Those of us who follow baseball have a pretty good idea who cheated. We think we know who took steroids and human growth hormone. We don’t need a perjury trial to make it any more clear. We’ve seen the impossibly bulked up players. And now, fairly, or unfairly, Roger Clemens tops a list of men who will have a very hard, if not impossible, time of getting into Cooperstown.

It doesn’t make any difference that back in the day Major League Baseball was vague about chemical enhancement of a players ability. It’s still cheating and we know who played baseball honorably, the hard way, the only way. If anything, our heroes of old used drugs that had a detrimental effect on a player’s ability, such as alcohol and nicotine.

Having said that, although slightly scarred, I still like baseball. I’ve followed the White Sox, the Reds, the Mets and the Yankees. There is nothing like the hum of a major league ballpark on a warm sunny afternoon. I go to many Rock Cats games in New Britain and watch at least two or three games of the Little League World Series on TV.

Sure, some of the cheaters have gotten away with it, but for the most part, the game today is played on the up and up. Either that, or science has come up with enhancing drugs that can’t be detected. There, that’s how I’ve been scarred.