Every year, the new legends added to MLB The Show are a hot topic of conversation within the game’s community. The Diamond Dynasty mode and MLB The Show’s awesome offline rosters feature newly added legends and most of the guys they retain each year.

This layer of the game adds some undeniable spice to the playing experience. While there are a healthy number of legends in the game already, there are still some noteworthy omissions that some fans hope to see added in 2023 or beyond. The door is still likely open for some, but forever closed for others.

Let’s look at the two categories beginning with those who still have some hope.

Despite what some may believe, an association with Performance-Enhancing Drugs in a vacuum is not an automatic disqualifier from appearing in MLB The Show as a legend. Five players whose names appeared in the infamous Mitchell Report (an independent investigative report to the Commissioner of Baseball about the illegal use of steroids and other performance enhancing substances by players in Major League Baseball) were playable legends in MLB The Show 22.

In addition, former Los Angeles Angels and Toronto Blue Jays slugger Troy Glaus reportedly received PEDs from a pharmacy. In his book, recently inducted Hall-of-Famer Mike Piazza admitted to using androstenedione before baseball banned it.

Both Glaus and Piazza were in MLB The Show 22.

Mind you, not every player mentioned in the Mitchell Report was found to have used PEDs or punished for the association. However, any inclusion in the report and/or stories from creditable media outlets has at the very least complicated the legacies of the players mentioned.

Despite the questions, Sony has moved forward with agreements to include the likenesses of the aforementioned players in their game. Quite frankly, in my observation, MLB The Show’s community welcomed their inclusions. The Justice, Piazza, Sheffield and Glaus cards were very popular in last year’s game.

At the time of publication, Glaus’ 95-0verall Prime card had paralleled to level 2 (an indication of community usage on five-level scale) by more than 22,000 users. Glaus also has a 99-overall card with more than 18,000 level-1 users.

Justice’s 93-overall 2nd Half Heroes card had more than 115,000 level-2 users. The 99-overall Finest Sheffield had more than 21,000 level-1 users.

Because of this, it’s not crazy to think most MLB The Show fans would love to see the wall come down between other missing legends whose legacies have been tainted by PED fact and fiction.

Largely, it doesn’t appear as though fans are condoning any PED usage, but many long to use some of the greatest players in the sport’s history in the game. If asked to vote on the inclusion of legends like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez, it would be interesting to see the results of a poll amongst the game’s community.

I’d be shocked if all of them weren’t voted in by the community by a landslide.

Obviously, this is a bit more complicated than a simple fan vote. Still, I believe there is a window for all of those players to be added at some point.

There are four players who are in the Hall-of-Fame–or at least have the on-field accomplishments required for enshrinement–but they almost certainly won’t make it into MLB The Show.

Eddie Collins was one of the greatest players of his generation. He won six World Series championships, an MVP in 1914 and led the league in stolen bases 14 times. Collins was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.

However, Collins’ plaque was removed from Fenway Park (where he was a star for the Boston Red Sox) because of multiple accusations of racism. Collins became an executive in the Red Sox organization after his playing career, and is widely believed to have resisted the integration of professional baseball.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Charles P. Pierce, there is “a strong faction” that “believes” Collins heckled black players from his “executive perch” who were trying out for the Red Sox, shouting “get those n##### off the field.” Jackie Robinson was one of the three players who tried out for the Red Sox that day. Needless to say, Sony isn’t likely to look to add Collins to The Show in any capacity.

The same can unfortunately be said for fellow Hall-of-Famers Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker. Cobb has the second-most hits in baseball history (4,189). He won 12 batting titles and a league MVP. Speaker also won a batting title an MVP and three World Series. He retired with 3,514 hits.

Both Cobb and Speaker are unquestionably among the best players in the history of the sport, but the cloud that comes from accusations of racial discrimination and bigotry make both men untouchable for a game publisher–at least one on Sony San Diego Studios’ level.

The allegations against Cobb (The Naples Herald’s Glenn Miller wrote about the “Curious Case of Ty Cobb” in 2015) have been disputed. MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince wrote that Cobb’s legacy is based on “erroneous stories.”

Speaker doesn’t appear to have as many pushing back against the negative aspects of his legacy. According to The Athletic’s Joe Posnanski, Speaker has been called a member of Ku Klux Klan. He is believed to have betted on baseball–and to have even thrown games.

Baseball’s all-time hit king Pete Rose is the last on the list here. He had a historic career and broke Cobb’s record before retiring. However, Rose was ultimately banished from baseball for allegedly gambling on the sport.

While the gambling allegations might be enough to keep him out of the Hall of Fame and MLB The Show forever, the allegations of a sexual relationship with an underage girl likely slams the door permanently.

According to court documents made public in 2017, Rose admitted to having sex with the girl, but not until 1975 when she was 16 years old, which is the legal age of consent in Ohio where both parties lived.

Ultimately, a powerful Diamond Dynasty card and the revenue that would come from the microtransactions isn’t worth being associated with some of the ugliest aspects of our society.

These are the kinds of issues publishers must navigate when they include the likenesses of real people. Sometimes things go off the rails.