Cheating? We've Seen This Before

Burt Sugar was on my show recently, the legendary boxing journalist is a huge baseball fan that recently penned a book about the Hall of Fame. When I posed a question about today's steroid users and alleged "cheats," he answered by asking me..."you think these are the first guys who ever cheated in baseball? The Hall of Fame is full of cheats." He also went on to point out that members of the baseball HOF are not as he stated "choir boys looking for a service."
The more I thought about his question the more I realized that cheating is simply part of sports, especially baseball. But cheating are like crimes, some are worse than others and are punished as so. While doctoring a baseball to help it break through the strike zone is like jaywalking, many would compare steroid use to murder...both heavily penalized with a certain slice of the population calling for the death penalty.
Not all cheating is created equal. We have "good cheating" believe it or not...things like scuffed baseballs, longer grass, etc. And we have bad cheating, steroids, gambling, and some dirty play that endangers other players (something Ty Cobb made a career of).
Did you know when Major League Baseball got serious about stopping the over-used spit ball in 1917 they allowed teams to keep two designated 'spitballers' on their roster? Or that 17 pitchers were grandfathered in and allowed to throw spitters their entire career...one of which lasted for 270 wins and finally ended in 1934.
Steroids are just this era of baseball player's cross to bear. While it's much more serious cheating than stealing signs or sliding high into second base, it joins the other scandals in baseball history that define an era. The 'Drug Era' will pass, players will sort themselves out and we'll come up with something else to give players an advantage over their counterparts. It's the American way, it's the baseball way.
I wouldn't expect anything less.