Here's the right call on getting in baseball's Hall

I'm already in trouble with baseball purists, so let's get in a little deeper.

How? By suggesting the Hall of Fame eliminate "character" from its list of considerations for election.

Baseball is my favorite sport, but come on, who's kidding whom here? Ethics in this game are like ethics in Chiblago politics.

The integrity line is drawn here in baseball, and there, and everywhere depending on who has the brush.

It winds up being different from person to person and generation to generation. It's straight for some, wavy for others and jagged for others.

Last week a report said that Sammy Sosa tested positive in 2003 for a performance-enhancing drug. Afterward I reiterated that I still would vote for him for the Hall of Fame.

Countless among you believe that's wrong. So do most Hall voters, considering Mark McGwire receives only about 25 percent of the vote.

Several readers reminded me of this Hall guideline: "Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the team(s) on which he played."

The issues in this discussion are integrity, sportsmanship and character. Many voters are asking Cooperstown to clarify them concerning the steroids era.

I say the Hall should do so by saying character, shmaracter and integrity, shmintegrity.

Football, the most popular sport in America, already has done that. Don't be surprised if a player has to give his induction speech by satellite feed from prison some year soon.

I'll never forget the day Lawrence Taylor, despite his repeated transgressions with recreational drugs, was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After the news conference announcing Taylor's election, I walked out to the hotel lobby and saw a man signing autographs.

I got his attention and asked whether he thought Taylor deserved to make it to Canton despite all his indiscretions.

Of course, he said. The man was boxing promoter Don King, who served nearly four years in prison for killing a man and now is in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Yes, eliminating the integrity issue from voting in baseball would lower the standards for election. However, didn't the game's leaders already lower the standards by allowing the steroids era to occur?

Listen, we can live in a pretend, fantasy, fairy tale baseball world if we want or we can live in the real world.

The game never has been as pure as we try to convince ourselves it is.

Bad people always have populated the game and some are in the Hall of Fame. They lied or cheated or drank alcohol during Prohibition or did cocaine during the 1980s or took amphetamines for decades or corked bats or threw spitballs ... and some used the performance enhancer of the day.

Back then getting an edge whenever possible and living on the edge however dangerously were considered romantic aspects of the sport.

Now all of a sudden they're considered deplorable? Not really. Fans have embraced baseball more than ever since the steroids era began.

Maybe it's time for Hall of Fame voters to draw the integrity line where a multitude of paying customers have.