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Marcos Bretón: McGwire in Hall? Forget it
By Marcos Bretón - Bee Sports Columnist
Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, November 30, 2006
Mark McGwire does not belong in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Not now. Not five years from now. Not ever.
The guy did steroids. Everybody knows it. Like all 'roid users, McGwire lied about it until he walked into a congressional committee hearing and took an oath on the Bible.
Then suddenly, he "didn't want to talk about the past."
Why not repeat his denials under oath?
Because it would have been potentially punishable by a contempt charge, and McGwire obviously didn't want to take that chance.
His filibustering was a passive-aggressive admission of guilt, the ultimate nondenial denial.
And now McGwire's candidacy for the Hall of Fame this winter opens up a sordid can of worms that could rewrite the rules at Cooperstown.
That's why the big lug is getting so much attention now.
Because McGwire's candidacy is the first test for baseball writers to do what baseball couldn't or wouldn't: To hold steroid cheaters accountable for their sins.
This is how you do it, by denying them the ultimate validation for using performance-enhancing drugs that distorted their numbers.
This is key because numbers are what have always gotten players into Cooperstown -- 500 home runs, 3,000 hits, 300 victories for a pitcher.
Numbers are critical because McGwire isn't going to get in with his paltry .263 career batting average or for never hitting .300 in any full season.
He's not going to get in for being a good but not great first baseman or for his 1,626 career hits, which are only a couple of hundred more than Rich Aurilia has. And he's not getting in for hitting .217 in 10 postseason series.
It's McGwire's 583 career home runs, the seventh-most in baseball history, that gets him in the Hall of Fame conversation and why he doesn't belong.
McGwire was a one-trick Clydesdale whose sole claim to fame -- his power numbers -- are tainted to the point of being fraudulent.
Take away the juice, and Mc-Gwire's accomplishments are as steady as a house of cards.
Barry Bonds is a much tougher argument. The documented evidence points to Bonds using steroids after the 1998 season -- when McGwire hit 70 home runs.
By 1998, Bonds had 411 home runs and 445 stolen bases -- the only player in baseball to accomplish such a remarkable double.
Consequently, Bonds already was a Hall of Famer, the most dominant player of his generation.
Some will say that the Hall is full of drunks, racists and low-brow cheaters like Gaylord Perry.
They'll use that excuse to let in McGwire or to confuse the issue by putting Bonds in the creep category.
He is -- but he had the numbers. So did Ty Cobb the sociopath. And Mickey Mantle the drunk. And Joe DiMaggio, who redefined weird.
And what of Perry? I'm sorry, but you can't compare trickery to altering your body chemistry to bolster your numbers.
'Roids make your body recover faster from exertion. Perry had to haul his lard butt onto the field to get guys out.
The only other argument for McGwire is based in cynicism: That baseball turned a blind eye to steroids when McGwire played.
True. But our eyes are open now.
The lid was blown by journalists, primarily by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. They wrote "Game of Shadows," the book that exposed Bonds' use of steroids made by the infamous Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
Now it's in the hands of journalists to render an appropriate final judgment on McGwire.
It's a tough call, and people are struggling with the McGwire dilemma. Some writers think people like me are falsely moralizing this issue when McGwire's numbers should tell the tale. Some -- like the Oakland Tribune's Art Spander, one of the senior baseball writers in Northern California -- probably won't vote for McGwire this year but might in the future.
Maybe I'll feel remorse for Mc-Gwire in the future, maybe not.
I don't have a vote now, but I imagine McGwire will still be there in a couple of years when I do.
He'll be followed by Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa and Bonds.
It's the steroid era, baby. Time to face up to it and vote accordingly.
Marcos Bretón: McGwire in Hall? Forget it
By Marcos Bretón - Bee Sports Columnist
Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, November 30, 2006
Mark McGwire does not belong in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Not now. Not five years from now. Not ever.
The guy did steroids. Everybody knows it. Like all 'roid users, McGwire lied about it until he walked into a congressional committee hearing and took an oath on the Bible.
Then suddenly, he "didn't want to talk about the past."
Why not repeat his denials under oath?
Because it would have been potentially punishable by a contempt charge, and McGwire obviously didn't want to take that chance.
His filibustering was a passive-aggressive admission of guilt, the ultimate nondenial denial.
And now McGwire's candidacy for the Hall of Fame this winter opens up a sordid can of worms that could rewrite the rules at Cooperstown.
That's why the big lug is getting so much attention now.
Because McGwire's candidacy is the first test for baseball writers to do what baseball couldn't or wouldn't: To hold steroid cheaters accountable for their sins.
This is how you do it, by denying them the ultimate validation for using performance-enhancing drugs that distorted their numbers.
This is key because numbers are what have always gotten players into Cooperstown -- 500 home runs, 3,000 hits, 300 victories for a pitcher.
Numbers are critical because McGwire isn't going to get in with his paltry .263 career batting average or for never hitting .300 in any full season.
He's not going to get in for being a good but not great first baseman or for his 1,626 career hits, which are only a couple of hundred more than Rich Aurilia has. And he's not getting in for hitting .217 in 10 postseason series.
It's McGwire's 583 career home runs, the seventh-most in baseball history, that gets him in the Hall of Fame conversation and why he doesn't belong.
McGwire was a one-trick Clydesdale whose sole claim to fame -- his power numbers -- are tainted to the point of being fraudulent.
Take away the juice, and Mc-Gwire's accomplishments are as steady as a house of cards.
Barry Bonds is a much tougher argument. The documented evidence points to Bonds using steroids after the 1998 season -- when McGwire hit 70 home runs.
By 1998, Bonds had 411 home runs and 445 stolen bases -- the only player in baseball to accomplish such a remarkable double.
Consequently, Bonds already was a Hall of Famer, the most dominant player of his generation.
Some will say that the Hall is full of drunks, racists and low-brow cheaters like Gaylord Perry.
They'll use that excuse to let in McGwire or to confuse the issue by putting Bonds in the creep category.
He is -- but he had the numbers. So did Ty Cobb the sociopath. And Mickey Mantle the drunk. And Joe DiMaggio, who redefined weird.
And what of Perry? I'm sorry, but you can't compare trickery to altering your body chemistry to bolster your numbers.
'Roids make your body recover faster from exertion. Perry had to haul his lard butt onto the field to get guys out.
The only other argument for McGwire is based in cynicism: That baseball turned a blind eye to steroids when McGwire played.
True. But our eyes are open now.
The lid was blown by journalists, primarily by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. They wrote "Game of Shadows," the book that exposed Bonds' use of steroids made by the infamous Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
Now it's in the hands of journalists to render an appropriate final judgment on McGwire.
It's a tough call, and people are struggling with the McGwire dilemma. Some writers think people like me are falsely moralizing this issue when McGwire's numbers should tell the tale. Some -- like the Oakland Tribune's Art Spander, one of the senior baseball writers in Northern California -- probably won't vote for McGwire this year but might in the future.
Maybe I'll feel remorse for Mc-Gwire in the future, maybe not.
I don't have a vote now, but I imagine McGwire will still be there in a couple of years when I do.
He'll be followed by Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa and Bonds.
It's the steroid era, baby. Time to face up to it and vote accordingly.
