It comes as no surprise to me that Mark McGwire was not voted into the Hall of Fame this year in his first year of eligibility. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Jr. (both in their first year of eligibility) were voted in as expected and certainly deserve to be enshrined. Most impressive of all was the percentage of votes* that were received for Ripken (98.5%) and Gwynn (97.6%). Both men were class acts and great players
Had McGwire (23.5% of the votes), not been suspected of steroid use, I would certainly say that he belongs in their, but until he can prove otherwise, he like Pete Rose (who I do believe deserves a place in the hall of fame) can go around the country and plead his case. I think his not testifying at the Congressional hearings certainly hurt his case. Americans can be very forgiving, but his arrogance at the hearings turned me off. His home run race with Sammy Sosa in 1998 was very good for baseball but the after affects send a bad message to the young kids out there.
Come clean Mark, and maybe one day you will be enshrined
*75% needed to be enshrined
--gfo
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