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One of the reasons why baseball is so beloved and so richly debated between friends, writers, and sports bar patrons is because of its history.

No other North American sport so closely aligns itself with the sanctity of history the way that Major League Baseball does. So much so that we, as lovers and supporters of the game divide its history into eras. In baseball, terms like "the dead ball era" or the "juiced ball era" commonly used phrases that everyone involved in the conversation easily understands.

These "eras" come to be because of prevailing common attributes that spread across the league for an extended period of time. This time of prevalent steroid use needs to be held in the same light.

Please do not misunderstand my stance on this issue. In my heart, I feel that those who cheated by using performance enhancing drugs are an abomination. I feel as though they somehow owe all of us that care some form an apology.

Yet as we dig deeper into this dark time in baseball history, we have come to a few startling conclusions: 1) The truth is fleeting. The idea that we will have an absolute answer to this problem now seems impossible. 2) It appears that the use of these drugs is more wide-spread than was once believed.

To look at this in it's worst possible light, perhaps the numbers we are witnessing are not so inflated. If a sweeping majority of players were engaged in the use of PED's, then the playing field is much more level than if it were confined to a group of 10-20 players.

This argument of inaccurate statistical tracking can be applied to any era and any statistic in baseball. For this example, I will use Babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth finished his career with 714 home runs, good for third place all time as of Feb. 2007. Yet Ruth played in an era in which the color barrier had not been broken. Ruth did not have to face the best pitchers toiling in the Negro Leagues. Should we then discount his statistical achievements, or Ty Cobb's achievements because they did not face a talent pool that more closely represents what the players face today?

There is no way to extrapolate Ruth's statistics against the fully integrated and fully work-out friendly game of today.

The inability to prove just how far the steroid crisis has spread throughout baseball makes it impossible to truly ascertain who held the advantage, and who was playing on the level.

With that in mind, we must take these performances at face value, just the way we have with Ruth, Cobb and Cy Young. This was, like it or not, "The Steroid Era," which means that if a player during this admittedly sad time has posted a career worthy of Hall of Fame consideration, it must be fairly offered to him. There can be no picking and choosing. In the interest of fairness, if one worthy player is left out, the same treatment should be given to every player associated with that era.

Learn more about this author, Joe Jenkins.
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