A jarring thought occurred to me recently: many people who never covered a day of the Steroid Era are voting for the Hall of Fame.
Writers accrue their voting rights after holding a Baseball Writers Association of America card for 10 consecutive seasons, so the idea of considering players you didn’t cover is not new. On my first ballot, for instance, was Ken Boyer, who played his last game when I was in grade school. (Back then players remained eligible up to 20 years after their last season, a window since reduced to 15.)
What is jarring is that the Steroid Era stands apart from any era in the game’s history.