STEROIDS

"Let Steroids Into the Hall of Fame". Zev Chafets' rationale is that others 'cheated' in the past and are now members of the Hall, so we should be accepting of present transgressions. Mr. Chafets, as we learned as little children, 2 wrongs don't make a right.

This is not an issue of setting a bad example for our children. It is a question of whether we bestow the highest honor that baseball can give on those who we know have played on a tilted playing field. But for the use of steroids, would Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa have had their titanic home run battles? Would Barry Bonds have gotten over 230 walks in a year, and hit prodigious home runs at an age where he would normally be contemplating retirement? Would Roger Clemens have been a Cy Young winner so late in his career?

We are not judging good versus better. We are being asked to find the best the game can offer. We know now that we were looking not at statistical aberrations predicated on super human ability, but on superior 'accelerants'. We are not banning these players from the game but only from consideration as representing the pinnacle of their profession. This is a decision that these people do not deserve the time and effort needed to try to extrapolate their statistics downward by attempting to back out the anomalies.

These players have earned huge sums of money. Fame and fortune have followed their every step for many years. They have not been punished for their transgressions but they should not be praised. The next step should not be to admit them into the most exclusive club the game has to offer. Not when we know what we do.