Quote Originally Posted by Blue in the Face View Post
Obviously mlb had no testing and did little (or nothing) to enforce the rule until pretty recently. Given the lack of enforcement, I imagine players didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the policy, but to me at least, it strains credulity to think that these guys didn't know that injecting themselves with something they couldn't legally acquire was against league rules. I also think your analogy misses the mark quite a bit, since the merits of someone to serve as President aren't particularly enhanced by having ever broken the speed limit or gotten high (at least in most people's eyes). The merits of someone's candidacy for the Hall of Fame are pretty significantly impacted by having used PED's, although at least with some of the guys we're talking about, I think absent any PED's they'd have had HOF careers.

At any rate, I think I'd vote purely based on a player's performance, and give no regard to any known or suspected PED use. But I don't think we should gloss over the fact that it was against the rules, they almost surely knew it was against the rules, and it has, or can have, an impact on performance that makes it a much more significant offense than skirting the speed limit.
I see your points, and I respectfully choose to still vote for the users and suspected users. We probably won't ever get all the facts out, and as a fan, I couldn't describe the 90s without mentioning all of the guys I voted for here in the poll. I suppose I just don't care enough that guys were using because I know that baseball history has been littered with 'cheaters' who we still celebrate (I feel like a hypocrite because I'm the first to jump on guys like Calipari, but I do my best to separate college and pro sports).