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Aided by his bat and an astute apology, Alex Rodriguez is ending the baseball season not as a former steroids user but as a home run hero. In the process, he may be clearing a path forward for himself and his much-maligned sport.

This may go down as the season that the fans forgave baseball — or perhaps just grew tired of worrying about performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte, two high-profile Yankees stars who were exposed as past users, are shining in the 2009 World Series.

The St. Louis Cardinals recently announced they were hiring Mark McGwire, who went into seclusion for much of this decade after refusing to answer questions about steroids, as their hitting coach. And although neither has shown much repentance,...