With new revelations about steroid use in baseball, the subject of the Hall of Fame inductions is once again being debated. Did David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez lose any hope of one day being inducted into Cooperstown? Did the fact that they tested positive for steroids in 2004 change the way the public and sportswriter's view them?

Bronson Arroyo played alongside Ramirez and Ortiz in 2004. Although not named yet, he has publicly stated that his name may be eventually associated with the list of 100 plus players who were flagged. Arroyo claims that he didn't take steroids but instead used androstenedione. That substance was banned in 2004 by Major League Baseball, but Arroyo claims he had quit by then. He says that he quit using andro, as it's commonly referred to, when he caught wind of a rumor that a batch being used by many players was tainted with steroids.

The fact that Ramirez tested positive came as a shock to no one, as he had just recently come off a 50 game suspension for testing positive earlier this season. It came more as a shock to fans and sports writers when Ortiz was implicated. He claims to be surprised by the inclusion of his name on the list and is not making any official statements until after he can confer with the MLB Players Union.

Eventually, the money trail will doom even more players as it will show which athletes would buy steroids from the various sources now under investigation by the Justice Department. Yet, even without evidence, most experts and former players place the number of users during the height of the steroid era to be in the eighty percent range.

This makes for an interesting dilemma facing those sportswriters who determine the inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Do you penalize the players from an era for cheating when eighty percent cheated? Could you argue that with so many using steroids, was there really a clear advantage over the rest of the league? Certainly as Arroyo points out, the pitchers were using performance enhancing drugs as well. Some claimed to get 4-5 mph more on their fastballs. Is that cheating or fair when batters are juicing up and hitting 50 home runs per year?

Hall of Fame broadcaster and sportswriter Peter Gammons claims that he believes every World Series Champion since 1989 has had at least one member that used steroids, andro, or some other performance enhancing drugs. Considering we are still having players test positive in 2009, that means 20 years worth of records and career statistics could be under suspicion.

Perhaps we will see people like Barry Bonds still make it into the Hall of Fame. Bonds is considered by most analysts to have been a sure inductee before he reportedly began using. But after this year's inductees, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice, it's hard to look into the future and say who will be included and who will be left out.

Consider this, Mark McGwire hasn't come close to securing enough votes to be elected in his two years of eligibility. Yet he has a Rookie of the Year award, broke Roger Maris' record, won a World Series, played in twelve All Star games, and finished 8th on the career slugging list and 9th on the career home runs list. Also consider, he has never appeared on any list of positive tests for steroids.

If the sportswriters are keeping McGwire out, it really doesn't look too good for guys like Alex Rodriquez, Roger Clemens, and Manny Ramirez. Steroids may have brought them bloated stats and massive contracts. Was it worth the cost of never making it to the Hall of Fame?