How Do You Feel About Mark McGwire Being Elected To Cardinals Hall of Fame?

The St. Louis Cardinals 2017 Hall of Fame Class was announced this weekend.

Here’s who will go in:

Pepper Martin (red ribbon selection committee)
Tim McCarver (fan vote)
Mark McGwire (fan vote)

Over a 6-week period this past winter/spring, around 40,000 ballots were cast and the former Cardinals catcher and first baseman took the top two fan spots over five other nominees (Keith Hernandez, Jason Isringhausen, Steve Carlton, Edgar Renteria and Scott Rolen).

McCarver and McGwire will be inducted on AUG 26 (SAT) before the game versus the Tampa Bay Rays. Mr. Martin passed away in 1965 and will be represented by members of his family (I presume).

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Mark McGwire became a Cardinal mid-way through the 1997 season when he was traded from the Oakland Athletics for Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews and Blake Stein.

We didn’t know it at the time, but McGwire kicked off a nearly two-decade run of the Cardinals absolutely fleecing other teams in trades.

He played in 545 games over 5 seasons for the Cardinals and posted the following eye-popping stats:

220 home runs
473 RBIs
470 walks
19.2 WAR
.683 slugging
.427 OBP

He also broke the most hallowed record in sports during the 1998 season, hitting 70 home runs. 9 more than Roger Maris’ 1961 mark of 61.

When’s the last time you’ve seen crowds in places like Milwaukee and Miami going that crazy? And for an opponent!

After a decade of teetering on irrelevance, Mark McGwire shot the Cardinals to (national) interest levels that the franchise had never experienced prior and probably will never experience again.

They were THE show in sports, NFL included. Games were much-watch TV. And Big Mac seemed to never disappoint.

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If the story ended there, you could easily see why Mark McGwire would be inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame.

We all know it doesn’t, though.

After, according to McGwire, “around a decade” of steroid use, he decided to share his story.

His admission came after years of denials, but was of little surprise to anyone that had followed the sport through the 2000’s. Guys like McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds were not only breaking records, they were blowing through them with ease in bodies that would make Game of Thrones casting directors drool.

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So a cheater, right? How the hell can the Cardinals put a guy in their Hall of Fame that’s a cheater?

Welp.

This is where it always gets sticky when discussing McGwire.

Major Leauge Baseball’s ‘Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program’ was launched prior to the 2006 season, or five years after Mark McGwire played his last MLB game. The first real movement on a MLB drug testing policy didn’t happen until late in 2002.

Here’s a nice timeline from USA Today.

Technically, McGwire didn’t violate any MLB rules. He wasn’t ‘cheating’.

But damn… it feels real icky saying that.

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What do you want from a Hall of Fame?

If you want a museum that shows the history of a sport (or, in this case, a team) as it was, without the benefit of time and distance? Just a cold, hard look at the past where you make your own opinions? Mark McGwire 100% should be included.

The man was a shot of adrenaline to straight to the heart for 2 years. Welcome to the Jungle STILL gives me goosebumps.

If you want a museum that is a reflection of everything that we’ve come to know and continuously evolves as time moves forward? A place that not only presents history, but judges it?

Yeah. I’m not sure, then.

Mark McGwire might have been able to hit 70 home runs in a season without the aid of now banned substances. Also… maybe not.

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On his best days Mark McGwire truly was superman: