This thread will get boring in a hurry if everyone takes the same position, so I'll play devil's advocate

Asterisks are a slippery slope. Two weeks ago Bud Selig was quoted as saying "This is the first time in baseball history we've had a drug testing program. We've had other things, like the cocaine era in the 80s and things were there was no testing".

In the 1970's, amphetamine use was so common in baseball that many clubhouses used two coffee pots, one of which featured coffee spiked with uppers.

Anabolic steroids have been around since the 1930's and have been in common medical use since the 1950's. How often they may have been used by athletes of that era is unknown but the fact is, they were available.

I think there's a natural tendancy to glamorize the players we watched as kids, and pretend that players magically transformed into cheating substance abusers only ten years ago. Re-read 'Ball Four' if you need a wake-up call.

Finally, and I've said this before, if we're going to start handing out asterisks, let's start by slapping one on the HOF plaque of every player whose career began before 1947, since those players had an unfair advantage by not playing against much of the best talent in the game.

Rick
rickjlucas@gmail.com