SOUND OFF: This past January, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted on the latest candidates for entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A record 545 ballots, including two blanks, were cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years' service. Players must be named on 75 percent of ballots submitted to gain election. This year, 409 votes were needed. Out of 17 candidates, two made it to the hall: Cal Ripken Jr., former Baltimore Orioles iron man shortstop, and Tony Gwynn, among the game's most prolific hitters.
Among the 15 who did not make the cut was former St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire, who hit a then season record 70 home runs in 1998 and currently is 7th on the all time list of career home runs. McGwire garnered only 128 votes or less than 24%, far short of the required 75%, a rejection that many sports writers and fans alike feel is due to the fact that his legacy has been tarnished by accusations of steroid use - and his refusal to address the issue during a 2005 congressional hearing when he made the now famous “I’m not here to talk about the past,” remark.
Now we are not saying Mr. McGwire is guilty or innocent of the suspected charge of using steroids and/or other illegal performance enhancing drugs. We have no way of knowing for sure, and in any case do not feel qualified to judge another person’s actions.
What we are reasonably, and sadly, certain of is that in many people’s minds, the enduring vision of Mark McGwire will not be the vivid scene of the slugger circling the bases after his historic home run, with thousands of fans standing in a wildly emotional frenzy of cheering, but of the subdued former athlete as he testified before Congress…a vision not of triumph, but of fall from grace.
SOUND OFF: This past January, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted on the latest candidates for entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A record 545 ballots, including two blanks, were cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years' service. Players must be named on 75 percent of ballots submitted to gain election. This year, 409 votes were needed. Out of 17 candidates, two made it to the hall: Cal Ripken Jr., former Baltimore Orioles iron man shortstop, and Tony Gwynn, among the game's most prolific hitters.
Mark McGwire, who hit a then season record 70 home runs in 1998 and currently is 7th on the all time list of career home runs. McGwire garnered only 128 votes or less than 24%, far short of the required 75%, a rejection that many sports writers and fans alike feel is due to the fact that his legacy has been tarnished by accusations of steroid use - and his refusal to address the issue during a 2005 congressional hearing when he made the now famous “I’m not here to talk about the past,” remark.
What we are reasonably, and sadly, certain of is that in many people’s minds, the enduring vision of Mark McGwire will not be the vivid scene of the slugger circling the bases after his historic home run, with thousands of fans standing in a wildly emotional frenzy of cheering, but of the subdued former athlete as he testified before Congress…a vision not of triumph, but of fall from grace.
