier the Bonds-less Giants won it in 2010 and 2012.

That being said, the steroid era is not so much a black eye to the face of baseball and the players as it is to the head-in-the-sand sports media. Did players juice? Yes, some. Did owners/management know? Yes, some. Did sportswriters/broadcasters also know? Yes, some. So, keep the bums out, I agree. However, reporters who covered baseball during this period and didn't flag the abuse should be forbidden to cast a Hall of Fame vote. Fair is fair.

Richard W. Copp; Sacramento