Joey Votto Offers Interesting Perspective on PED Era and Hall of Fame

The life of a millennial or younger Cincinnati Reds fan is a dark road. No one of that age fell in love with this team cause they were constantly winning during their youth.

No, if anything, claiming to be a fan of this franchise and being 40 and younger means that you have more love in your heart than you realize.

Although there have been moments and players during the 36 years that have left an imprint on the city and the fan base. Arguably none bigger than Joey Votto.

Former Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Votto was the poster boy of the franchise for a generation. Now, the beloved Reds legend is dipping his toes into the media realm of baseball.

Actually, with his recent segment on MLB Now, Votto isn't dipping his toes into the media world; he's diving headfirst.

Brian Kenny brought up the question on whether players who used performance -enhancing drugs should be allowed to be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Votto's answer may not have been one that old-timers were looking to hear.

"Conjecture is fair. Speculation is fair. But are you going to use that as the final decision-maker?" Votto said when asked about PED players.

It felt like Kenny really wanted to get Votto's approval on the use of performance-enhancing drugs being considered cheating, but Votto wouldn't budge.

"It was a zeitgeist. That's what was going on during that time," Votto explained when he was bluntly asked if steroids were cheating during the height of the so-called PED era.

The world is finally getting to see the real Votto on the national stage, and his answers were absolutely correct when talking about the issue of performance-enhancing drugs.

If you're someone who likes to dive into the nuts and bolts of the conversation surrounding steroids in baseball, Votto's comments offer a very interesting perspective on the subject.

"If you say it was cheating, then what percentage of the league was cheating? Was it 10% or was it 90%? And then all of the sudden, if you're saying it was cheating, have we omitted some that have kind of slipped through the cracks?"

A league that was perfectly fine profiting off the players who were supposedly using these drugs now wants to reprimand them for doing so.

There's no doubt that Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds brought new eyes to the game of baseball. Those are the three biggest names accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.

It's a slippery slope when having these conversations. It seems one generation believes it deserves the death penalty, while others don't see it as so much of an issue.

Where do you land on the topic?

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