Can we admit to several self-evident facts:
- No player who used (or uses) PEDs is gaining an "unfair advantage" over a player who does not because the player who does not use has made the affirmative decision not to.
- Statistics accumulated during the so-called "PED" era are no more "outside the norm" than those accumulated after baseball changed the makeup of the ball in the 1920s, allowed vastly underqualified "major leaguers" to play during World War II, instituted the widespread use of night games in the postwar era, lowered the mount from 18 to 10 inches in 1969, allowed the use of artificial turf and indoor stadia in the 1970s, instituted the designated hitter in 1973, and continually diluted the talent pool as a result of grotesque expansion.
- PEDs have been used throughout all of baseball history. These include "greenies" (to offset the effects of all-night benders) and cortisone shots (to offset the effects of injuries). Many were administered by club-employed trainers and medical personnel. And those are just the treatments we know about.
- Baseball has always known about PED use and historically has done nothing to stop it. Therefore, baseball has traditionally condoned it. Therefore, it is not cheating.
- The fact that PED use may be illegal outside the confines of baseball means nothing. Assault is illegal outside hockey, football and boxing, after all.
