Hall in a Handbasket

The Hall of Fame election returns will be announced this week. Usually, that means we’re treated to full-court presses from various pundits as they pimp their favorite candidates.

This year is different, of course. For the first time I can remember, the election has taken a negative turn, as the majority of the punditocracy (baseball and otherwise) have devoted their attention to campaigning against Mark McGwire.

Yes, the press has it in for Big Mac this year. Nowhere is this made as clear as it was in the Chicago Tribune, where figure skating expert Phil Hersh provides us this glimpse into the minds of the BBWAA:

For now, the point is to stick it to McGwire.

“Stick it,” indeed. It rather implies some desire for revenge, doesn’t it?

From my POV, revenge is the undercurrent of all the anti-McGwire screeds out there. All the high-horse moralizing about the sanctity of the home run records. All the pious mumbling over who will think of the children. All the soapbox speechifying about cheating. Just fig leaves to cover up the naked desire to “stick it” to McGwire.

Why the need to “stick it?” ESPN’s Bill Simmons sums it up neatly:

Some writers won’t vote for McGwire because he probably used steroids -- keep in mind there’s never been proof that he did, other than a visible bottle of andro and those 135 pounds of muscle he added from 1990 to 2002 -- which would be fine if they weren’t so pious about it. Not content with simply dismissing McGwire’s candidacy and moving on, they need to climb on their high horses and rip the guy to shreds...

When the painful strike cancelled the 1994 World Series and nearly killed the sport, two events got people caring again: Cal Ripken’s breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games record in 1995, and McGwire’s and Sosa’s battling for Maris’ record three years later. Watch the end of 61* sometime, or reread Mike Lupica’s gushing book Summer of ‘98. (Note: Lupica now argues that Big Mac doesn’t belong in the Hall. He never says anything about returning the profits from his book, however.) The home run chase meant something back then. And by the way, when it was going on, we all chose to overlook the fact that McGwire was a can of green paint away from being the Incredible Hulk and that Sosa looked like he was developing a second jaw. Let’s not forget that.

My old history prof had a saying he used often in his lectures: the last to know they’re in the water are the fish. We were definitely in the deep end back in 1998. And hardly anyone commented on the damp conditions.

Were we naive enough to think nothing unsavory was going on? Did we willingly turn a blind eye to the clues we had at the time? Yes on both counts. Because it was fun seeing all those home runs.

It was a great story, too. More importantly, it was an easy story -- easy to fill those column inches and radio talk shows. So our press corps went along for the ride, too. They were more worried about nasty rumors casting doubt on McGwire’s heroics, or whether or how awful it would be if more than one player broke Maris’ record.

And that’s why the media has to “stick it” to McGwire now. And why a lot fans want to “stick it” to him as well. We all cheered him on back in the day, and now we all look like chumps for doing so.

Unfortunately, we’re stuck with this issue for the next fourteen years. Don’t expect it to get any better in the near future...