Early January brings baseball fans a great day -- Baseball's Hall of Fame Ballot results. It is always nice to see players rewarded as worthy of baseball's great shrine in Cooperstown. However, recent news articles are hitting a nerve that runs deep within me.

Like most Americans, I have tried to do the right thing throughout my life. It is how most us were taught. But how many of us can say we have never lied or withheld information from officials, authorities or our parents that was damning to friends, family or even strangers?

How many of us can say we have never done whatever we could to get further in a situation or cheated on a test, or spouse, or withheld information in a civil or police matter? How many of us have cheated by skipping work because we were too sick to work, but not to go out with friends?

I have broken the rules of journalism by asking my reader questions, but I want all of us to ask ourselves these questions before we cast judgment on someone we hardly know.

The name of the prejudged is Mark McGwire.

I couldn't go a day without hearing this name on the radio, TV sports shows, or even work conversation in the late '90s in St. Louis. Now before you cast judgment on my defense of McGwire because I am from St. Louis, let me state my case.

In the late 1990s I considered McGwire one of the Cardinals greatest mistakes. They paid him huge sums of money to hit home runs while the team struggled to be a winner, much less a contender. I would have never considered myself a defender of McGwire nearly a decade later.

I love baseball. When it is played right, baseball is still a thing of beauty. I could not stand the circus-sideshow setting that McGwire created when he started smashing those baseballs around spacious old Busch Stadium. I remember my indignation growing, watching those people buying up McGwire jerseys and filling the stands, while I could only attend five games in 1998.

I enjoy winning baseball and while the home run race brought in the fans it was not winning baseball. Tickets were hard to come by with all those people wearing No. 25 jerseys filling the seats. I remember cursing his name as I thought about what players the Cardinals could have had with the money they were throwing away on the homerun show. Now I am making a case for the man I cursed less than a decade before.

First of all, McGwire never tested positive for steroids. Granted baseball was not actively testing in those years, except for Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden for cocaine. McGwire did admit to using Andro, which is not a banned substance until recently in baseball. McGwire did not go to Washington and point his finger and lie about never using steroids. All McGwire did was make a poor excuse for pleading the fifth. McGwire did not go and rat out people who may have used controlled or illegal substances, instead stating he would rather focus on helping baseball stop the steroid use by testing and suspensions.

Having said all this, I believe that at least 40% of all Major League Baseball players from 1980s through the '90s have used some sort of banned, illegal or misused a legal substance to get a competitive edge or psychological edge. I know this for a fact, I will not disclose my sources, only make the following statements and a confession.

The 1980s and 1990s brought us full out bloated payrolls with some players having to find new habits to spend some of this money. Cocaine use rose throughout the 1980s and I can say firsthand that in the late 1980s I saw two baseball players using this drug in a St Louis area nightclub restroom.

Did coke use help these players achieve superstar status? No, but cocaine is an illegal and controlled substance, and here were two players snorting some in a public restroom. Two players does not a team make, but look at the public cases of illegal drug use, Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Keith Hernandez. And, how about a couple more ex-Cardinals to make the list in the past 10 years, Darryl Porter and Rex Hudler.

I think that it wouldn't be hard to get to 40% by just using the players who have tested positive for controlled substances. I think many of us could go to our workplace and find about 40% who have taken controlled substances at one time or another.

If Greg Anderson came to your work tomorrow with a wonder drug that would allow you to improve your job performance by double or more, which would, in-turn, more than double your salary and worth to the company, how many would refuse? What if this drug was not subject to your work drug testing program and not a controlled substance? I can say I would at least entertain the idea of this before dismissing the gentleman. I believe I am not alone.

Now I am not justifying illegal drug use or the use of performance enhancing drugs. I am just stating facts. It has happened, it is done and now thanks to baseballs better testing and some punishment for those who offend the rules, it is over. But where do we draw the line when it comes to players from this era that are up for Hall of Fame voting?

You cannot tell me that there have not been pitchers from this same era who have juiced or doped their way to better performances. I will not slander anyone. I have never been a rat or snitch, but I remember a pitcher, Doc Ellis, who once talked about a perfect game he pitched while under the influence of a controlled substance. I can also say that my own experience with mixing drugs and baseball has not been as successful.

Since I have started the confession I will say more. Baseball players and other athletes have used speed for many years. Even high school and college baseball players in Illinois in the late 1980s and early 1990s were using the stuff. I know this firsthand, as I was one of those players.

My substance abuse was completely legal, as my prescription allowed me to use a legal medicine used to control sinus conditions. The active ingredient is the evil drug used to make meth today. For what it is worth, my experience on this medicine was a mixed blessing. I had awareness and sharpness.

One day while on the stuff and some caffeine, I misplayed a baseball in right field that cost us the game. That loss cost us a free pass in the first round of the playoffs. Instead, we had to play straight through and our two star pitches were worn out by the super-sectionals and we lost our run at a state baseball title.

The amazing thing is this is not my first experience with drugs and baseball. While on Ritalin in a Little League game, I was in a drug induced stupor, and was hit in the nose by a high hopper at third base. I still have a crooked nose to this day.

I continued to misuse my medicines and caffeine throughout college. After all, working at least 35-50 hours a week between two jobs while taking 12 credit hours at school, the homework, and running the school newspaper. This left me only enough time to balance a busy social schedule with a few hours of sleep per day.

Ending my confession, I will also say that not only did I misuse my prescription but I dabbled in controlled substances for a few years. The timeline of 1986-1996 falls in line with baseball's timeline of abuse.

Speaking of lines, lets get back to drawing that line of who does go and doesn't go into the Hall from a dirty era? Remember that Pete Rose stated he did not bet on baseball and President Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with Monica Lewisnky from a similar timeline.

Looking at the ballot, there are two no brainers, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken. They have the numbers to justify their presence at Cooperstown and much love from the masses. Of the rest, Lee Smith stands out, as he was the save leader until Trevor Hoffman took that from him this season. Or go with the Goose, Rich Gossage, who deserves to go too.

Mark McGwire can wait for another year, but deserves to go. He has the magic 500 home runs that seems to be sure trip to Cooperstown. After all, he has never tested positive and never told us that he thought it was flaxseed oil like Barry Bonds told the courts. Just wait a few years when it is Bonds turn to face judgment from writers who have hated him for years. Just don't call me for his defense.