[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

Many voters said they would vote for McGwire when the steroids cloud hanging over
him clears up-- specifically when he addresses the issue, the last time he addressed
it being when he testified before Congress. At the least, McGwire created an unanswered
question by the testimony, an unanswered question he has refused to address much
less answer ... It should be noted that if he did use steroids ilegally, he might
be unwilling to say so freely for fear of legal issues. There is a Federal steroids case
going on.

A practical problem for a writer may be that if he votes for McGwire this
year, McGwire might admit next year he used steroids throughout the 1990s,
and the writer can't take that vote back if it put him into the Hall of
Fame. Considering there are 15 years to vote for a player, and McGwire
obviously is in no hurry address the situtation, a prudent writer may wait for
later years to consider voting for McGwire. Neither Joe DiMaggio nor Jimmie Foxx
were voted into the Hall in their first years, so there's no rule writers can't wait
to vote in a player. History doesn't look poorly on DiMaggio because he wasn't
voted in right away.

The steroid issue effects McGwire much more than Bonds. With McGwire, 90 percent
(or more) of his HOFerability is his home run totals from the mid to late 1990s.
Without those home runs, he would not be a Hall of Famer. With Bonds, on the
other hand, if he had never hit more than 30 home runs, he would have still been a HOFer--
batting average, stolen bases, fielding, etc.