Vaccaro: Why I won’t vote for PED-cheat Alex Rodriguez on Hall of Fame ballot

But there is no vacuum. There is no bubble. These games happen in real time, and in real life, and are not immune to the vagaries of the real world. We know, as a matter of record, that Alex Rodriguez confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs early in his career. And we know — again, on the record — that Rodriguez either continued to use or re-engaged in their use after MLB instituted steroid legislation in 2003.

It is why the box next to Rodriguez’s name on my Hall of Fame ballot will remain unchecked when I send it in next month.

There is something heartbreaking about that, because watching Rodriguez in his prime was about as good as baseball is capable of being. He did everything, and did everything well. He could carry a ballclub by himself for a month. It was impossible to take your eyes off him. There are a handful of players in each generation you can say that about.

A talent like that belongs in Cooperstown.

And if he’d merely left the drugs alone after coming clean in 2009 — two years after he lied in Katie Couric’s face, and in America’s, swearing he’d never touched them — this could be an entirely different conversation. There still might be Draconian voters for whom that would be an unforgivable sin. But he might have a shot at changing their minds.