Massive cheating scandal in Sports -Why Some Athletes cheat more than others

Barry Bonds, Jeff Kent kept out of Hall of Fame again

OK, here’s the main thing about numbers in baseball: They all require context. No one could reasonably argue that, say, Mariners first baseman Corey Hart is a more dominant offensive player than Hall of Famer Frank “Home Run” Baker simply because Hart has more career home runs and a higher OPS. We know Baker played in the sport’s deadball era, so we adjust our standards accordingly.

And Bonds stands as one of the sport’s greatest hitters ever in any context. By the park- and league-adjusted stat OPS+, Bonds ranks third all-time behind only Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. It’s perfectly fair to debate whether Bonds’ 763 home runs are more impressive than Hank Aaron’s 755, since Bonds played at a time when lots of guys hit lots of homers. But it’s silly to dismiss all those homers entirely. They all contributed to his teams’ chances of victory.

3. It would be unfair to clean players

This one’s tricky. One of the great shames of baseball’s so-called steroids era is that there were certainly guys who held themselves to higher standards than the league did and refused to take PEDs, and many of those players likely missed out on roster spots or big paydays or places in the record books because they were unwilling to compromise. And that stinks, no doubt.

Problem is, we have no sure way of knowing who they were. This aims by no means to besmirch the reputations of players like Glavine, Maddux and Thomas. But we can never say for sure that no member of the 2014 Hall of Fame class ever juiced. We know only that they successfully convinced us they played clean. And now that the Hall’s doors are open to players from their era, it will become increasingly tricky and disturbing if we keep trying to guess which guys did what without concrete evidence.

4. How will I explain it to my kid?