Steroids should have little bearing on shot at Hall

by Michael Zidar, 1L
Law Weekly
April 1, 2009

It was 1994. Tony Gwynn was chasing .400. Matt Williams and Ken Griffey Jr. were chasing 61 homeruns. Frank Thomas was putting up one of the greatest seasons ever behind the plate. Greg Maddux was having one of the greatest seasons ever from the mound.

Then, it all stopped.

The players went on strike, and fans became angry about it. It would take two record-breaking events to bring fans back to the sport. One was Cal Ripken Jr. and his 1996 chase of Gehrig's consecutive games played; the other was Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa shattering Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in 1998.

The first example is still held as what baseball "can" and "should" be; the second is now seen as the worst example of the steroid era of baseball.

Even with stricter tests, the talk of steroids has not died down. During the offseason, people still discuss Bonds, Clemens, and McGwire and what each player might have done to chemically enhance his production.

However, current fans could rally behind the best player in each league, Alex Rodiguez (American) and Albert Pujols (National), two players who accomplished their goals the "right" way: free of drugs. They were seen as men who could stand tall as they took back the banner of home run king from career leader Barry Bonds.

Of course, this turned out to be a pipe dream, too. A-Rod wasn't clean. Pujols now stands alone, but some fans fear that he, too, will be taken down by the specter of steroids or HGH.

Another question to be answered is this: how much did the baseball establishment care or know about the steroid use? No matter what the answer, the sport is ready to make the first big star of that era suffer for not only what he potentially did, but also for the actions of others. That player is Mark McGwire.

The stereotype of the huge, muscled players is that he is only able to hit for power. He isn’t filled with the grace and discipline that a good player should have; a player such as Cal Ripken Jr. or Derek Jeter, players who slap the ball around and hustle on the basepaths instead of ripping a home run. This stereotype may be in the voters’ minds for McGwire, a man who only received support from 21.9% of the ballots to get into the Hall of Fame (75% is required).

Sammy Sosa fits the musclebound stereotype better than McGwire. Sosa is second all time in strikeouts with 2,306, yet he only walked 929 times. McGwire struck out 1,596 times, yet he walked 1,317 times and put up better power numbers than Sosa. He was a much more complete and patient hitter than Sosa, which is readily visible through the differences in their respective OPS (on-base plus slugging).

While McGwire was injury prone throughout his career, he was a great hitter. Sosa was a great slugger. There is a difference. Sosa and McGwire each could hit the ball a mile, but Sosa was more of a one-trick pony; he would relentlessly swing at anything, whereas McGwire had a better eye for the ball. He could hold off on pitches and take his walks. Hence, this is why McGwire is 11th all time in career OPS while Sosa is 100th.

McGwire clearly wasn't the only player to use steroids or HGH. The Mitchell Report, released in 2007, contains a large number of names and could only be the tip of the iceberg. Additionally, players who won't show up on lists will be scrutinized in public opinion; this won't go away.

McGwire makes a great target because he was a great player, but most of the players who took performance-enhancing drugs won't be a McGwire or a Bonds; most are just everyday players who won't do anything special. A player who is caught enhancing his performance that ends up a borderline Hall of Famer is an easier case for denial, but McGwire isn't such a player.

Also, what of the players who cheated in the past? Don Sutton and Whitey Ford may not have the obvious bulging muscles that steroids and HGH produce, but both threw pitches that were scuffed and illegal. Ty Cobb was a notoriously cantankerous and violent racist who was known to employ underhanded tactics just to win a ballgame. Should they be thrown out of the Hall?

In the end, baseball will have to decide what to do with all the players who were on steroids that have a shot at the Hall of Fame. The writers who vote can keep all of them out or let all of them in, but an entire era of players will always be seen with an asterisk beside their records.

McGwire is the most representative of them, the first true superstar to have a shot at the Hall. He is also the one who is suffering due to the era in which he played. Will McGwire ever get in? Time will tell, but despite how the Hall of Fame treats him, his stats still show him to be one of the great hitters of all time, enhancements aside.