From the first time I participated in a sport when I was a kid up until playing intramurals at Iowa State, I”ve heard one thing.

Sportsmanship comes first.

No matter where I”ve gone, I”ve seen sportsmanship banners and heard people striving for the best sportsmanship possible. But then why in professional sports is it all of the sudden OK to cheat?

Unless you”ve literally been hidden in a cave for the past year, you”ve heard about the major suspicion of steroids in baseball. During Iowa State”s Spring Break, numerous Major League Baseball players went before members of Congress, who grilled them about steroid use.

The trial was less than helpful for the sake of Major League Baseball, as Mark McGwire pretty much admitted his use of steroids, at least in my book, by refusing to answer a single question the entire day.

The bigger travesty of that day was that the biggest scum of them all, Barry Bonds, wasn”t invited to come. Not inviting him is an absolute joke. If you hear the word steroids, his name should be the first thing that comes to your mind.

A few weeks after a NASCAR race in California, three different Nextel Cup racers” cars were found to be illegal for multiple reasons. Two of the three, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch, just happened to be the first- and second-place cars in the race while the other [Kevin Harvick] was sent to the back after being illegal in qualifying.

The crazy thing about this is that the teams still got credit for the win and second place.

When is cheating actually cheating? Don”t give me junk about having a competitive advantage. Aren”t steroids illegal? If there”s a set of rules about a race car and your car doesn”t match those rules, isn”t it illegal?

So why let Bonds and McGwire keep their records? Why let Jimmie Johnson keep his win if he was cheating? Why can NASCAR take 25 points away from Dale Earnhardt Jr. for swearing in victory lane, but not take wins from cheaters? What do these athletes have to do to be held responsible for their actions?

Pete Rose has been kept out of baseball”s Hall of Fame for years because he bet on baseball. Why is gambling so much worse than taking steroids? I”m not saying it”s right to bet on your team, but there are worse things. Other things in life can do a lot of damage to a lot of people and even cause death, along with being really bad for human beings and the game.

What I”m talking about would be steroids. So why can Pete Rose be kept out of the Hall of Fame because of gambling, yet Bonds and McGwire will both possibly be first-ballot Hall of Famers?

I”d rather have a guy betting on me to win a game than one hitting me upside the head with a bat because he”s doped up and going through “roid rage. Steroids are cheating. End of story. Don”t let anyone tell you anything different.

If Bonds and McGwire get in the Hall of Fame, you may as well start calling it the Hall of Shame.