Posted By:
peter chaoDavid, Guys
Just browse through the HOF's roster and you will realize that the voters are pretty lax on the moral and character requirement to the Hall. However, for Mark Mcgwire they made an exception and came down hard.
As far as I can tell, there are two reasons for this: 1) this was first time Mark was on the ballot, and 2) Mark was the first ballplayer heavily suspected of using steroids. So it was pretty clear that the voters were using him as an example.
It probably wouldn't have made much difference if he came clean. Just look at Jose Canseco, he only got a few votes. His career merited more than that.
Peter