November 26, 2006
The Hall Debate Starts
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that at least one writer won't be voting for Mark McGwire on the Hall of Fame ballot:
Back in 2005, during the weekend Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg were enshrined, three Hall of Famers on different occasions approached baseball writer Bill Madden with a request:
Protect the Hall.
"They said to me, basically in the same manner, 'It's up to you guys, it's up to you guys to uphold the integrity of this place,'" said Madden, the baseball columnist for the New York Daily News. "They said, 'Only you guys can do that.' I consider that a serious obligation."
Madden's later says he's leaving McGwire off his ballot. My question is, how many of the 575 voters will follow suit? Mark needs 29 votes to stay on the ballot, and I wonder if he'll get those. It going to be an interesting month as columnist debate this topic in preparation for the vote.
Update: There's more of a debate in this piece, in which Claire Smith asks a number of sports writers their opinion. Who knows if this is a representative sample, but from reading this, I'm guessing Mark will stay on the ballot but not get elected, pushing the vote off until another time.
What's interesting is that many of the writers are finding a statistical reason not to vote for McGwire, many invoking his low hit total to keep him out of the hall. While his .263 BA is low for the hall, his .394 OBA is not. My guess is, if McGwire didn't have the steroid taint, the writers would not be looking at his hit total.
There is some historical precedent for his not being elected on his first year of eligibility based on stats. How many years did Harmon Killebrew wait before election?
he should never have bought that andro in the GNC store like a common druggie
If Big Mac didn't have the steroid taint, he wouldn't have as many HRs, either