People have always cheated and they always will cheat. That doesn’t mean attempts shouldn’t be made to control it, but recognizing great players from the “steroid-era” with Hall of Fame enshrinement does nothing to diminish the careers of anyone else in the hall. Steroids were a fact of life in MLB in the 1990s, just like spitballers, the color barrier, amphetamines and Ty Cobb’s spikes.

is not that steroids are ok. It’s that every era is full of its quirks and cheaters. To think that the steroid era is any more impure is to ignore the problems of an earlier age.

But what I’m saying is, players/teams have ALWAYS cheated. Corked bats, spitballs, changing the field to slope in a certain direction, grass length, changing the bases distance, stuff like this has always been prevalent. What we’re dealing with now is less obvious but will always be around. Hank Aaron admitted he used greenies, they’re illegal now, should we asterisk Aaron? Of course not.

People act like the hall of fame has some morality code, yet why are there racists in it? Why are there wife beaters in baseball who get less grief than someone who took drugs that, in return, entertained us? Would I prefer a clean, rule abiding league? Absolutely, but unlike most, I’m going to accept that PED chemists are always going to be ahead of the curve.

wait, how the hell did we get here?