SOX_CRIMEThe White Sox’ Rick Hahn is now just the latest baseball GM to help dispel the myth emphatically that crime doesn’t pay after signing convicted steroid user Melky Cabrera to a reported 3-year, $42 million contact in the cover of darkness late last evening.

With this latest heist, Cabrera will have now received a total of around $60 million since his PED suspension in 2012 that also included him setting up a fake website in a hilarious and pathetic attempt to convince MLB investigators synthetic testosterone got in his system by mistake from a fictitious supplement.

Jeers and condemnation rained down upon Cabrera from outraged fans and writers in the days and weeks following his conviction including this scathing open letter from our very own Peter M. Vernerie.  I even joined the party and gleefully mocked the fool at the time.

But who’s really the fool here?

Melky is now probably on some private island in the Caribbean banging models on piles of cash while I, and other old fat suckas like me, spew self-righteous indignation at our keyboards on a cold December morning. But will we still go to the games?  Will we still spend inordinate amounts of time obsessing over the AL Central standings come April?  Will we be fighting over the opportunity to draft Cabrera and others just like him in our fantasy leagues next year?  The answer is yes, yes, and yes.

When you add this deal to the $52 million the Cardinals gave Jhonny Peralta and the $65 million Nelson Cruz got between the Orioles and Mariners after their 50-game suspensions it becomes pretty clear there isn’t much of a deterrent to cheating. In a system where it’s patently obvious that the risks don’t even come close to outweighing the rewards, how could you not take PEDs?  You’d be a fool not to.