Keller @ Large: Will Steroid-Era Baseball Stars Be Elected Into The Hall Of Fame?

BOSTON (CBS) - On Wednesday, the newly elected members of the Baseball Hall Of Fame will be announced.

Some major stars of the so-called steroid-era are on the ballot for the first time.

We love our baseball heroes but as legendary pitcher Roger Clemens, all-time home run king Barry Bonds and prolific slugger Sammy Sosa face the Hall of Fame judgement day, how heavily will the voters emphasize their strongly-suspected but never-proven use of banned performance enhancers?

Boston Globe baseball writer Pete Abraham voted for many of the suspected steroid users because they have Hall of Fame numbers and their doubters lack proof.

"There's a lot of other players who people have suspicions about, like Jeff Bagwell or Mike Piazza, and to me that's really difficult to do; to not vote for somebody based on your own suspicion and not any evidence," Abraham said.

But Tony Massarotti of the Globe and 98.5 The Sports Hub, thinks suspect players should have extraordinary records to make the cut.

"When the steroid-era was going on the players decided as a group that they were going to resist testing as a group. So they've left us no choice as voters but to lump them all together," Massarotti said.

Massarotti did not vote for Bagwell and Piazza as Abraham did, but they both agree the controversy is likely to deny all of the steroid-era stars entry to the Hall, at least this year.

But Abraham says, don't look for former Red Sox star Manny Ramirez to ever make it in, because of his multiple positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs.