For those of you that don't believe McGwire doesn't deserve a spot in the hall, consider the following points. I would love to hear the arguments against this because I just don't see why you can logically deny his place. Enjoy:
- Baseball not testing for or even banning steroids from the game is like the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy; if you say you're doing it, it's illegal, but they don't care if you do it and don't tell anyone about it. They may not have told players to do it, but in professional sports if you don't know people are going to try to get an edge, you're an idiot. They knew, and they didn't care. I would go as far as to say that Bud Selig saw it happening and was happy.
- EVERYONE was doing it. Pitchers, hitters... everyone. That entire era of baseball was different than others. IN HIS ERA, the whole of which was tainted by a drug, he was one of the best players on the field. You don't get that good because of a drug. 90% of that is skill wrought by natural talent and constant practice. Maybe androstene alone can't get you to that level, but it can get you close, and it was legal for a long time. You've heard the argument, but it's completely valid: if you deny him, do you deny EVERYONE you suspect in the era? The whole reason I believe Bonds started was because he finally decided that if everyone else was going to do it, he was too.
- There is no proof - other than one guy trying to sell books - that he ever took it. You say, "Look at the guy! Of course he did steroids!" What are you talking about?! Have you looked at professional body-builders? Can you pick out the steroid users from the non-steroid users? Some freaks, maybe. But there are PLENTY guys out there that train to excessive levels through the use of NON-STEROID supplements. It's not like the guy has massive veins popping out of his neck. People look at him and say that his size is proof that he used. Why? He is by absolutely NO stretch of the imagination at such a size that he HAD to be taking steroids to achieve. I put on muscle mass very quickly, and every time I get back into my gym days, I build up fast. I don't take steroids. Some people are just able to build muscle better than others.
- As for his not talking to Congress, why should he? Even assuming he did do it, he was asked there to discuss the role of steroids in baseball and talk about how it can be avoided, how prevalent it was, etc. And, as much as we like to berate what he said, he WAS there to talk about the future and what can be done, not about the past. I understand that he looked bad, but he went there expecting one thing and ran into something completely different - a witch hunt. What should he have done? Admit it? People crucify him for not admitting it, but NOBODY has admitted it. Palmeiro is twice as bad because not only did he use it, but he CONTINUED using it. Canseco "admitted" it, but he was just doing it to make money. He sold out his credibility by doing that. Asking McGwire to be that guy, of course, is understandable since he is kind of the poster boy of the era (if not Bonds). However, you should also understand he is human. If he did use, I'm sure he never planned to wear that badge on his sleeve the rest of his life.
- I also think people look at this like it was a seriously bad thing they were doing. Not everyone smokes pot, but when you're in college, doesn't at least half of the freaking place smoke pot and 80% of them not care that the rest of them do? Pot is illegal, but in college everyone just kind of accepts it as not a big deal. I'm not saying they're exactly the same issue (nobody is cheating by smoking pot, quite the opposite), but the mindset is the same and I'd bet the usage of steroids in baseball was about as rampant as marijuana use in college. Everyone's doing it, everyone is CERTAINLY trying to get an edge, and even though in the back of their minds they knew it was wrong, I think baseball players, in their very different world, were getting the impression that people didn't really care, and if the fans just wanted to see HRs and MLB was clearly fine with it, maybe it wasn't such a big deal.
- Finally, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what steroids does, I believe. If you inject steroids tomorrow, you can't suddenly lift 600 pounds. It helps you build FASTER, and it helps you train longer because your muscles don't wear down as quickly (you maintain your peak performance longer), but you are not instantly strong. Look at McGuire when he entered the league. He hit 46 freaking home runs. 49!!! Even if he was taking steroids like a madman, you can tell by looking at him back then that he wasn't all that strong. He has just always had a gift for the long-ball. Even if he took steroids, can you honestly say that a guy that starts his career with 49 HRs as a scrawny 21-year-old NEEDS steroids to hit HRs? Of course not! So, the argument that steroids made him into a great player is completely bogus. Maybe it's not even an understanding about what steroids do, it's just that when you say someone takes steroids, the immediate thought is they are super-humanly strong, and they're cheating. People don't think enough about what they really do and how they would actually affect a player's performance.
So maybe you disagree, but I would like to hear why.
Cliffs:
- MLB not doing anything about it was basically saying that it was OK.
- With usage apparently so rampant, how can you pick whom to exclude and include?
- There is no concrete evidence that he used, and it is theoretically possible for him to not have used and be "that big" (I'm not naive enough to think it's not likely, but it is not a fact either).
- Congress was on a witch hunt, and he was backed into a corner when he was expecting to talk about baseball as a whole and not his own career.
- His mindset in believing that steroids weren't that bad is understandable given the circumstances.
- Steroids can't make a regular baseball player into a great one. McGwire was already great outside the numbers.
Edit: corrected HR stats from his first year and fixed spelling of his name... jesus that's bad
Edit 2: Let me also add that it doesn't really matter that steroids were illegal in the US. He could claim he only took them in Mexico. I realize this is ridiculous, but the fact is it's inexcusable for baseball to have not had a rule against them, and reliable testing.
