Mark McGwire Denied Cooperstown Plaque

He put up some monster numbers. Mark McGwire -- Big Mac to his fans -- spent the bulk of his career in an Oakland A's uniform but became a national phenomenon with the 1998 St. Louis Cardinals, when he set a major league record of 70 homeruns in a single season. He followed that performance with 65 round trippers in 1999, his last full year in the majors. And before retiring in 2001, Mark McGwire had tallied a robust 583 home runs in his sixteen-year career (1986-2001), good enough to place the first baseman seventh on major league baseball's all-time home run list, amongst a pantheon of home run greats like Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays.

In fact, Mark McGwire was such a force at the plate that throughout his career he belted the long ball -- and some were very long balls indeed -- once every 10.61 times at bat. That, too, was and still stands as a major league record. Needless to say, Mark McGwire seemed a shoe-in for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

As the rules go, Big Mac would have to wait five years after retirement to make the Hall of Fame ballot. Some 545 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America determine who gets a plaque, and it is they who would let the baseball world know whether or not Mark McGwire is worthy. Votes were tallied Tuesday, January 09, 2007, and only 128 of those writers tapped Big Mac for enshrinement in Cooperstown, New York.

Baseball greats need 75% of the vote to enter the Hall of Fame. To join Ruth, Aaron, and Mays in Cooperstown, this means Mark McGuire needed no less than 408 ballots cast in his favor. His 128 were good enough for only 23.5% of the vote, and Mark McGwire -- for now -- was denied a plaque in Cooperstown in his first year of eligibility.

The reason for Big Mac's denial from Cooperstown is no really no surprise. Suspicions of rampant steroid use in major league baseball were nothing new. But specific allegations regarding Mark McGwire born in the tell-all bestseller, Juiced, by fellow slugger Jose Canseco, resulted in Congressional Hearings in 2005 in which the teary-eyed former St. Louis Cardinal refused to testify. The shadows these allegations cast on the monster numbers compiled in Big Mac's career just may have set Mark MacGwire's hopes for a plaque at Cooperstown well beyond the furthest horizon, and well beyond the reach of even one of his monstrous, 500-foot home runs.

"I'm not here to talk about the past," Mark McGwire had told the congressmen at the 2005 hearings. But now Big Mac is looking to a future where 14 years remain to somehow set the record straight. A player is eligible for 15 years after that first ballot for induction to the Hall of Fame, so long as he continues to receive at least 5% of the vote, and a lot of baseball writers will need a lot of convincing before casting their ballots in favor of Mark McGwire. Otherwise, it'll be no Cooperstown plaque for Big Mac.

Ironically, Jose Canseco, whose book is credited by many for spoiling Mark McGuire's chances, was also on his initial ballot this year to be awarded a plaque in Cooperstown. He was likewise denied, despite 462 career homers. And with only 6 votes -- well below the 5% threshold -- Canseco will not be joining Mark McGwire for any future considerations to be placed among Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

At least Mark McGwire can say, "Wait until next year ..."