Tough vote

Once again baseball is at a watershed. The question is, does Mark McGwire get into the Hall of Fame? If not, what happens when suspected pitchers such as Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling come up for election?

Baseball can’t be hypocritical. Let us not forget that baseball was on life support before McGwire and Sammy Sosa resuscitated it. Were it not for steroids, baseball’s popularity would have been somewhere between hockey and soccer.

Everyone benefited from the steroid era. The fans witnessed offensive fireworks, sportswriters could do more than regurgitate stats, the TV ratings went up, the players got bigger contracts and the owners’ franchises doubled in value.

WILLIS BARTON

Los Angeles