The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell says no:
For the first time, I’ve met a baseball question that is such a karmic train wreck, such a total mess and so unfair to everybody involved that I am proud to say I have no opinion. For now, the least rotten position to take on whether Mark McGwire deserves to be in the Hall of Fame is no position at all. Instead, let’s just wait a few years and see.
As doctors say: First, do no harm.
Occasionally, the best decision is no decision at all. Procrastinate. Hope that more information arrives. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Sometimes, if we try to frame a question precisely, we get a sense of just how difficult a problem we really face. This is the puzzle that now confronts the court of public opinion as well as the baseball writers’ association: Should we “pardon” McGwire for accusations of steroid use that he has never actually admitted and for which no evidence exists?
Usually, we don’t have the luxury of ducking ambiguity and returning to tough issues in the future. A winner and loser must be determined quickly. If awards are given, you can’t wait until 2010 to decide who ought to be the most valuable player of 2006. Luckily for baseball, the Hall of Fame is different. Players aren’t eligible for selection to Cooperstown until five years after they retire, then serious contenders for the Hall stay on the primary ballot for 15 years.
So next Tuesday, when Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn are almost certain to be elected to Cooperstown, we don’t have to determine whether Big Mac deserves a bronze bust next to them. We can twiddle our thumbs and let this witches brew simmer. That way, at least we’ll be spared one disaster. In August we won’t have to watch Ripken, Gwynn and McGwire enter the Hall together at about the same time Barry Bonds will probably hit his 22nd homer of the season to pass Hank Aaron’s career record.
Given the questions surrounding the legitimacy of McGwire’s records due to what was clearly the use of performance enhancing drugs, he quite simply doesn’t belong being elevated to baseball’s highest honors, especially not alongside two men — Cal Ripkin, Jr. and Tony Gwynn — who have always stood for everything that’s good about the game.
Like Boswell suggests, maybe what Cooperstown needs to do is build a separate win for all the “questionable” superstars. McGwire can go there along with Giambi and Barry Bonds.
