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What did Jackson mean? "He's never read an entire book in his life," Reggie continued. I replied that had to be impossible. Since McGwire went to college, he must have written a book report somewhere along the line. Jackson proceeded to call McGwire over, and pointblank ask him what was the last book he read cover-to-cover. McGwire replied, with me as a witness "I've never read a whole book." He then took off for the dugout, and Reggie looked at me, laughed, and said, "I told you." So with Mark McGwire, you aren't dealing with a Rhodes Scholar. I can't pretend to get into McGwire's apparently vacuous mind, and it doesn't really matter. He took the Fifth, and under rules of United States law, you're innocent until proven guilty. Under baseball laws, he still hadn't done anything wrong. And even if there is proof that he did use steroids, baseball wasn't testing for them at that time. Therefore he still didn't break any rules. So, I ask, where's the justification to keep this man out of the Hall of Fame? He hit more than 500 home runs, which has always provided an automatic pass into Cooperstown. He also hit 49 home runs as a rookie, when he was rail-thin and years before any steroid accusations were leveled. More importantly, his 70-homer season in 1998 (along with his duel with Sammy Sosa, who hit 66) brought baseball back into the national spotlight, ridding the game of the apathy that had consumed it since the lockout of 1994. At the time, many people credited McGwire and Sosa with reviving baseball, and maybe even saving the game. What's changed? Unproven allegations of illegal drug use. Key word here – Unproven. Bottom line with steroid use is this – and experts in the field will back me up –'roids don't help you hit the ball. They may add a few feet to the homers and may facilitate recovery from injury. But steroids don't do much – if anything – for hand-eye coordination. If you or I took two pounds of steroids a day, we couldn't hit 500 home runs. Or 49 or 70 in a season. You still have to be a HOF-caliber player to accomplish what McGwire did. And if the writers hold unproven claims against McGwire, Sosa and Barry Bonds, then they'd better rethink their votes for many players coming up for election over the next 20 years, because of baseball's dirty little secret – amphetamine use. Long before steroids were even introduced, many baseball players were using "greenies" or "uppers" to make it through the grueling six-month schedule. Don't take my word for it. Read Ball Four, a chronicle of the 1969 season by former pitcher Jim Bouton. With my own eyes I've seen bottles of greenies passed from player to-player on a daily basis. It's pretty obvious that greenies were more of a long-term performance enhancer that steroids would ever become. And be assured baseball management knew about it. They just turned a blind eye, as they did with steroids, until the government got involved, and baseball got scared that the sacred antitrust exemption might be revoked. Now, baseball not only tests for 'roids, but greenies have been added to the list. You don't even want to know the Hall of Famers I know who've used amphetamines on a regular basis. Yet many of the same writers who knew and still voted them in – no problem –stigmatized McGwire because they thought he may have taken steroids. I have a suggestion for them: A mirror. Joe McDonnell is an award-winning radio talk show host and investigative reporter.
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