We choose our heroes at an early age and sometimes, as we grow older, we add new members to our list. And, God forbid, some of them get crossed off the list.

With the advent of performance enhancing drugs, many heroes have been tarnished. There is more than one reason for feeling the need to cross them off the most cherished of all lists, the Hall of Fame. Every field of endeavor has one, official or unofficial.
The big question is what behavior do we use to disqualify them from Hall of Fame honors? In what ways are we considering that they are human beings and not perfect? I’m not making excuses; it’s just more of a “cast the first stone thing.”

Let’s take the all-time hitting machine, Pete Rose. His offense was betting on the game he played. There was a rule against it and he paid the penalty. The baseball insiders knew that Mr. Rose was a degenerate gambler very early on. No one did anything about it. He was okay as long as he didn’t bet on baseball. That’s akin to leaving bottles of Wild Turkey around the home of an alcoholic.

Not one of Mr. Rose’s hits was a function of any bet he had made. The problem with steroids and all of its forms is that they do affect performance. But even in those cases things are foggy.

Let’s take the current “bad guy” Alex Rodriguez of Mariners, Rangers and Yankees fame. Whether he thought so or not from the day he stepped on the field in Seattle, he was going to be in the Hall. What do the voters do with that? The problem is the voters are feeling betrayed by a hero and they want to get even. It is not whether he should or shouldn’t. I don’t have that answer. Is the vote made without malice and disappointment?

Then there are Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, all of who had their problems. You know that list could have your favorite athlete on it. Fame is very difficult to manage, like success where fame isn’t a factor. I only question how selective and judgmental we are in our view. I don’t have an answer to that either.

One more question … can you keep a guy out of the Hall of Fame who had a jillion base hits and has already paid the penalty for his mistakes? Remember, no bet he made ever got him a hit.