Hall No! The Case Against Mark McGwire

By: Carlo Rivieccio

When people refer to the Hall Of Fame, they think of Cooperstown.  Not Canton.  Not Springfield.  Cooperstown.  A little village in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  And that is part of what makes it special.  You have this long, scenic, drive through Upstate New York.  Talk of past heroes, games you’ve seen and parks you want to go to.  The museum is wonderful, the small auditorium is intimate and perfect for readings or acoustic concerts, but the actual Hall is unlike anything found in sports.  When you walk into the dim Hall, with Bronzed plaques of long dead legends that your Dad told you about, you notice it’s almost completely silent.  Plaques you can easily read online suddenly become novels, each word to be studied.   It’s a special experience, one that no other sport can compete with.

And only the best get to be a member.

And that’s why Mark McGwire doesn’t deserve to be in.

To make this clear, PED’s will be a non-factor.  Steroids and Andro have no bearing on my case against Mark.

My case is simple.  If you are great at many things for the duration of your career, you deserve to be a Hall of Famer.  If you are the best at one thing, in any sport, you deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.  If you specialize, and only do one thing well, to be a hall of Famer, you must be the best at it.  Mark McGwire wasn’t great at many things.  Mark McGwire did one thing, he hit home runs, but he wasn’t the best at it.  Not even in his generation.  And he wasn’t good enough at anything else to warrant induction.

In the magical 1998 season, McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled throughout the season to break Roger Maris’ single season home run record, though both broke the 61 plateau, McGwire hit 70.   An amazing feat of power and endurance culminating in a record that would last all of three years.

Two things to know about that 1998 season.

• This was the St. Louis Cardinals season line.

In a season where their best player shattered the greatest single season record, they finished 19 games out.   McGwire, for all his heroics couldn’t even get his team within a sniff of the playoffs.  Heck they were barely above .500!

• Mark McGwire finished 2^nd in MVP voting.  HE DIDN’T WIN THE MVP!  Sammy Sosa, who led his team to the playoffs and hit 66 home runs won.

When you only do one thing well, and it’s an important thing in the eyes of fans and writers, and you do it more prolifically than anyone else had in the 4.5 billion years this Earth has been around and you can’t win the award specifically designed for Offensive Stars you cannot be considered the greatest.  If you aren’t the greatest then you are not a Hall of Famer.

We also have this catty zinger from Sammy Sosa during the 1998 season.  Referring to why he fell behind in the race  – “My situation is different from Mark’s.  I’m not looking for Home Runs.  I’m looking for the playoffs.”

For the sake of comparison, let see Mark versus contemporaries.

(Bold indicates worst of group, italics indicates best)

Worst average.  Least RBI.  Least hits.  Pathetic stolen bases.  Never won an MVP.  Was only seriously in the conversation five times.

If you take away homers, McGwire has only 1,043 hits.  Averaging to 65 hits per year or one hit every 2½ games.

I understand that RBI is a poor metric because it relies on others in an otherwise individual sport, but Mark McGwire himself accounts for more than one third of his own RBI total.  He was only a threat to beat you with the long ball.  Which is why he walked so much, because if you put him on base the threat was over.  Unless of course you happened to be the catcher that let him steal his one base per year.

His bread and butter, Home Runs, are not that impressive when compared to the cream of his generations crop.  Four players that played with him hit more.  With 12 MVP award between them.

Would you take 60 less career home runs for 850 more hits and 300 more RBI?  Yes you would.

Would you take 70 less Home Runs for 1,000 more hits and 240 more stolen bases?

Would you take Ken Griffey Jr, widely considered one of the greatest to ever play, and who somehow left a lot on the table, over McGwire.  Yes you would.

You would.  Because you are a sane person.

Among this group, McGwire looks best when compared to Sheffield of Sosa (the same Sosa who beat him for an MVP award.)  Even then, it’s not the most favorable.

Sheffield’s higher average, equal OBP, potential to hurt you if you walked him and ONE THOUSAND MORE HITS, make him a much more valuable player.

Sosa didn’t walk much, which killed his OBP and OPS but he hit for better average, could run, played defense and hit more home runs that McGwire.

Finally, though he hit 583 total Home runs in his 16 year career, he hit 70 in 1998 and 65 in 1999.  All impressive numbers.  A little math will tell you though, that those 135 blasts represent 23% percent of his career total.  Giving him 448 total in his 14 other years, or a nice strong 32 per year average.  Nothing to sneeze at, but nothing to enshrine forever.

You know who was really good at bashing home runs.  Dave Kingman.  You know who is not a Hall of Famer?  Dave Kingman.  And neither should Mark McGwire be one.

When you are the greatest at something, you deserve to be a Hall of Famer.  When you are not the greatest, though you may be remembered, you do not belong in the solemn, hallowed Hall of Fame.

To Contact Carlo, or any other AFRSports Columnist, please E-Mail: Contact@AFRSports.com

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