Cheating in Baseball

The Houston Astros have been fined and the GM and manager fired because of cheating. The managers of the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets have also been fired because of their involvement in the cheating scandal.
Should any of the players or managers EVER be considered for membership in the Hall of Fame?
Before you answer please consider , Pete Rose - gambling, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, etc - use of PE drugs, the Chicago White Sox players involved in the World Series 1919 cheating scandal.
Your thoughts.

Great question. Right now I think they should be allowed into the HOF. It is still early in the case and it looks like MLB offered them amnesty in exchange for them giving up the information they had about the cheating scandal. Baseball has always had a weird attitude about cheating. In many ways, they looked the other way, example, spitballs. They banned them unless you had been a spitball pitcher. Now days the average ball only lasts nine pitches so it is hard to doctor a ball up before it is removed from play.
If it comes out that these players continue to cheat, then I would agree to a ban. The league is going to be watching for cheating by monitoring the dugout and watching other sensitive areas.

Fred,
Thanks for your thoughts. I think that Peter Rose got screwed the worst. Unless there is evidence that i do not know, he was betting on his team to win. The use of PE's, is that any different from the use of amphetamines by BB players in earlier decades?
Appreciate your point about spitball pitchers, i did not know of it. I am starting to wonder why we no longer see any knuckle-ball pitchers. Could that be to the turnover of baseballs so frequently?
Finally it is cheating when one player or coach moves to another team and tells his new team of the signs used by the latter?

Here is the best way to explain why Pete Rose got the long term ban. As manager, he was betting on his Reds team. So if the team is tied in the 9th, he is going to use his best reliever and probably the starting pitcher tomorrow and maybe the next day because he has $20,000 on the game. So he is hurting his team for the rest of the week because he doesn't have bets on those games.
And the second reason? The League offered him a partial suspension if he admitted what he did and was genuinely repentant over his behavior. He wouldn't take the deal. Gambling had control of his life. I remember he worked for a casino in Vegas for years to pay off all the bad bets he had made with them. So he signed autographs and greeted the other big time gamblers.
In a way, it is sort of sad to come down so hard on a man with an addiction, but if fans start believing the games are fixed, they will move onto other entertainment.

I see your point. However, even if the manager doesn't bet on his team shouldn't he be obligated to do everything that he can to win that game? He should use his best reliever ( unless he is managing the Rockies). Saving that reliever for another day negates the value of that player.
I think that we are in agreement that Pete Rose was the victim of perception, i.e. Caesar's wife should be above suspicion. Nothing that I say or do will affect BB decision to not allow him in the HOF. None of his 4256 hits was garnered unfairly. Memories of watching "Charlie Hustle" play the game was a pleasure. They can take that away from us.

I was a fan of the Big Red Machine in the 70's, born in Columbus. Bright side? So many of Pete's teammates are already enshrined and his hit accomplishments also have a spot in Cooperstown. PED's? There is speculation that Charlie Hustle did start using speed when he started slowing down and went to the Phillies. Not a major scandal at the time, the pills, called greenies, were provided by the teams to help the players stay alert with their weird travel schedules. Different era, right?

Yes it is a different era. I remember when Mickey Lolich (Tigers) was nicknamed the "Mailman" due to the fact that he wanted or had an off-season job as a mailman.

ramage wrote: Yes it is a different era. I remember when Mickey Lolich (Tigers) was nicknamed the "Mailman" due to the fact that he wanted or had an off-season job as a mailman.

So true!
My uncle worked as an insurance agent in the 70's. He would hire Bronco players in the offseason to sell life insurance for him. Imagine Randy Gradishar knocking on your door hoping to interest you in some whole life.