sorry, no hall for mcgwire

Mark Starr lays out a good case in Newsweek for why Mark McGwire should not be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I think Starr's right.* I've been down on Barry Bonds for steroid use and the same standard should apply to McGwire, Palmiero, Sosa, Canseco, and others.

But the difference is that, despite his steroid use and being an arrogant ass, Bonds is clearly a Hall of Fame quality player. He hit with a lot of power (even BEFORE steroids), drew tons of walks, stole a lot of bases, and fielded his position very well. His production over the past few seasons absolutely has been steroid-enhanced, but he was already on a no-doubt HOF career path. McGwire, by contrast, in addition to spelling his name in a weird way that I always screw up, was basically washed up at age 30 before steroids helped him bulk up (although he was already very big and strong) and more importantly, simultaneously helped keep him healthy for several more years.

As Starr wrote, it's not so much the steroids useage per se, as the fact that without steroids, McGwire would have been a very good but NOT Hall-quality hitter, with career statistics reminiscent of Dave Kingman -- whom NOBODY is touting for the Hall. Hell, Kingman's Baseball-Reference.com page doesn't even had a sponsor.

*Please note, this sentence should never be applied to KEN Starr.