OK Bud Selig, the ball is in your glove. The Mitchell Report named some 86 current and former baseball players as using steroids or human growth hormones (HGH) during the past decade or so, including record-setters such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

There’s a debate what to do about these records. Do you put an asterisk on them? Do you throw them out? How about their own room in the Baseball Hall of Fame separate of the other records?

Players from this era, including Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmiero, may be excluded from the Hall of Fame or denied early induction, but they probably won’t be banned.

So where does that leave Pete Rose?

Rose broke what baseball calls its cardinal sin of gambling. Rose has admitted gambling on the Cincinnati Reds, but only to win. Rose’s gambling had nothing to do with the record-setting career he enjoyed. His record for most career hits weren’t steroid inflated.

Bonds wouldn’t have the records he’s established if not for steroids, but he still had a Hall of Fame career. Clemens, McGwire and Sosa are probably in a similar situation.

Rose had a Hall of Fame career. No one disputes that fact. And what about Hank Greenberg who had a great career and his involvement in the 1919 World Series Black Sox scandal is shaky?

Selig, Major League Baseball’s commissioner, plans to deal with each steroid case individually.

In light of what has transpired, let’s see how he deals with Rose and if cheating is more acceptable than an addiction.

— Sinatra —

Jim Walker is sports editor of The Ironton Tribune.