A truly great Hall of Fame class was inducted Sunday among baseball's immortals. It was a chance to pay our respect and to pause at the future of the ceremony.
There's a collision on the horizon. A collision of fact - that many of the sport's best in the last generation used steroids - and an opinion of the majority of voters to forbid entry to those tainted by the lasting haze of performance-enhancing drugs.
As some of the best ever - guys such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens who almost assuredly used PEDs to guys like Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell who only were rumored to be involved - sit and wait.
That list will only continue to grow in coming years.
Take a look at a couple of guys in the twilight of their careers, guys who were renowned power hitters throughout the steroids era.
Alex Rodriguez has become the face of the bad side of the PED mess. He has lied routinely about his involvement. He was suspended for more than a year. He once was viewed as potentially the best ever to play - he was a Gold Glove shortstop hitting 45 bombs a year in his 20s - but now is a cautionary tale of cheating and ignorance and whatever else.
But when he hit three homers Saturday, he raised his numbers to 23 dingers this season and 677 for his career. He's already in the rarefied air of more than 3,000 hits (there are 29 all-time), 600 homers (there are eight all-time) and 2,000 RBIs (four all-time). Through the history of the game, there's only one other player to be in all of those clubs, and his name is Hank Aaron.
Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz, right, follows through on a three-run home run swing as Detroit Tigers catcher James McCann, left, looks on in the fifth inning of a baseball game Sunday, July 26, 2015, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) A-Rod turned 40 on Monday, but with his comeback season for the New York Yankees - he's hitting .277 and has 58 RBIs in addition to his 23 homers - and a contract that runs through 2017, he likely will be back in pinstripes next year adding to those numbers.
A-Rod has no chance in the current climate to get into the Hall, because let's face it: If Bonds is persona non grata, then Rodriguez has to be regarded as even more egregious. Bonds never was found guilty of violating the PED rules, and his decade-long federal court case recently was dropped by the prosecutors who spent almost a dozen years and tens of millions of dollars trying unsuccessfully to make steroids stick to Bonds.
A-Rod has failed tests, admitted to lying about it and been suspended for using PEDs. There's no doubting his involvement - or his long-term greatness - but as long as Bonds is forced to wait, Rodriguez has no chance.
The other aging slugger is Boston designated hitter David Ortiz, who failed a drug test in 2003 but this year said adamantly he never "knowingly took" steroids. That's a similar claim to what Bonds has made from the start, but Ortiz is huggable and affable.
He's Big Papi, and the images we keep of him are smiling and clapping those massive hands as the Red Sox rallied in the postseason and changed the culture and narrative of one of the most popular franchises in all of sports.
Ortiz, who is 39, drove in seven runs against Detroit on Sunday, moving from 41st all-time to 38th, and passing Al Kaline, Rogers Hornsby and Harmon Killebrew in one evening's work.
Ortiz's numbers are not as clear-cut as A-Rod. Yes, Ortiz has made nine All-Star teams, but that's a tangent of his popularity as much as his prowess. He's a career .285 hitter with 485 homers and the 1,587 RBIs. But Ortiz has been a DH in more than seven times more games than he has played in the field, and he's at best a mediocre fielder.
He has 17 postseason homers, which helps as does the fact that he's immensely popular. That last point will be interesting, since for the most part the guys with the PED cloud have been viewed in negative lights.
Ortiz, though, failed that test and has been followed by whispers that surrounded Bonds for years, too. Ortiz's numbers were better from ages 35-39 than they were from the ages of 25-29. It's the same claim that routinely scarred Bonds' run of dominance from those ages when Bonds won four MVPs, two batting titles and set a record for most homers in a season in the last half of his 30s.
We know A-Rod will be on the outside looking in until the voters decide to wise up and realize the the Hall of Fame is where the best players from every era belong, even the Steroid Era.
But Big Papi will be an interesting Hall test case down the road. Will Ortiz get a more favorable view because he's likable and has a fun nickname? We'll see.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.