Yes, A-Rod still gets my Hall vote

Oh, no (gasp) not Alex Rodriguez (gasp).

Why not? By now most baseball fans are over the concept of body by barbell.

Nobody should be gasping anymore when any player is exposed as a steroids user.

Several questions do arise, however, not the least of which is whether A-Rod still is a Hall of Famer.

First, though, was Rodriguez's performance dubiously enhanced before his current supposed squeeze Madonna's appearance was cosmetically altered?

Also, if Bud Selig presided over the Steroids Era and his salary was $18.35 million for the year ending in October of 2007, as reported last week, does that mean he was paid per juiced player?

Finally, when all the sluggers to use performance enhancers are named, will it turn out that Paul Bako is the past decade's real home run champion?

But that one question hangs out there like a Felix Heredia curveball: Is A-Rod still a Hall of Famer?

Yes, even now I'll vote for him.

Listen, baseball's shot heard 'round the world no longer is Bobby Thomson's home run that won the Giants the 1951 National League pennant.

Now it's the latest needle that injected steroids into the butt of a baseball butthead to enhance his performance.

The most recent revelation is that A-Fraud, er, A-Rod tested positive for steroids in 2003, so again the Hall of Fame comes under scrutiny.

More precisely, the issue is that purists expect me to apologize for repeatedly voting for Mark McGwire.

To the contrary, friends, I feel more justified than ever.

My two reasons for continuing to vote for McGwire - and for preparing to vote for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and A-Rod when they're eligible - were reinforced last week.

One is that as long as Selig is rewarded for the Steroids Era, players shouldn't be penalized.

By the way, what goes for Selig also goes for all the managers, general managers, owners, medical personnel and union officials who failed to whistle-blow.

Selig's poppycock cop-out is that the players union refused to allow drug testing until Congress became involved.

Well, then Selig should have expedited the process by threatening the union with government involvement.

But nothing was done until a head cold became a cancer and baseball's record book became a comic book.

So penalize McGwire and not Selig, Bonds and not union chief Don Fehr, and Rodriguez and not George Steinbrenner?

Sorry, I'm not going there.

My other reason for voting for suspected cheaters is that nobody can tell me for sure how many of the players they cheated against were cheating back at them.

Rodriguez was supposed to be the man to eventually snatch baseball's revered career home run mark out of Bonds' dirty hands.

Ah, but now this: SI.com says it has four independent sources that allege Rodriguez was among 104 players who tested positive in 2003, a survey year when no penalties were assessed for steroids use.

If A-Rod really is A-Fraud, whom can you trust? Probably nobody, not even the skinny guy with no acne on his back.

It's easier to assume most players were (gasp) using than we care to imagine and the field was (gasp) more level than we dare to imagine.

And that enhanced performance doesn't disqualify anyone from the Hall of Fame.

mimrem@dailyherald.com