Tony Gwynn at Cooperstown; laments McGwire's absence
Story here by Bob Nightengale and USA TODAY
San Diego Padre great Tony Gwynn toured the Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday. Gwynn also toured his thought sand emotions concerning his potential HOF teammate, slugger Mark McGwire:
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Tony Gwynn, taking pictures, asking probing questions, soaking in the history Monday during his tour of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, abruptly stopped. His legs wouldn't move. His mouth couldn't open. He simply stared. Finally, he slowly moved on.
It was a picture of Mark McGwire, displayed with pictures of Jose Canseco and other teammates, a tribute to the Oakland Athletics' American League championship teams.
McGwire, who hit 583 home runs, was considered likely to join Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. during the Hall of Fame induction ceremony July 29. Gwynn, who played only with the San Diego Padres, and Ripken, only with the Baltimore Orioles, received more than 97% of the votes. McGwire wasn't even close, the Hall of Fame's first steroid victim. His plaque won't be in Cooperstown this year. Maybe ever.
"I wanted him in this class," says Gwynn, now head baseball coach at San Diego State. "I wish he could have been here. It would have been great. You got the power guy (McGwire), the consistent guy (Ripken) and me," the Punch-and-Judy guy. "I can't tell you when this (steroid cloud) will go away, but I can tell it started with my class. It forced people to deal with that, and it's part of the reason I got as many votes as I got. People thought I did it the right way. I don't think there's any question about it."
Gwynn, 47, who produced 3,141 hits, the 18th-highest total in baseball history, never did anything more scandalous than chew tobacco. He was aware of the steroid use, and other drug use, in his era. He was teammates with the late Ken Caminiti, who publicly revealed he was a heavy steroid user. He played with pitcher Eric Show, who died of a drug overdose.
Gwynn says greenies went down. He admits performances went up. No secret was this use of PEDs.
Not until after Gwynn retired five years ago were steroids and illegal performance-enhancing drugs banned in baseball.
"The public probably would have been shocked 15 years ago to think this kind of stuff was going on," says Gwynn, who says he remembers the use of amphetamines in the Padres clubhouse. "We used to always talk about it. Guys were complaining, mumbling under their breath. We knew. We all knew the stuff that was going on.
"But there was nothing we could do. Back in the day, everybody thought it was just the hitters, and with pitchers, no way can they take them. So if a guy went from throwing 92 mph to 95 mph, you'd say, 'Ok, you have to turn it up a notch, do your job better.' "
How Gwynn coped with the steroid era, he says, was no different from pitchers who scuffed baseballs. They might not have used steroids or amphetamines, but they still cheated.
cky Gwynn thinks the assault on the record books, by the juicers woke MLB and the public up to the cheating:
Perhaps baseball's steroid policy never would have been introduced, Gwynn says, if the game's most treasured records weren't being eclipsed by players suspected of using steroids.
McGwire and Sammy Sosa soared past Roger Maris' single-season home run record. Barry Bonds blew past McGwire. Now Bonds is 11 homers shy of passing Hank Aaron and becoming baseball's career home run king.
"I think it grabs at people to see some of these hallowed records going down to people who we suspect," Gwynn says. "Numbers shot through the roof. The fluctuation has caused people to look at the game a little differently. … When you talk about somebody hitting in 56 straight or winning 300 games or hitting 756 homers, that gets people up."
Cooperstown for Palmeiro and Bonds? Maybe?
It also might keep some superstars out of the Hall of Fame. Gwynn wonders if Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs, might join Pete Rose as the only players with more than 3,000 hits not inducted into Cooperstown. McGwire might be the lone player with more than 580 homers kept out. Who knows about Bonds?
"It's going to be interesting to see how they deal with it," Gwynn says. "Palmeiro is coming up. McGwire is still on the ballot. Barry Bonds is going to retire sooner or later. Sammy Sosa is going to retire sooner or later. The questions from the congressional hearings are going to keep coming up.
"People are going to remember (Palmeiro) waving his finger at Congress, and then he failed a drug test. Mark McGwire is going to be remembered more for the congressional hearing than breaking Maris' record. People want to know why he couldn't answer the (steroid) question. What I think Mark McGwire is trying to say and Barry Bonds is trying to say is, 'What's in the past is the past.'
"It's time to move forward."
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