Big Mac!

I don't know if you guy/gals have seen this article, but I liked it...wanted to share!

MLB Expert Todd Jones
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McGwire didn't play for the Hall

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Posted: January 9, 2007

We wanted to see homers, and Mark McGwire hit them. He hit them out of sight. We came to ballparks 2 hours early just to watch him in BP. We demanded that he hit BP so much that Tony La Russa had to issue press releases before the Sundays when McGwire wasn't going to hit.

Now we're treating Big Mac as if he was Frankenstein. His biceps are like the bolts on Frankenstein's neck, a symbol of the monster we created. We wanted homers, and he hit them for us.

But after we made McGwire a hero, we found out that yeah, he might have used something to do what he did. Then again, maybe he didn't. We can't be sure, can we?

Doesn't matter. Now there's a big angry mob with pitchforks and torches that wants a pound of his flesh. It plans to get it when voting results are announced Tuesday for this year's Hall of Fame class. Though he hit 583 home runs, including 70 in that record-breaking summer of 1998, McGwire is not expected to make the cut.

Whether McGwire was using something was of no concern in 1998. We didn't care what he looked like. Did you say anything back then? The Cardinals surely didn't. Neither did baseball. McGwire was his team's and the game's golden goose.

Perhaps things would be different for McGwire if he had answered questions at the congressional hearing two years ago. But really, what could he say? He said in his opening statement that if he denied using steroids, no one would believe him and if he admitted to using them, he would risk "public scorn and endless government investigations." He probably was right, not that it might have mattered. Those close to McGwire knew he wouldn't go against baseball's unwritten rules and sell out any of his colleagues.

So after he told the committee he was not there to talk about the past, the angry mob went berserk and now that angry mob is going to teach him a lesson.

Well, I hate to inform the angry mob, but the McGwire I've gotten the chance to know couldn't care less if he's in the Hall of Fame. You don't see him peddling his name or his likeness to keep his persona in the public conscious. He's living his life away from the spotlight just like he tried to do when he was playing.

I heard one member of the angry mob say if McGwire doesn't want to talk about the past then he doesn't want to talk about McGwire's past, either. Ooohhh, scary. You know what? The angry mob doesn't understand that you can't hold the Hall over his head. McGwire is one of those players who if he doesn't get in, it looks bad on the Hall of Fame. He was that dominant a player.

We live in a society when we want it all. The angry mob loved McGwire in 1998 but now wants his head. Well, I want the media to know that if you put McGwire in or leave him out, that's not why he played.

I don't think he cares one way or the other.