Recently, after 1988 AL MVP Jose Canseco released a book detailing his frequent steroid use, runner-up Mike Greenwell remarked that the MVP award should belong to him.
With the benefit of hindsight, who should have received the MVP award. Clean Greenwell or roided Caseco. If you ask me, Greenwell is right. Baseball fans generally support the notion of taking measures to invalidate players' ill-gotten awards, and perhaps even their statistics.
However, I feel that invalidation goes too far. Instead, the statistics of known steroid users should be discounted, lessening the overall impressiveness of a player's stats. This principal applies equally for admission to the Hall of Fame, where membership should not necessarily be denied to steroid users. Canseco was never really on the HOF bubble, but a player like Barry Bonds probably still deserves a place in the Hall, if not the record books. But maybe I see the purpose of the Hall of Fame differently from some - it is, after all, a museum, and to that end the great players should be recognized. The reverence that comes from the record books, however, can appropriately be denied to juicers.
--NationInChicago 10:10, 1 February 2006 (PST)