by Timothy Williams

Created on: July 14, 2008

The Roger Clemens scandal has done some unsightly damage to Major League Baseball and its fans already. No matter what is found out from here forward, no matter whether or not Clemens actually did it, the damage has been done and it will take a long time before we can repair it.

It's not just Clemens and the scandal around him that did it, either. We can give credit to the BALCO affair, Jose Canseco's two books and the death of Ken Caminiti as well.

The damage I'm talking about is that speculation and the assumption of guilt are now standard operations procedure for fans of the game. The damage is apparent any time a hitter goes on a power tear. Any time a pitcher over the age of 35 has an above-average season, he must be on steroids. Any hitter with a big swing and big arms couldn't have gotten that far through natural workouts. Heaven help any ballplayer who had the misfortune to be born with a larger-than-normal head.

Of course, there's a solid foundation to this blind behavior. Players approaching forty are nearing the end of their careers, and they are "past their prime" in physical terms. It's unlikely that a player over 35 will play an entire season without pain and/or a slowdown in production. Even now that so many players are finding tremendous success at that age, that too is viewed as another after-effect of the steroid scandal. You'll find a lot of baseball fans out there convinced that productive players in their late 30s must be on steroids. Of course, this is not necessarily true, but the Clemens story makes everyone look bad.

If anything, these scandals shouldn't breed such speculation on the part of fans, but an appreciation for those names that haven't been sullied.

Here are a few names from the "steroid era" that are clear of accusation and speculation: Randy Johnson, Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki, Greg Maddux, Ken Griffey Junior, Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez, Rickey Henderson, Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina, Fred McGriff, Cecil Fielder, Cal Ripken Jr.

To the best of my knowledge, these names have never come up in any serious speculation about PED use. There are many others I could name, names we all recognize.

If we remove the steroid users from the discussion of the era's best players, we sill wind up with piles and piles of MVPs, future Hall of Famers and the vast majority of championship rings. (Steroid users for the most part have attained FAR more personal glory than team glory-think of how many among the widely-accused

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