I need your help.

Let me explain.

1. The Red Sox lost four straight games to the Yankees, plus two to Tampa Bay this week, and the Yankees have now won eight straight games, putting the Sox 6 1/2 games out of first after having lead the Division virtually all season.

OK. Not the end of the world. Tho if you spent five and a half hours watching the 15 inning game the other night only to see A-Rod hit a home run with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the 15th, you might question the person who got you involved in this foolishness in the first place.

2. Then there was the David Ortiz (and Manny Ramirez) mess. The NY Times reported that our hero Ortiz was on the list of 104 players who had used illegal substances in 2003. Manny? Yup. But we're already mad at him for how he treated the Sox. So he doesn't matter as much.

But David? He doesn't have an enemy in the world. Could he have used? After 10 days of silence, he held a press conference Saturday to say he had used over the counter, legal supplements but had never purchased or used steroids.

Should we believe him? Some of us want to.  And he has been tested 15 times between 2004 and 2009 and has been clean each time.  But if so, why didn't he say that immediately and not wait 10 days?

And can one believe him but not the others (Clemens, Bonds, McGwire, A-Rod, etc.) and not be a hypocrite? He could be telling the truth. But one cannot easily give him the benefit of the doubt in these perilous days.

Baseball for at least the last two decades has certainly involved cheating (as in the use of illegal substances) on a significant scale. Enough to discount everything that happened the last 20 years? Certainly individual records are suspect at best. Team victories too?  I wrote earlier (see here) that I thought the Sox 2004 and 2007 World Series victories were tainted.  But are team victories different than individual records? Splitting hairs?

3. And if all of this isn't enough to make me question the wisdom of introducing Eli to baseball and making him possibly obsessive about it, then there's this new book, Cooperstown Confidential, which I just finished reading.

I will review this book, and several others I read recently, in a later posting, but Zev Chafetss, the author, certainly makes an incredibly strong case for questioning the purity of the 'heroes' who are in the Hall of Fame.

For instance, Ty Cobb was suspended for fixing a game and bragged about actually getting away with a murder in Detroit.  And he was only the first player named to the HoF.  Virtually every personal weakness, etc. in society is represented in the Hall of Fame by so called 'heroes,' including but not limited to drunkenness, addiction, gambling, cheating, racism, membership in the KKK, domestic violence, and infidelity, to name just a few character issues.

There is no doubt that if the present Rule 5 for election to the HoF (inductees must be players of ability who careers embody "integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team") was in force prior to 1944, the Hall of Fame would be a pretty empty place in deed.

Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Roger Hornsby, Joe DiMaggio, Lefty Grove, Jimmy Fox, John McGraw, Dizzy Dean, Leo Doroucher, and even Kirby Puckett (all guilty of one or more of the 'character flaws' referred to in the previous paragraph) could not have been voted in.

And a number (many?) of the inductees post 1944 don't belong there either if Rule 5 was truly enforced.  Steroids are only the most recent disqualifying factor in a long line of behaviors that have 'tarnished' the game.  It's just that it's a bit harder to keep secrets these days (previously, sports writers knew of rule breakages and immoral behaviors but rarely wrote about them).

Anyway, if you've gotten this far, you may understand my dilemma.  Far from being the sacred, pure, healthy national past time that it's often portrayed to be, baseball is filled with unsavory characters, bad behaviors, a good deal of cheating, and usually much heartbreak (especially if you’re a Sox or Cubs’ fan).

I can't count on his good parents to do so. His father likes boxing and thinks baseball is for sissies. His mother likes the game but mostly because she is my daughter and doesn't dare not like it.

I need your help in solving this dilemma.

Should I or should I not pass on my love for the game to Eli?

Please let me know your thoughts, preferably in the Comments’ section below, or by e-mail to Samesty84@aol.com.

Thanking you in advance.

Richard Miller, Go Sox

PS - Lest you take this dilemma too lightly and encourage me to proceed full speed ahead with Eli, what is your advice about taking him to Cooperstown?

PPS -Please also indicate whether you have a grandchild and fully understand the awesome responsibility of passing on values, wisdom, truth, and the American way, etc. to said grandchild.