Why Mark McGwire Does NOT Belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame

Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn are in their first year of eligibility for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and in my opinion, they both are deserving and will, in factbe inducted. However, Mark McGwire, in spite of his nearly 600 Home Runs, should not be elected.

McGwire was a very one dimensional player. All he did was hit Home Runs. He was average at best in the field, a glacier on the bases, and hit for a very pedestrian average of .263 in his career. While that's not bad, it's not Hall of Fame material, either.

In 8 of McGwire's 16 big league seasons, he had under 100 hits, in part due to injuries, but are HOF voters supposed to try to calculate how many hits, runs, Home runs, or RBI's a guy would have had if not for injury?I think not. Dave Kingman had 442 Home Runs in his career, and if Kingman had been on steroids maybe he could have had many more. The one statistical category which McGwire excelled in is tainted by the fact that he admitted taking andro, and upon being accused by Jose Canseco of taking steroids, Big Mac repeatedly stated "I'm not here to talk about the past" when under oath before Congress.

While not specifically banned by Baseball at that time, steroids were, and are illegal unless prescribed by a Doctor. While there are plenty of rogues such as Ty Cobb in the Baseball Hall of Fame, electing McGwire, who knowingly cheated to hit so many of those Home Runs, to the HOF would cheapen the honor both for previous and future honorees. If the Baseball Writersvote him into the Hall, Baseball might as well open the gates to Pete Rose as well. I know Tony LaRussa and most St. Louis Cardinal fans would disagree, but having grown up among St. Louis fans, I know that Cardinal fans would embrace just about any onewho helped them win, no matter how egregious their sins. If McGwire gets into the Hall, St Louis fans, don't complain when Barry Bonds follows. At least Bonds was a complete player before he started juicing, unlike McGwire.