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There have always been external and environmental factors that impacted different eras of baseball. Gambling, segregation, wars, drugs, etc... it is impossible to find a player in the Hall of Fame whose career does not overlap one of these external factors.
Even if the player did not directly participate in steroid use, he may have benefited (perhaps unknowingly) from having a steroid user batting behind him. He may have benefited from competing against lesser competition at his peak due to the war years. He may have benefited from simply being on a good team, or been hurt by being on a bad one.
We have to stop over-analyzing everything and make the Hall of FAME what it was intended to be... a museum to display the heritage of the game. The steroid era is a part of that heritage and should be included. Because it is absolutely impossible to scientifically and correctly exclude the "cheaters", everyone should be let in based on all of the current Hall of Fame standards except Rule 5.
I include Joe Jackson and Pete Rose in this amnesty. Joe Jackson lived in a time where gambling had been allowed to go on with impunity and the owners looked the other way as long as gamblers bought tickets. Sound familiar? Put a statement on Rose's plaque to say that he was banned from baseball for gambling on games as a manager if you will, but you cannot keep the all-time hit leader out of the HOF anymore than you can exclude the horrible human being who is #2 on the list.
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