Major League Hypocrites

The 2007 inductees to Baseball's Hall of Fame were announced today and Mark McGwire was not one of them. The more I think about it, the more Major League Baseball, it's writers and Hall of Fame Voting Committee are a bunch of hypocrites.

Mark McGwire helped save Major League Baseball. After the Strike in 1994, fans realized there was more to summers than baseball and people didn't miss it. Infact, when baseball came back, people stopped going. Attendance was way down, television ratings were horrible, people just couldn't relate to their favorite millionaire stars and their greedy owners who took "The National Past Time" Away.

But in 1998, 2 individuals sparked interest back in Major League Baseball with their pursuit of the greatest single season record in sports - Roger Maris' 61 Homerun mark. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa made baseball enjoyable again. I remember watching ESPN to see them break into coverage of both going after the record. I remember when McGwire did it, it was one of the greatest moments in sports that I have ever seen.

Now fast foward to a few years ago, when all of the sudden, it hit the fan about steriod use. All of these records were tainted. Everyone seems to forget about how they jumped on McGwire and Sosa's back during the record, but turned their backs on them when our Government was getting involved and investigating the use of performance enhancement drugs. I can write for hours about all of this, but I will just simply sum it up and say, Mark McGwire deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, first for his resergence in MLB and second with his numbers.

Speaking of the Hall of Fame, I would love to find out who didn't vote for Cal Ripken? Ripken represents what is good in sports and life. He showed up to work everyday and excelled while he was there. He was a class act on the field and off. For those who didn't vote for him. they deserve to lose their voting priviledges. I am tired of these committee members using their votes as a pulpit to spew their venom.