- Baseball not testing for or even banning steroids from the game is like the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy; if you say you're doing it, it's illegal, but they don't care if you do it and don't tell anyone about it. They may not have told players to do it, but in professional sports if you don't know people are going to try to get an edge, you're an idiot. They knew, and they didn't care. I would go as far as to say that Bud Selig saw it happening and was happy.
- EVERYONE was doing it. Pitchers, hitters... everyone. That entire era of baseball was different than others. IN HIS ERA, the whole of which was tainted by a drug, he was one of the best players on the field. You don't get that good because of a drug. 90% of that is skill wrought by natural talent and constant practice. Maybe androstene alone can't get you to that level, but it can get you close, and it was legal for a long time. You've heard the argument, but it's completely valid: if you deny him, do you deny EVERYONE you suspect in the era? The whole reason I believe Bonds started was because he finally decided that if everyone else was going to do it, he was too.
- There is no proof - other than one guy trying to sell books - that he ever took it. You say, "Look at the guy! Of course he did steroids!" What are you talking about?! Have you looked at professional body-builders? Can you pick out the steroid users from the non-steroid users? Some freaks, maybe. But there are PLENTY guys out there that train to excessive levels through the use of NON-STEROID supplements. It's not like the guy has massive veins popping out of his neck. People look at him and say that his size is proof that he used. Why? He is by absolutely NO stretch of the imagination at such a size that he HAD to be taking steroids to achieve. I put on muscle mass very quickly, and every time I get back into my gym days, I build up fast. I don't take steroids. Some people are just able to build muscle better than others.
- As for his not talking to Congress, why should he? Even assuming he did do it, he was asked there to discuss the role of steroids in baseball and talk about how it can be avoided, how prevalent it was, etc. And, as much as we like to berate what he said, he WAS there to talk about the future and what can be done, not about the past. I understand that he looked bad, but he went there expecting one thing and ran into something completely different - a witch hunt. What should he have done? Admit it? People crucify him for not admitting it, but NOBODY has admitted it. Palmeiro is twice as bad because not only did he use it, but he CONTINUED using it. Canseco "admitted" it, but he was just doing it to make money. He sold out his credibility by doing that. Asking McGwire to be that guy, of course, is understandable since he is kind of the poster boy of the era (if not Bonds). However, you should also understand he is human. If he did use, I'm sure he never planned to wear that badge on his sleeve the rest of his life.
- I also think people look at this like it was a seriously bad thing they were doing. Not everyone smokes pot, but when you're in college, doesn't at least half of the freaking place smoke pot and 80% of them not care that the rest of them do? Pot is illegal, but in college everyone just kind of accepts it as not a big deal. I'm not saying they're exactly the same issue (nobody is cheating by smoking pot, quite the opposite), but the mindset is the same and I'd bet the usage of steroids in baseball was about as rampant as marijuana use in college. Everyone's doing it, everyone is CERTAINLY trying to get an edge, and even though in the back of their minds they knew it was wrong, I think baseball players, in their very different world, were getting the impression that people didn't really care, and if the fans just wanted to see HRs and MLB was clearly fine with it, maybe it wasn't such a big deal.
- Finally, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what steroids does, I believe. If you inject steroids tomorrow, you can't suddenly lift 600 pounds. It helps you build FASTER, and it helps you train longer because your muscles don't wear down as quickly (you maintain your peak performance longer), but you are not instantly strong. Look at McGuire when he entered the league. He hit 46 freaking home runs. 49!!! Even if he was taking steroids like a madman, you can tell by looking at him back then that he wasn't all that strong. He has just always had a gift for the long-ball. Even if he took steroids, can you honestly say that a guy that starts his career with 49 HRs as a scrawny 21-year-old NEEDS steroids to hit HRs? Of course not! So, the argument that steroids made him into a great player is completely bogus. Maybe it's not even an understanding about what steroids do, it's just that when you say someone takes steroids, the immediate thought is they are super-humanly strong, and they're cheating. People don't think enough about what they really do and how they would actually affect a player's performance.
So maybe you disagree, but I would like to hear why.
Cliffs:
- MLB not doing anything about it was basically saying that it was OK.
- With usage apparently so rampant, how can you pick whom to exclude and include?
- There is no concrete evidence that he used, and it is theoretically possible for him to not have used and be "that big" (I'm not naive enough to think it's not likely, but it is not a fact either).
- Congress was on a witch hunt, and he was backed into a corner when he was expecting to talk about baseball as a whole and not his own career.
- His mindset in believing that steroids weren't that bad is understandable given the circumstances.
- Steroids can't make a regular baseball player into a great one. McGwire was already great outside the numbers.
Edit: corrected HR stats from his first year and fixed spelling of his name... jesus that's bad
Edit 2: Let me also add that it doesn't really matter that steroids were illegal in the US. He could claim he only took them in Mexico. I realize this is ridiculous, but the fact is it's inexcusable for baseball to have not had a rule against them, and reliable testing.
