But Does McGwire Belong in the Hall?

So, assuming the media eventually gets past the great steroid debate, the question becomes is Mark McGwire a Hall of Famer? At first I didn't even consider that to be an issue, but while flipping channels I stumbled onto an interesting feature on The Score (a Canadian sports channel) claiming that McGwire didn't really have Hall-worthy numbers.

Now before I get into the numbers I should probably clarify thinking when it comes to the Hall of Fame. To me, the Hall of Fame should be reserved for those who dominated the sport the played and who would have been considered (one of) the elite player at their position. To put this into baseball perspective, a shortstop who hits .280 with 30 HR's a year is more valuable than a 1B with the same stats. In fact a shortstop who hits .260 with 25 HR's is more valuable than a 1B who goes .280 and 30, because shortstops who can hit are that much more rare. Shortstops (and other light hitting positions like 2B and catchers) who can put up numbers are much more difficult to find and should be treated differently than players from offense oriented positions (1B, OF, DH). So, to simplify, it doesn't make sense to compare the numbers of McGwire to those of Ripken.

The argument on The Score was that McGwire didn't really do much besides hit homers. McGwire finished with 583 HR's, leaving him 7th All-Time. But the rest of the numbers really don't say Hall of Famer. He had only 1626 hits, barely half of the 3000 benchmark that is used for so many players. His 1414 RBI's rank him 60th, he struck out more than all but 22 other players, and he never won an MVP finishing in the Top 5 only 3 times in his 16 year career. He was only a 3-time recipient of the Silver Slugger Award given to the top hitting 1B in each league. Other 3-time 1B winners include Fred McGriff, Cecil Cooper and Don Mattingly, all fine players but probably not Hall-of-Famers.

So are the homers enough to get McGwire in or will his other less than impressive numbers, coupled with the steroid cloud, keep him out. Do his 4 dominate seasons of 245 HR's and his All-Time best AB/HR make him an automatic entry or will he be held back due to the era he played in and the assumptions about him.

This quote from McGwire (when taken out of context) defines that era and baseballs attitude towards steroids, "Do you really want to know the cold, cruel truth... or do you wanna see me slug a few dingers?". Dingers were the order of the day, and McGwire delivered them.

Baseball Reference - Mark McGwire