10 Years + 70 Home Runs = Question Mark?

How about that for a title of a post? It is full of symbolism and randomness yet still makes a point. A very stale and transparent point but a point none the less.

It's been ten years:



The problem is it has only been a little over three years since this:



As a long time Cardinals fan and an even bigger baseball fan I can remember Mark McGwire's 62nd home run and the rest of the summer of 1998 vividly. On September 8, 1998 I was driving home from working as a bagger at a local grocery store. Mike Shannon and Jack Buck were on KMOX describing the Cardinals-Cubs game and I was probably breaking every state and local traffic law trying to get home in time to get in front of a television. I flew into the driveway, left my car out, ran into the house, flipped on the kitchen television, and as soon as the screen turned on McGwire hit number 62. It was a moment I will never forget.

Fast forward a little less then seven years to St. Patrick's Day 2005. I was on lunch break from work and decided to eat at a local barbecue place that had televisions on the wall. Usually the televisions had some baseball game on but this day they were all tuned to C-SPAN for the Congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball. At the center of it all was Mark McGwire. Sure others were there giving testimony, Rafael Palmareo, Curt Shilling, Jose Canseco, and others, but it was McGwire everyone would be talking about later. Up until that time nobody would admit that there was something wrong with the summer of 1998. It had, after all, brought baseball back to life after the devastating impact of the 1994 strike but after McGwire dodged question after question the blinders everyone had so willingly put on themselves were finally removed. When McGwire said "I'm not here to talk about the past" the past was forever changed. We were all hoping McGwire would lay things to rest once and for all and just say, "I know that bastard Sammy Sosa was on the juice but I never touched the stuff. Jose Canseco can rot in hell. Damn his lies. Damn his lies to hell. To Hell with him and his damned lies that I damned to hell just a second earlier." But he didn't and we all knew the truth.

Time, they say, heals all wounds but it appears Mr. McGwire still has some waiting to do. When he retired after the 2001 season everyone knew he was going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. He had the single season home run record and was fifth on the all time list. Add in a World Series ring and even a Gold Glove it was a no doubter. But after being eligible for two years now, McGwire has not even sniffed the 75% of the vote to reach Cooperstown. People have decided to punish McGwire for alleged crimes against baseball purity.

This topic has been written about by countless numbers of people and I by no means consider my opinion higher than anyone else's but I think it is time we move on. Baseball has instituted testing and it seems to be effective. The power numbers that were every where during the "Steroid Era" have dramatically decreased and people are showing up in droves to ballparks across the nation (outside of Miami.) Mark McGwire has moved on with his life. He is quietly enjoying retirement, playing a lot of golf, raising two young children with his wife of seven years, and staying out of the public eye. I say put McGwire in the Hall, keep all performance enhancing drugs out of baseball, and really appreciate the things that truly are remarkable.