Should Mark McGwire's steroid admission keep him out of the Hall of Fame?

Mark McGwire finally came clean, admitting he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998, but he also said he didn't need performance-enhancing drugs to hit the long ball.

McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade. Later Monday, however, he disputed that the drugs gave him more power to hit homers.

McGwire, who is eighth on the all-time home run list with 583 homers, once again was not elected into the Hall of Fame. In voting on Jan. 6, he received 128 votes (23.7 percent) in the balloting, 10 more than last year and matching the total from his first two times on the ballot.

Asked by Costas if he would vote for himself, McGwire said: "If I had a Hall of Fame vote? I'd leave it up to you guys. I'll leave it up to the writers."

My question to you: Should Mark McGwire's steroid admission keep him out of the Hall of Fame?

via espn

Tags: Fame?, Hall, Mark, McGwire's, Should, admission, him, keep, of, out, More…steroid, the

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kevin on January 12, 2010 at 3:08am

No I do not think McGwire belongs in the Hall of Fame and neither does any other player who juiced up to get their numbers. If a player used a substance banned by MLB then they broke the rules. My question for McGwire would be why use the stuff if he claims he did not need it? Obviously something was wrong when guy in their mid to late thirties were doing better than the did in their twenties.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by MATTstas on January 12, 2010 at 8:13am

I think I should be in the MLB Hall Of Fame purely because I never used steroids.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by James Lynch on January 12, 2010 at 8:45am

Whatever about Hall Of Fame, i think that for guys like him and in particular Barry Bonds, that broke records while juicing (caught or admitted) their records should have an asterisk beside the numbers that lets the world know that these guys cheated while obtaining their record.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kyle Higgins on January 12, 2010 at 9:51am

I think Big Mac's fate will more importantly decide whether or not Barry Bonds gets in and that is the bigger issue.
Barry Bonds is statistically the best player to every play Baseball, keeping him out of the hall of fame will be hard to do.
The steriod era in baseball was a very dark one, but an era of baseball none the less.
Keeping them out of the Hall of Fame is the only way to punish them for what they did.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Johnny Blue on January 12, 2010 at 12:55pm

I'm somewhat torn on this issue, but overall I think he should be allowed into the hall of fame (if he even deserves it). I understand these guys shouldn't be rewarded for taking performance enhancing drugs, but I think this whole debacle is horrible for baseball, and the past was a whole different animal than the present.

What I hate most about what McGwire said was, "Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era." Even though that's a total cop-out, I think there's some truth to that. How is it fair that they allow some people that took performance enhancing drugs into the Hall of Fame, and don't allow others who were either caught or admitted it?

I support the strict regulation of drugs in the MLB. Hopefully players won't be able to take these drugs without fear of getting penalized. But in my opinion, to look at the past is irrelevant. It's time for baseball to move forward.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Yolanda Tamez on January 12, 2010 at 1:05pm

Sad, but I feel if you have to use steroids to push your body past the point of it's own natural abilities, I don't feel it's right for him to get it. He should get in based on his God given abilites not drug induced!!