MAAAACK MAAGWUIAHH

I’m sitting in a Laundromat called the Mudroom as I write this in word, trying to access the supposed wireless the Mudroom provides. Unfortunately, I’ve been without my copy of the 2007 Bill James Handbook for the last two days, and because I don’t have the internet to access all the raw numbers I provide my readers with I will do a bit of baseball social commentary.

Nearly two years ago, when the White Sox were beginning an improbable run to the World Series, Major League Baseball implemented its first steroid testing policy following a nationally televised witch-hunt on the players union. Senators put on their best faces and told us they were doing it “for the kids.” Mark McGwire told them he was there to change the future, not discuss the past. Frank Thomas was “there” to show that he has perhaps been the most honest superstar of his era, putting up numbers that will be perhaps the only piece of truth from an otherwise tainted era. Curt Schilling opened his mouth, as he does so often. Sammy Sosa said he couldn’t speak English.

Everyone remembers McGwire’s speech and the incredibly awkward nature of his attitude. It was well regarded that McGwire was going to get the brunt of media criticism, and, in turn, public criticism. Well, now comes the time where the media and the public really express that criticism.

In the following year Mark McGwire will be one of the many candidates up for Hall of Fame election. All beef frank with you, I wouldn’t vote for McGwire if I had a vote. But I also didn’t watch much baseball in 1998. I was too busy listening to the Smashing Pumpkins. McGwire certainly has the numbers to be a Hall of Famer; 500+ HRs, a ton of walks, and he played on winning teams. While those shouldn’t always be the criteria for what a Hall of Famer is, McGwire is definitely on par with what the hall generally deems worthy of election. The one thing that many talking heads a la Steve Phillips, Buster Olney, and the rest of the major sports media world will point to is McGwire’s low batting average throughout his career (.263). While I do believe that the “world” is changing and that people in the media (and public) do recognize OBP as a more valuable stat in projecting the worth of a player, those same people also still focus far too much on a .300 batting average.

My problem with McGwire isn’t the fact that he didn’t have a .300 average, but because as a player who is (also) generally considered to be one of the two who “brought back baseball” in 1998 with the great home run battle; he will also go down as one of the worst public figures for the sport as well. There are a number of players who have given black eyes to the sport, and they all stand out; King Kelly, Ty Cobb, Pete Rose, the 1908 White Sox, Albert Belle, Roberto Alomar and Carl Everett’s penchant for spitting (I’m sure this says a lot about my knowledge of baseball from, say, 1920 to 1960). But McGwire’s is different. It comes from an era that’s just starting to be uncovered. When Ty Cobb killed the bellboy in Cleveland, or when Pete Rose admitted he gambled on baseball, more so for the latter (although you could argue racism for the former) it uncovered gambling in baseball, which potentially ran very deep. The same goes for steroids in the late 90s and, sadly for McGwire, he’s going to be the culprit.

Things heal with time. Living in Chicago, I would imagine many Cubs fans who were irate about Sam Sosa leaving on the last day of the 2005 season have forgotten about it and would think of him as one of the greatest Cubs of all time (I would say Sosa’s “can’t speak Engrish” debacle rates 2nd on the list of guys who now look like idiots and probably won’t get voted into the hall of fame. I’m sure that fact is still present in most Cubs fans minds, and they wouldn’t think of him as a Cub great). McGwire just happens to be the first player from a steroid dominated era that is up for election. Do I think he’ll get in? I don’t think he has a chance now or in the future. His presentation of the game and of himself on that day probably ruined all chances for his hall of fame election. And if Joe Jackson, who many think was forced into throwing the World Series, still can’t get into the Hall of Fame, I highly doubt McGwire will get that chance either.