But I think that the numbers are the point on why they aren't in the Hall. The numbers are the visual reference of the cheat. Paying only attention to the numbers is paying only attention to the cheat.
So instead, I have a different pitch for the enshrinement of McGwire. And yes McGwire only.
I have my opinions on the other two, but neither is really a case for them.
For Bonds, a guy who "allegedly" cheated at a time when the watchdogs were on high alert, he disrespected the sport on higher levels. Bonds had a chance to be a guy....or even THE GUY to take a stand against the use of PEDs when he was at the highest point of his popularity. He chose not to. Barry Bonds did more damage to the sport with his "alleged" PED use than any of the rest. It does not make any of the other PED users right, it does not make them better either. It does however, in my humble opinion, make Bonds worse.
And for Roger Clemens, it is simple. He was acquitted by a jury of lying about using PEDs. Therefore, by saying he didn't lie when he said he didn't use PEDs, they basically said he didn't use PEDs. So let him in if he deserves it, why not?
But for Big Mac, it isn't so cut and dry.
Mark McGwire, with all else aside...the cheating, the numbers, the asterisk, the argument...still remains how he revitalized baseball.
When Mark McGwire broke the single season home run record in 1998, it wasn't just that someone actually chased down Maris' mark of 61, it was the attention that he and Sammy Sosa captured with their back and forth chase of breaking and then eventually setting the single season record.
Before you can really re-appreciate that chase, remember how dead baseball was? The strike of 1994-1995 killed the sport. There has been plenty of greed, lockouts and generally douchebaggery in sports since then and there was even plenty before that. But that strike, it made people not care about Major League Baseball. People who were sports fans didn't care. People who were baseball fans didn't care. I'm pretty sure a fine percentage of owners, managers, coaches and fans of the sport also didn't care.
Baseball was dead.
And then McGwire and Sosa gave it CPR. When McGwire tied that record of 61, it was awe inspiring. When he broke it one evening with a home run over the left field wall, it was bone chilling. Mark McGwire saved baseball. Sosa was there too, but let's all face the fact that he was Robin to McGwire's Batman. It captured the attention of America in a way that baseball has not captured attention in my life span, nor will it probably ever capture attention like that fateful year again as long as I live. The fact is that Major League Baseball was not going away. But where would we be today without the McGwire/Sosa chase? Would it be the major money sports and league that it is today? My guess is no.
For me, Mark McGwire belongs in the Hall of Fame because what would the modern Hall of Fame be without him. He is the face of a rejuvenated league, an era that is all too forgotten.
Mark McGwire's status, his reputation and his numbers will always be tainted. 70* is how that year will stand on paper, in numerical form. But nothing can taint that feeling that Big Mac gave the country in 1998. I just hope that some year, this or another, that the baseball writers can remember that.
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