Philadelphia ? This year was bad. Unfortunately for baseball and its fans, it’s only going to get worse for the next five to 10 years.

There is no argument here about Bruce Sutter’s credentials for enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The problem is with the process, especially the participation of 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

The BBWAA’s stewardship of the Hall always has fallen into an ethical gray area. After writing last fall that it was time for the writers to get out of the business of voting for awards and Halls, I went to cover the World Series. That meant a week in the constant company of baseball writers, and they weren’t shy about telling me why I was wrong.

It is important to recognize that most of them are deeply committed to the integrity of the Hall and treat the process with a kind of reverence. Their primary argument for continuing to decide who gets in and who doesn’t is simple.

Baseball writers see more games than anyone else. They are uniquely qualified to pass judgment on the careers of the players they cover. By the time you’ve had 10 continuous years in the BBWAA, you would have covered at least the final five seasons of the players who come up for consideration.

The counter-argument, though, remains more compelling. It goes like this: Objective journalists should have no personal interest in the quality of the Baseball Hall of Fame. That’s not our job. While that may have seemed like a boring inside-the-industry argument up until now, it’s about to become much more urgent and important.

Next year, Mark McGwire becomes eligible for the first time. With that, the Steroid Era officially comes before the BBWAA membership, and there is no way the writers should accept that responsibility.

Look, it’s hard enough to weigh Sutter against Goose Gossage, Jim Rice vs. Andre Dawson. You’re comparing them to players from different eras and guys who played under different circumstances.

How many wins would Bert Blyleven have had if he’d pitched for the New York Yankees or the Oakland Athletics his whole career?

Are Lee Smith’s saves less impressive than Sutter’s? What about Gossage’s? Does it matter if one guy pitched well in more big games? If not, why not?

One of the holes in the BBWAA argument – that the writers do the best possible job – is that they don’t really do all that great a job most of the time. That’s not an insult. It probably isn’t possible to do a perfect job. As it is, the process has built-in flaws.

No doubt, there are already players in the Hall who cheated. No one knows for sure when the Steroid Era truly began and there is still no way to know when or if it will end. What we do know is that McGwire will be the first candidate with certain Hall numbers and the equally certain taint of performance-enhancing substances.

Journalists who cover the sport should not be in the position of rubber stamping some careers as clean and others as dirty. The BBWAA argument, already stretched pretty thin, completely snaps when it comes to this next generation of questionable players.

Not too many BBWAA members see it that way, though. They’ll continue to vote, and Major League Baseball, which allowed its record books to be rewritten by tainted players, will continue to want them to legitimize the process.

Come to think of it, that should be reason enough for the writers to stop.