Mark McGwire given massive snub by baseball Hall of Fame

Steroid Nation is putting forth this hypothesis: the snub from the Baseball Hall of Fame, handed to Mark McGwire, is the biggest voting snub in HOF history. Why?

McGwire launched 583 home runs, which ranks #8 on the all-time home run list. His career includes the 2^nd, 4^th, and 12^th best single season home run totals of all time. He was a Rookie of the Year, a Gold Glove winner, a 12 time All-Star, and finished in the Top 5 for the MVP 3 times. His 1998 season broke the 27 year-old 61 HR mark set by Roger Maris. He and Sammy Sosa were credited with revitalizing baseball in the late 1990s. McGwire led his league in home runs 4 times, slugging average 4 times, and RBIs once.

In the first ballot of McGwire's eligibility for the Cooperstown HOF, McGwire pulled 25% of the votes. Twenty-five percent. (see Table 1 to view similar HOF offensive players)

McGwire's tally is the lowest percentage of any MLB player with 500 home runs.  No one is even close to that low on their first ballot, except Jimmy Foxx in the 1940s, and it appears he wasn’t even retired at the time (Table 2). The lowest of the ‘recent’ 500 home run hitters was Eddie Mathews with 47% his first try; Matthews was elected on vote #4 with 78% of the HOF votes in 1978.

There is one loud message in this vote: the voting sportswriters have grave reservations about Mark McGwire's integrity and the validity of his numbers.  Big Mac needs to answer these reservations.

(tables after the jump)

Table 1:  MLB Hall of Fame players with offensive statistics similar to McGwire

                                                                                               

		Name	HR	RBI	Ave	Slug	1st Ballot%
		McGwire	583	1414	.263	.588	25
		Killebrew	573	1584	.256	.509	60
		McCovey	521	1555	.260	.515	81
		Mathews	512	1444	.271	.509	47
		Banks	512	1636	.274	.500	83
		Schmidt	548	1596	.267	.527	96
		Murray	504	1917	.287	.476	85

Offensive Numbers of 500 Career Home Run Hitters

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Name	HRs	1st Ballot %	Years voting	Final Vote %
Murray	504	85	1	x
Ott	511	49	3	87
Matthews	512	47	4	79
Banks	512	83	1	x
McCovey	521	81	1	x
Williams	521	93	1	x
Foxx	534	13 (41)	6 (unusual voting  pattern)	79
Mantle	536	88	1	x
Schmidt	548	96	1	x
Griffey	563	x	x	x
Jackson	563	94	1	x
Palmeiro	569	x	x	x
Killebrew	573	60	4	83
McGwire	583	25	?	?
Robinson	586	98	1	x
Sosa	588	x	x	x
Mays	660	95	1	x
Bonds	734	x	x	x
Ruth	714	95	1	x
Aaron	755	98	1

Comments

If you take away his two big years with the Cardinals, McGwire's main stats (HR & RBI) are basically the same as Dave Kingmans's. McGwire was hurt throughout his career - would he have come back so strong in those last years in St. Louis without the juice? He was a big guy who hit lots of HRs, that's it. No juice = no 70 HR in 1998 = no Hall of Fame. Maybe if he was able to stay healthy during his entire career he would have hit 700 HR...maybe if Mattingly had stayed healthy he would have made it to 3000 hits...maybe if I bionic knees I could dunk a basketball.

[grg51]

Funny remarks, especially the knees.

McGwire is more than the 2 big years. He was ROY with 49 HRs. He was a 12 time All-Star. There is a Gold Glove.

That's harsh with the Kingman reference (LOL). (I was at Wrigley Field once when Kingman got into a fight with a Cub; funny).

McGwire is a bit more than Kingman. Didn't Kingman hit about .215 career?

I suspect you can deduct 10% for roids in stats. 5-10%. Does Big Mac still make it with 10% off his totals? Pretty close.