Mark McGwire Is a Hall of Famer, Regardless of the Voting

At the same time as one redemption story, Jim Rice, finally makes it to the baseball Hall of Fame, another downtrodden former slugger, Mark McGwire, has been left out once again by a huge margin.

How can this man, who hit close to 600 home runs and was the premier slugger of his day, be given so little respect in balloting for the Hall? I know the reasons why, and I still disagree.

For one, McGwire, like Rice, was unpopular with baseball writers throughout most of his career. Simply put, the people who are voting just don't like him. The hard-headed, biased writers in many cases allow personal preference for a player's personality to overshadow what he did on the field.

One of the 28 writers who didn't vote for Rickey Henderson this year said, "I'm just not a Rickey guy." Sorry, I guess I'm naive. I didn't realize you had to be a "Rickey guy" to vote for him.

Guess what, I'm a Phillies fan and can't stand the Mets, but when Mike Piazza is eligible for the Hall, I would still vote for him.

I understand the relationship writers have with players is different from the average fan. Some guys give great interviews, while some are quiet and withdrawn. This is the reason that Shaquille O'Neal is a much more popular NBA player than a guy like Kobe Bryant, who is just as accomplished.

The media likes Shaq, so they go out of their way to portray him positively. They dislike Kobe, so they don't give him the same effort. 

I have experience with players; I've worked for a major league baseball team. I know that while some guys are great to be around, others are absolute jerks. In the case of the team I worked for, there were more jerks than not. However, that didn't affect my perception of their playing abilities.

Maybe some of these writers aren't smart enough to make that distinction. If that's going to continue to be the case, it may be time to change the voting process and get someone else involved, maybe even the fans.

I think that's a lot of responsibility to give fans, especially given how inaccurate their picks are sometimes for all-star teams, but something has to change.

The other obvious reason for McGwire's exclusion is the steroid question. Did he or didn't he? There's no proof that McGwire used any illegal substance, but there's also no proof for a lot of other guys who probably did.

I'll be the first to tell you that McGwire probably did use steroids at some point in his career, whether it was with Oakland, St. Louis, or both. However, by looking at it objectively, it's plain to see that he was still the greatest slugger of his time and one of the most feared hitters to play the game.

Many other players were using performance enhancers at the same time and didn't put up those numbers.

Obviously, I believe cheating is wrong and I'm glad to see baseball cracking down on steroid use. I'm happy to have it out of the game and to know that we can feel that current sluggers, like Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez, are doing it cleanly and by the rules.

However, as in every era, we should judge players by the time period in which they played and McGwire was one of the best of his time. Mariano Rivera wouldn't have been considered anything special thirty years ago, when closers were expected to pitch three innings. The ERAs of today's pitchers look weak in comparison to the hurlers of the dead ball era.

Bill Mazeroski would never make it to the Hall had he played in today's game with the huge offensive numbers. And even Rickey Henderson, had he played in today's American League, would have a hard time, since they likely wouldn't let him run even half as much as he did in his day.

As with all these guys, players have to be judged in the context of the game when they played. Big Mac was one of the greats of his time and he, along with fellow embattled Sammy Sosa, saved the game of baseball.

The game was dying in popularity and those two brought it back to life. Bud Selig was happy to use them as the face of the sport then, but has been quick to cast them off now. What a stand-up guy, huh?

The fact is, in his era or any other, the numbers speak for themselves. His 583 home runs are 201 more than Rice. I don't think steroids can hit 200 home runs for you. McGwire hit 49 or more home runs in a season five times, had over 1400 RBI, and finished his career with an almost .400 on-base percentage.

Mark McGwire is a Hall of Famer.

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