I'm excited to see what happens.
Personally, I think the Writer's couldn't possibly care about the "steroid era".
Reason being, they're educated. Ball players have always juiced and always will. Anything to give them an edge. They know how many Hall of Famers there are that used substances to help their game. That's how I think on where the bulk of the writer's personal mindset lies.
That said, they'll likely use this first ballot to test the waters. Don't vote for Bonds and Clemens and see where the public response lies. Their first loyalty is to political correctness, of course. They pander to the public and write what will keep the paychecks coming rather than what they necessarily think is true or right. I can't imagine for a minute they'll stick their necks out, enshrine a couple bobbleheads, then cross their fingers that public opinion doesn't execute them. Imagine for a minute what would be in the newspapers and on ESPN? "Baseball Writers Want Your Kids To Use Steroids!!!"
After we see the fallout from the obvious roid users not being enshrined, we should all have a good idea where this is headed. I think it's headed toward them being enshrined, but baseball is steeped in a tradition of being obstinate, so there's that.
If there's one indicator I can point to that guages public sentiment on roids, it's Lance Armstrong. He just got stripped of his titles, was juicing, blah, blah, blah. The public outcry was zero. I love Lance, everybody loves Lance. Nobody cares and everyone thinks what happened was ridiculous. We still love Lance, he's a good dude, and he's badass.
Bonds and Clemens are not good dudes, they're the opposite. If anything, it's their personalities that will make it easy not to accept them. Let's see what happens with Sammy after this year.
