The McGwire Debate

Does Mark McGwire belong in the Hall of Fame? Its a complicated question, and one we're going to be hearing for a long time until he either gets it or enough time passes that the topic goes away. Unfortunately, if he doesn't get in, that's going to be a long time. Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, Goose Gossage and the gang all get brought up every year around this time, and until he gets in McGwire's going to be right there with them. And pretty soon you'll be able to add Bonds, Sosa, and any other slugger that looked big in the '90's and crushed balls into space.

The problem isn't going to go away, and its going to be interesting to see what the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America), who vote on the Hall, decide to do. Its complicated because there's no real proof that any of them, outside of the ever-honest Jose Canseco, were on anything. Most people (myself included) assume that McGwire was juiced, and are 99.9% sure Bonds and Giambi were BALCO'ing it up. But the problem will be, you don't know who else was.

Could Cal Ripken have used some sort of enhansor to play 2632 consecutive games? Maybe, with lack of testing there's no real way of knowing anything about the players from that era. Albert Belle, Juan Gonzalez, Matt Williams, Cecil Fielder, Jim Thome, etc. and that's just the hitters. Going thinking was steroids wouldn't help pitchers, but then they start testing and a guy like Ryan Franklin (journeyman pitcher who would struggles to hit 90 on the radar) tests positive. So now you've gotta look at guys like Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, etc. again and wonder.

Unfortunately there's really no way of knowing, so how can baseball just pick out the most obvious targets (McGwire, Bonds, Sosa, etc.) and exclude them from the Hall, when they played at a time when we don't know who else was doing exactly what we think they were doing. That's why I hope that the good ol' boys at the BBWAA are trying to send a message, and in a few years begin to consider McGwire (and the others) on their performance on the field.

Coming next ... Was McGwire's Performance on the Field Good Enough?