Stop Being a Prude Baseball. Let Them In.

As ugly as some of the past is for baseball, it is time to embrace it. Hall of Fame voters face the fact that some of your players used performance-enhancing drugs while they played your sacred game. Yes, they used steroids and baseball records fell, new ones were set -- along with TV ratings.

Clemens was brought to tears after being found innocent.

During the steroid era, baseball was watched throughout the nation more than ever before. Now "America's Pastime" is a clear third behind football and basketball, with no change on the horizon.

A few fixes could help quickly: using instant replay, quicken the pace of play and shorten your season.

Your plodding game worked in a slower world, and the nation was forced to watch baseball through box scores on the second page of the newspaper.

Embrace instant replay for close calls on the field but not for balls and strikes. We have the technology to make the right calls, so use it. Questionable calls can be reviewed quickly and efficiently. Ask the NFL or college football with any further questions regarding this matter.

As for the pace of play, enforce a pitch clock. Not only will pitchers be forced to make throws more quickly, batters would have to discontinue stepping out of the batter's box and performing stupid rituals every time before a new offer is made from the pitcher, thus quickening up the game.

Shorten your season. Your regular season is too long. There is too little emphasis placed on the postseason, when the game really matters. You have made improvements by adding another semi-series to the playoffs. However, instead of having your season end in October, finish in September. You would not have to fight against the NFL or college football for TV ratings. You have no chance of beating those behemoths in TV ratings with your current set-up. With football in the beginning of its season and meaningful match-ups not coming until later, more coverage would be placed on your World Series.

Now that I have successfully solved your most pertinent problems baseball and Commissioner Bud Selig, let's get to why I even started writing in the first place: your current stance on the steroid superstars, in particular Roger Clemens.

Clemens after striking out 20 batters in 1986

Do we know that Clemens took performance-enhancing drugs? A jury of his own peers said no, but America's suspicions have not been dampened much about the 1986 American League Most Valuable Player's steroid use.

What we do know is that the seven-time Cy Young winner had  four "down" seasons in Boston of a 4-plus ERA. Then moved to Toronto and went on to strike out a career-high 292 batters in his 13th season. He won four more Cy Young Awards and  posted a 1.87 ERA at the age of 42 for the Houston Astros after a five year stint for the Yankees.

Do it really matter? The numbers are not in Clemens' favor, but in his defense he was trying to fend off batters who hit the ball out of the park at the highest rate ever.


Superstars, such as Clemens, helped the bring the game back to prominence; since its end, the game has suffered. Should children look up to these players and their methods of cheating as a model to success? No, but in all honesty children should not look to many athletes as role models for life off of the field.

Bonds' enlargement of his muscles and head are not
natural, but his skills in the batter's box is undeniable. 

The players followed the rules that were set.

Baseball and Hall of Fame voters (former players and writers) benefited from the damage these players did to their bodies and now it is time to face your negligence.

Even former players, such as Reggie Jackson and Johnny Bench, are calling for Clemens and the -- as hard as it is for me to say this -- home run king Barry Bonds to be let into Cooperstown because they have been proven innocent in the court of law. Jackson told USA Today, "If you can beat Congress and federal judges buddy, you must have had a pretty strong case."

Players like Bonds hit as well as anyone in the game. Clemens was the best pitcher of my lifetime.

Get over yourself baseball. Let them in.