The Sports Truth

One was the iron man who played in 2,632 consecutive games.

One was the hitting machine who won eight batting titles.

Both were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this week, but their achievements were overshadowed by a man who wasn’t: A slugger who shattered Roger Maris‘ single-season home run record, and who many credited with saving the game in the late 1990s, but later fell from grace because of suspected steroid use.

The name of Mark McGwire was included on just 128 of the 545 ballots (23.5 percent) cast by baseball writers who took part in the voting. Far short of the 75 percent needed for induction, McGwire’s rejection is an encouraging sign that writers will not look the other way regarding the sport’s steroids era - even if the league itself will.

McGwire, 43, retired after the 2001 season, his 583 career home runs good for seventh all-time. As concern over steroid use grew, McGwire came under increasing suspicion in retirement. It came to a head when he refused to answer questions about steroid use during Congressional hearings in March 2005.

McGwire repeatedly stated he would not discuss the past, a silence overwhelmingly viewed by baseball writers who take part in the Hall of Fame voting as an admission that he took steroids while playing. The fact that he would not publicly acknowledge doing so, at the hearing or since then, only made matters worse.

New inductees Tony Gwynn, the perennially prolific hitter, and Cal Ripken, Jr., the shortstop who broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak in 1995, offered differing opinions on McGwire.

“The fact that Mark didn’t get in, I think it’s more of people making a statement about the Congressional hearings than it is what he was able to do on the baseball field,” Gwynn said. “I don’t mind saying I think he’s a Hall of Famer. I do.”

“When I sit and look at myself, I don’t think it’s my place to actually cast judgment,” Ripken said. “I honestly believe the truth will be known. It saddens me that baseball as a whole had to go through this process and had the integrity of the game be questioned because of steroid use.”

A vague indictment - and one that may prove telling. It remains to be seen whether the verdict on McGwire has a trickle-down effect on Hall of Fame chances of others linked to steroids:

• Rafael Palmeiro, one of four players with more than 3,000 hits and 500 homers, who failed a drug test in 2005.
• Sammy Sosa, whose home run battle with McGwire in 1998 entranced much of the nation, but who has also been linked to steroid use and offered unrevealing testimony at the 2005 hearings.
• Barry Bonds, who eclipsed McGwire’s single-season record with 73 home runs in 2001 and needs only 22 homers to pass career leader Hank Aaron, but who. remains under investigation by a federal grand jury in connection with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) steroid-distribution case.

One can only hope that all three are stonewalled by the writers, who appear willing to protect the integrity of the game and the Hall of Fame. Cooperstown should be a shrine to the elite, and if evidence exists that a player would not qualify without the aid of performance enhancing drugs, he cannot in good conscience be admitted.