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January 9, 2007 Editor's Note: Mark McGwire received only 23 percent of the necessary 75 percent of votes needed for induction into Baseball's HOF Class of 2007. I spent this past Saturday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles attending the annual dinner to raise money for baseball's forgotten men – the scouts. Former super-agent Dennis Gilbert, now the special assistant to Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox, is the organizer of the function to benefit scouts and former scouts who are down on their luck. Reinsdorf was there, along with Commissioner Bud Selig, Angels' owner Arte Moreno and many other baseball dignitaries. The night's honoree, Cal Ripken, Jr., garnered the most attention, as he is somewhat of a mythic figure in baseball circles these days and the most celebrated player elected to the Hall of Fame this week. Along with Tony Gwynn, he most deservedly took his place in the HOF class of 2007. Missing from the dinner – and the Class of 2007 – was slugger Mark McGwire. While Ripken is a baseball god, McGwire currently is more of a baseball pariah. He has been accused of being a chemical monkey, who was able to bash 583 career home runs only with the help of performance enhancing drugs.  Mark McGwire homered for the fans but struck out with the writers. Before I go on, I must come clean – I'm not a fan of McGwire's. I found him to be one of the most arrogant and uncooperative performers with whom I've ever dealt. On my radio show he was one of my favorite targets because of his (lack of) personality. I've talked to many of his former Oakland teammates, and they weren't exactly crazy about him, either. With that said, Mark McGwire belongs in the Hall of Fame. But a bunch of self-important jerks who masquerade as "keepers of the game's integrity" denied McGwire entrance this week – and maybe forever. These people – baseball writers – are some of the most hypocritical beings ever to walk the face of the earth. They prevented a truly great player from reaching the individual pinnacle of his chosen profession. Now, I'm not condemning all baseball writers. Some are great people whom I respect as colleagues and number among my friends. But I also know many of the writers who have come out and said they won't vote for McGwire – now or ever – and I guarantee their personal lives could not stand up to the lightest of scrutiny. I've been with some of them while they were drinking to excess on a daily basis and cheating on their spouses while on the road. And I can promise you that some of them did more illegal drugs than McGwire even knows exist. But they were among the voters who have the power to block McGwire's HOF entrance. Bottom line here is that McGwire didn't do anything to violate baseball rules. His admission that he used androstenedione draws nothing but a yawn from me. The substance was a legal supplement available to any player who wanted to use it. Baseball had not yet banned it. And it has never been proven that McGwire did steroids. No proof then, none now. Some of these holier-than-thou-writers like to cite McGwire's non-testimony and the way he handled his questioning at the Congressional steroid hearings as proof that he used performance-enhancing drugs. Just a couple points here. For whatever reason, McGwire and his attorney decided not to answer the politicians' questions, using the Constitutional protection afforded by the Fifth Amendment. That was his right. And he used it. He certainly may have been hiding his use of steroids, but maybe there was another reason. Maybe he didn't want to involve teammates who were using drugs. Maybe he was tired of all the scrutiny and accusations. I don't know what his reasons were, and neither do the writers who held it against him. McGwire just might not be a very bright fellow either. In 1987, Reggie Jackson was finishing his career back with the A's. It was McGwire's rookie year, and Reggie and I were talking about the former USC All-American. "What is he like?" I asked Jackson one afternoon before Oakland played the Angels in Anaheim. "Well, he's a nice enough kid," Reggie said, then added, "but he's not the smartest guy I've ever met."
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