A break from tech to talk about all this steroids crap going on in baseball. Next week our entire family will be down in Arizona and planning to catch at least one Mariners spring training game. Baseball is on my mind.

How fitting that a couple San Franciso writers/reporters penned a book to be published later this month that alleges not only that Barry Bonds was on steroids since 1998, but backs it up with a bunch of data. Still, as Jim Rome said this morning on his nationally syndicated radio show: “no smoking needle, so it is his word against their word.” I haven’t read the book but from the commentary making the rounds, Bonds is being slayed in the media.

A huge percentage of the sports media are treating this like it’s true. It’s sad for a player that was a gold glover for multiple years prior to this to be in this mess. Bonds has brought on some of the increased scrutiny with his cold, stoic demeanor with the press, but anybody who had set such incredible records would have a brighter light on them. People are curious how these records are broken. Who these people are, what they did to train, what they might be able to do to break them someday.

Records are destined to be broken someday, although there are a few ridiculous and impractical by today’s pitching standards records in baseball like Cy Young’s 500+ wins.

I’ve wrestled with this whole steroids thing in my head for a couple years now. It’s a huge problem in Major League Baseball. The league is trying to take steps to protect the integrity but the fact remains that the record books, particularly the homerun records, are at least somewhat tainted.

The question is how tainted?

Meanwhile, I think back to players like Pete Rose, banished for gambling on baseball in the late eighties. He lied about it to all of us for years and then cranked out a book to tell all and his admission was treated as too little too late. It’s too late for Rose to get into the Hall via the writers, his Hall fate will be determined by the existing Hall veterans committee, of which I’ve read one Hall of Famer being quoted as saying Pete would never get in by them.

So here we have active players who have admitted to juicing, allegations running rampant for extraordinary players like Barry Bonds, and Pete Rose being held out of the Hall because of gambling.

Players and managers can’t be gambling, but where does using steroids come in? Is this like scuffing up the ball or corking the bat or stealing signs? These latter items are prohibited and yet it still happens. Is juicing competitive advantage or a threat to the entire game?

I enjoyed the whole McGwire / Sosa homerun race. And it was magical watching Barry Bonds break McGwire’s homerun record. But in retrospect I’ve had to wonder if I was cheated?

At least with pro wrestling we know a lot of it is fake. I don’t want to see MLB turn into some kind of farce. It’s my second favorite professional sport next to the NFL. I’m torn on all of this.

I don’t have any answers on this one, so I’ll throw the whole mess into the comments area and hope some of you can help enlighten me on the situation and form a concrete position. I don’t think steroids should be allowed of course, I’m just wondering what MLB should do with the existing records situation. And do you believe that Bonds was juicing? I think he was, but I don’t know for sure. And if he was, prior to 98 he was still a hall of famer, so I’m not sure what any of this means for his ticket to the hall. And what about Pete Rose? Shouldn’t he be there if ‘roids guys get in?

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• Pete Rose mock trial on ESPN: Hall of Fame yes / no?