mcgwire should be shut out of hall of

McGwire Should be Shut Out of Hall of Fame

The ballots for the 2007 baseball Hall of Fame are out, and it's one

of the most intriguing and important years for the vote in a long

time. That's because in addition to sure-fire first-ballot Hall of

Famers in Cal Ripken Jr and Tony Gwynn, one-time single-season home

run champion and suspected steroid user Mark McGwire is up for

election. A lot has been made of this ballot being the first test case

for how we evaluate the steroid era in the context of baseball

history. The thinking goes that a few years removed from the beginning

of widespread awareness of steroid use in professional baseball, we

will have gained some perspective and hopefully, some wisdom on how to

evaluate the players. So far, the prevailing thought seems to be, look

at any power numbers from the era with a healthy dose of skepticism,

which I believe is warranted. With that in mind, my thought is that if

you are a Hall of Fame voter, you cannot vote Mark McGwire into the

Hall of Fame.

There are a number of reasons that electing McGwire, at least at the

moment, would be a foolish and potentially embarrassing idea for

voters. First of all, there is way too much suspicion that has

surrounded his career to be taken lightly.

- His time early in his career as a member of the Oakland A's "Bash

Brothers" duo with Jose Canseco, admitted steroid user. Being so

closely linked with Canseco can only damage McGwire's reputation. And

with a confirmed steroid user there in the locker room, the temptation

was certainly available for the young McGwire to partake as well.

- The discovery during his record-breaking 1998 season that he used a

supplement, "andro," that while not banned by Major League Baseball at

the time, has since been forbidden. While you can't blast McGwire for

using andro if it was an allowed substance at the time, the episode is

significant because it reveals his some of his philosophy on how to

maintain the unmatched physical shape he had acheived by that point in

his career. If this supplement was fair game, you can't rule out

others.

- Of course, the 2005 Congressional hearing on steroid use in baseball

in which McGwire repeatedly took the fifth when asked critical

questions , saying that he wasn't "here to talk about the past." While

that's not such an overt admission of guilt, don't you think that if

you've been called to this hearing, there is some suspicion that you

have used steroids? And if you're McGwire, who has so much to lose,

namely your reputation and Hall of Fame candidacy if you don't

convincingly deny your involvement, wouldn't you run with the

opportunity to clear your name if you were at all capable? To me, the

fact that he didn't do just that is an implicit admission of guilt.

With so much suspicion clouding his candidacy, it would be foolish for

voters to elect him to the Hall unless there is conclusive evidence

that proves otherwise. What if hypothetically, he was voted in on the

first ballot and then somebody with nothing to lose and intimate

knowledge of the situation, a la Jason Grimsley this past season,

revealed that he in fact was guilty of steroid use? What an

embarrassment that would be for the baseball Hall of Fame, which holds

itself up to be the most prestigious of all the Hall of Fames in

sports.

At this point, voters seem to agree with this assessment, as an

overwhelming minority of those surveyed in an Associated Press poll

said they would not vote for McGwire on this ballot.