Big Mac staying home in 2007?

[sylbry]

If I had a vote I would vote yes.What ever happen to innocent until proven guilty?

Last time I checked the Hall of Fame voting process was not a court of law.

[staindsox]

Rose DID use greenies...and I don't care if "everyone" uses them. They are illegal and it is cheating. Besides this is apples and oranges. Be it placing bets from the manager's office for or against your own team or injecting illegal drugs into your body to cheat the record books, both should keep you out of the Hall. Neither deserves to hang in the same gallery as Matty, Ruth, Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Clemente, or Lou Gehrig. You don't go into the Hall on numbers alone. Keep Rose out...and every juicer with him.

[mr.miracle]

The thing with Big Mac using Andro is that anybody else who could get to GNC could do the same thing. Since it was not on the banned substance list and anybody could buy it over the counter at the time, that substance cannot be held against him anymore than a player using creatine, B12 or any other substance that can be bought at GNC.

The irony is that many people would probably wonder about this entire era in sports anyway, but if not for Jose Canseco's book naming names and the subsequent fiasco in front of Congress where people did not want to talk about the past, others forgot how to speak English, others vehemently denied ever using steroids and were later found to have apparently lied, McGwire would probably be headed to the hall at this point.

I find it very, very difficult to simply dismiss the fact that Big Mac hit 583 homers for his career which would punch his ticket automatically under any other circumstances. If the voters are not going to put him in which still remains to be seen, then do they also deny Palmeiro, Sosa, Bonds etc. which using their standards would seem to be the case. Like him or not, until Bonds is definitively proven to have used a PED, I just don't see how he could be denied entrance with over 720 career homers and seven MVP awards. The next couple of years will prove to be very interesting as all of these issues are weighed by the voters.

Brett

[staindsox]

I absolutely agree about Brett's Andro point. Nobody can get on Mac's case for that because it was legal. I also believe there is enough evidence to keep him out. Remember that every man Landis banished from the game, not just the 8 Black Sox, were never proven guilty in any court of law. Mac may have been using since his earliest days in the bigs. If he were really honest and really clean, he would have had nothing to hide in front of Congress.

What really is ironic and sad is that Canseco has been the most open and honest about the streroid issue...I personally think he is slime. He pointed a finger at Mac, Sosa, Palmeiro, Giambi, Bonds, Gonzalez, Pudge, Tejada, and Clemens. Only Clemens name has remained clean thus far...and likely because he is an untouchable. Did Canseco lie in his book??? Has anything he said been proven wrong??? If these men were innocent, why are they not persuing Canseco in court??? No law suits, hmmm. Maybe these guys don't want to go in front of a judge. Why are they not defending their name??? The public will never know the complete truth because baseball is doing its best to hide and sweep under the rug.

I loved Mac and Sosa, but I loved Rose too. I got through the denial awhile ago. Cheating and lying cannot be tolerated. Look what it has already done to baseball in the past five years!!! Judge Landis was right. Baseball's best move would be to clean house, but that won't happen. The Hall of Fame symbolizes more than statistics. Enshrining any of these men would cheapen this honor.

[JimCaravello]

I love Sullivan's comment - "he's a super sized Dave Kingman".....one of the best quotes I have heard in a long time - he just doesn't belong in the HOF......as I have said in the past, Roger Maris still holds the single season HR mark ( in my humble opinion..... ).......Jim