This year’s inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame:

Deacon White, .312 career hitter in the late 1800s.

Jacob Ruppert, former New York Yankees owner.

Hank O’Day, former MLB umpire.

Welcome, class of 2013, to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

This July, when Cooperstown, New York prepares itself for another induction ceremony, only White, Ruppert and O’Day will be honored and inducted into the hall.  The Pre-Integration Committee voted each one of these men in.

According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s website, “…retired Major League Baseball players no longer eligible for election by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), along with managers, umpires and executives, whose greatest contributions to the game were realized from the 1876-1946 era,” can be voted into the Hall of Fame.

Of the 569 ballots filled out by members of BBWAA, not one of the 37 players eligible for election reached the needed 427 votes.  A player needs 75 percent of the vote in order to gain entrance into the hall.

It marks only the eighth time since 1936, when the hall elected its first class, that no players on the ballot were voted in.

In all of the years where not one player was voted in, this sparks perhaps the most controversial debate the hall has dealt with since Pete Rose’s gambling debacle, which to this day remains a topic of discourse. Even “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, arguably one of baseball’s greatest hitters ever is still denied entrance into the hall for allegedly being a part of throwing the World Series on purpose back in 1919.

If Rose and Jackson’s legacies have proved anything, it’s that baseball has trouble forgiving for what they consider to be a mortal sin. They gambled and bet on baseball, and it cost them baseball’s highest honor. Now players are being denied induction into the hall for their involvement with PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) in the past.

Steroids, HGH (human growth hormone) and other PEDs are the reasons why players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens remain plaque-less.

Baseball’s home run king, Barry Bonds, with 762 career home runs and seven MVP awards, gathered only 36.2 percent of votes in his first year on the ballot. Roger Clemens, arguably one of baseball’s greatest pitchers of all time with seven Cy Young awards and 4,672 career strikeouts, garnered an unimpressive 37.6 percent of votes.

Therefore, arguably the greatest player and pitcher in the history of baseball only amassed 420 votes together. The two of their votes combined wouldn’t get the needed 427.

Not only were Bonds and Clemens not voted in because of their steroid scandals, but the following hall-worthy players also missed out because of proven banned substance abuse or simply speculation of steroid use: Jeff Bagwell (59.6 percent), Mike Piazza (57.8 percent), Mark McGwire (16.9 percent), Sammy Sosa (12.5 percent) and Rafael Palmeiro (8.8 percent). It was Bagwell, Sosa and Piazza’s first time on the ballot.

Also worth mentioning is how Craig Biggio, a first time member of the ballot who had over 3,000 career hits, only collected 68.2 percent of the vote—the highest amongst all players—but Biggio’s case is not one tied to PED use or suspicion. Over time though, Biggio will likely get to the needed 75 percent from baseball writers.

McGwire, Sosa and Palmeiro have all either admitted to using steroids or have been found guilty of use.  Bonds and Clemens have been in the news for alleged use; although their cases still don’t seem as clear as the three previously mentioned sluggers, both Bonds and Clemens have been indicted.

But Bagwell and Piazza only have suspicion going against them. Is that fair to deny them entrance into the hall because there is merely suspicion? Isn’t one of the mottos of this country that one is innocent until proven guilty? Well, it seems like that may not be the case for baseball.

Baseball must answer the following: To allow steroid users, or not to allow steroid users as members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame—that is the question.

Allowing some known PED users and not others isn’t a solution either. This isn’t an issue that can have a gray area. It needs to be black and white, and a decision needs to be made in the near future to shut the casket on baseball’s haunted past. The skeletons need to be buried.

If it is decided to induct known PED users, it should be made clear somewhere on their player plaque that they used illegal substances.

It’s not fair to the players of the past who played the game the right way—Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson and Stan Musial, who just recently passed away. They respected baseball and played it free of any substances that have now become a part of our culture and have plagued the game in recent years.

Members of the Hall of Fame all have one thing in common—they never used PEDs.  The argument of “what if they played nowadays,” is not valid here because we’re talking about “what if.”

If it is decided to not induct known PED users, then the players who used illegal substances willingly cheated and therefore do not deserve a place amongst those who didn’t use.

And if it is argued that they used in an era where at one time there was no drug program (steroids were banned in 1991 and in 2003 PED testing was incorporated within the game), they still took performance enhancers that not everyone else took—drugs that were not available to Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and many others.

They went against what was right in baseball—they violated the game’s innocence.  Also, just because players aren’t inducted into the hall because of PEDs doesn’t mean that they don’t have a place there; if one is to visit the hall, one will find there is a specific room with updated statistical records where Bonds remains number one on baseball’s career home run list. Sure, these players wouldn’t have a player plaque and wouldn’t be considered a Hall of Famer, but their numbers remain on the record boards in the Hall of Fame.

Whatever course of action is taken, players like Bagwell and Piazza deserve the nod into the hall.  If it later comes out they used illegal substances, then the Hall of Fame has every right to remove their membership.

For the sake of baseball, a call to the bullpen needs to be made. Bring in a decision and let it close the game, putting to rest the whole PED controversy.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame will have to rest with its decision—with PED users or without.