Another drug-free blog post.

By now, you've heard the latest in the ongoing story of baseball and steroids.

Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids between 2000 and 2003 - after damning information was leaked to Sports Illustrated over the weekend.

They always confess and say how stupid they were after the evidence is presented. Before that, we must have thought they were innocent and intelligent.

The thing that confounds me about the steroids stories are the so-called purists who claim that the game is forever damaged and irreparably harmed by players who use drugs to enhance their performance. Poppycock.

Let's go back to 1968. Bob Gibson led the majors with a 1.12 ERA, Denny McLain won 31 games and Carl Yazstremski led the American League in hitting with a .301 batting average. Why? Because prior to the 1968 season, they raised the pitchers mound an inch and a half. Was the game irreparably harmed? No. Some numbers changed, and it became more of a pitcher's game, but baseball was still baseball.

In 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled it out over Roger Maris' single-season home run record, baseball reveled in the glory they brought to the game. Most of us looked at McGwire and couldn't believe how big he was, especially when you compared him to the skinny kid who broke in with the Oakland A's in 1987. Steroids? Probably. Baseball turned its back on them because they were good for the game.

Today, ballparks are built with low walls that are less than 350 feet from home plate. They're bandboxes and the bigger concern is a luxury suite, not the distance to the grandstand. Is the game irreparably harmed? No, because the owners are making money hand over fist.

Purists who argue that the game is sullied by steroids miss the point. Fans want to see balls fly over their heads. How they get there isn't important. Steroids are a victimless crime. You aren't harmed. I am not harmed. Maybe the player is harmed, but he's an adult and he can make his own decisions.

The numbers aren't the point either. Baseball went through a "Lively ball" era in the 1930s, started playing games at night in the 1950s and split up the leagues and added wild card playoff teams. The game was not irreparably damaged.

With so many players using steroids, why hasn't there been a Triple Crown winner since 1968? Why do pitchers pitch fewer games than they used to, and only once in 5 days instead of once in 4? Why has no one hit over .400 since Ted Williams? Where is the next 30-game winner? Why do Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax still hold the single-season strikeout records? Why does Hack Wilson's RBI record of 191 still stand? Because steroids only affect one number - home runs.

No one team has become a dynasty because of steroids. The only thing they do is make hitters hit a ball further and pitchers throw a little faster. Hitters adjust to speed and hitters still have to be able to hit the ball to hit a home run.

Get over the steroids thing. If you don't, the nonsense will eat you alive and your enjoyment of the game will suffer. Does anyone complain because Jimi Hendrix wrote music on LSD? Do you think Ernest Hemmingway wrote all that stuff sober? Robin Williams used to say that he got his funny ideas from "little plastic bags." If you think baseball is ruined by steroids, then you'd have to make a similar argument for great art, comedy and music being produced with "performance enhancing drugs."

Let them play. If you think players should be suspended for using drugs, get over your sanctimonious attitude that baseball is somehow above it all. It isn't. it's just baseball, and the game is better when the players are stronger.