Easy. If they had stats before the streroids, they go in on those stats. If they didn't have stats before the steroids, they go in after they have died and not while living. Simple.

Did I read right that he's calling Schill a potential first ballot HOF-er? Love the guy for what he did here but I don't think his career stats bear that out. Much as I despise the Rocket, if he had been run over by a bus before he started juicing he would have been a first-balloter. The question is not whether he would have had a HOF career without the juice, the question is does he deserve to be punished for juicing by being kept out. The only one of those mentioned who deserves to go in on the first ballot without question is Pedro.

How does one justify letting Bonds, Clemens and Sosa in while keeping Pete Rose out? All were fine players whose behavior discredited the game. Either that means something or it doesn't

Interesting that parsing the "PED thing" is "not very much fun." As an elite pro writer you get to pass judgement on who gets into the Hall. OK. The criteria for getting into the Hall are not clear because there is an uncomfortable moral element being added to the ballot (is there a rule against cheating? was there one when these guys were players? is there a tier in the Hall for cheaters? was/is cheating a feature of Baseball that deserves being memorialized in the Hall -- there are memorials to various disasters all over the place aren't there? what is cheating anyway and who should pay for it? if Baseball as a business decides to look the other way because extraordinary performances put fannies in the seats, are PED users cheating? is a non-PED user cheating by not being the best he can be? was McGuire ever suspended for 100 games?). This is somewhat analogous to what we say our values are as a country, and how we act in the world. They are not always perfectly in sync, to say the least. Anyway, it seems to me that as an elite writer, you are obligated to step back and figure out how you're going to approach this issue, and explain it. Clearly it's difficult. Why isn't it fun? Who gets to do that? What a great big tangle! Gambling in baseball was once, you know, frowned on a little bit, and still is keeping Rose out of the Hall. Rose is not in the Hall because he was banned. Were any of these other guys banned for PED use? Why not?