At this rate, the Baseball Hall of Fame should consider changing its name to something along the lines of “Baseball’s Hall of Outstanding Players, Most of Whom Seemed to Have Reasonable Moral Fiber.” Apparently a player’s impact on the game, or perceived literal fame is of no concern to the Hall of Fame voters, they’re only worried about whether or not he cheated.
By not voting Mark McGwire into the Hall, voters have set a standard to not include any player who was suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs and seemingly decided to ignore one of the most controversial and exciting times in the history of the sport.
Regardless of whether or not McGwire was juiced, he and fellow suspected-juicer Sammy Sosa changed the landscape of baseball during the 1998 season and increased interest in the sport that had been suffering since the 1994 strike. The two sluggers revived a waning sport by both challenging Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in a season.
Baseball hasn’t been able to recapture that same enthusiasm.
But that’s only part of the reason why he should be in the Hall. He should be voted in for the very reason why nobody wants to let him in: He, along with Sosa, Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco, are the poster boys for the Steroid Era in baseball. Each of them epitomized what a talented individual could accomplish with the help of drugs and baseball nation didn’t take its eyes off them because steroid use seemed like just paranoid speculation.
I’m not advocating to enshrine these players because of what they accomplished on the field with the help of performance-enhancing drugs, I believe that the four most famous ‘roiders deserve their place in history as the four players who have seemingly tainted the game and tarnished any sort of legitimacy their records have. To ignore them is to ignore how their actions changed the course of the game.
They’re the ones who people identify as the face of the Steroids Era and the Hall should recognize that. I know the Hall of Fame is supposed to contain only the most exemplary individuals, but when it contains the likes of one of the most racist players is sports’ history, Ty Cobb, Cooperstown is setting a double-standard.
Besides, fame is such an ambiguous word. If the Hall of Fame won’t recognize McGwire as one the most famous athletes of his time, it certainly needs to consider changing the title of where the busts of baseball’s best players reside.
But not every juicer deserves enshrinement, the four listed were among the best players of their time. Canseco is a bit of a separate case because he’s the only one to have admitted using steroids, which began this whole controversy in the first place. Although his book “Juiced” likely resulted from self-interest, he deserves some recognition as being the whistle-blower who started this chain reaction of steroid speculation.
What needs to happen now is that McGwire, Bonds, Sosa and Canseco should be inducted together once they are all eligible. None of them should be allowed to defend themselves in their Hall of Fame speech and every prominent baseball player should get his chance to slam each one of them as part of their entrance to history.
And each of their busts should be abnormally larger than the other Hall of Famers’, for accuracy’s sake.
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