At first I thought I would feel that none of them should get in. No Bonds, Sosa, Mac- anyone. Fuck 'em all.
But then I read Jason Starks column.
...nothing was done to police this issue while McGwire was playing. Zero. So like virtually all members of this number-inflated generation, he probably gets lumped into the same category as Gaylord Perry. Perry was allowed to cheat, wrote a book about cheating, even made a video about cheating. And people not only looked the other way, but thought it was hilarious. So all we could do, when he appeared on our ballot, was vote on what he did on the field – which was have a Hall of Fame career.
I pretty much agree. Perry cheated, and talked about it, and people thought it was funny. But Perry also never broke major records, especially the hallowed home run records. Stark also has another great observation:
Meanwhile, I hate to quote Jose Canseco as an authority on anything. But he was right when he said there is no way to know exactly how many more home runs anybody hit because they took any specific substance. Would they have hit more if the pitchers weren't taking them, too? How much were the shrunken ballparks and the harder bats and the livelier balls responsible for those numbers.
So if you're just asking me to judge the Mark McGwire I saw on the field, that guy was the best slugger of his generation – a man who represented his sport at the time with class, and with respect for its history and for the men he played with and against. That's the guy I'll vote for.
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