A very Happy New Year to all of you, and here's my first column of 2007. I'm sure many of you are following the fortunes of the New England Patriots as they attempt to make it to their fourth Super Bowl in six years. The winter has finally arrived here in the East, after about a month-long "delay." But even though the temperatures are going down, that doesn't mean we can't talk about baseball.

The big talk around the game over the last week was the results of the Hall of Fame balloting, which was announced last week. There were two candidates who were absolute slam-dunk winners in their very first appearance on the ballot: Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn. Only the most bizarre of fans could have questioned it. (And one did in the New York Daily News, writing in that Don Mattingly had superior stats and was "snubbed," while that those of Ripken and Gwynn were "subpar." Those Yankee fans never cease to amaze me, and for all the wrong reasons.)

Ripken and Gwynn both got over 98% of all the ballots cast, among the highest percentages of all-time. They are both a credit to the game and first-class gentlemen as well. But unfortunately, their elections were overshadowed by the "non-election" of fellow first-time candidate Mark McGwire.

McGwire received only 23% of all ballots cast, not even close to the 75% needed for induction. For many writers it was apparent that the suspicions surrounding McGwire and steroids were simply too much for them to vote him in, despite his 583 lifetime home runs and 1998 season where he shattered Roger Maris' single season home record of 61. (No player eligible for the Hall with more than 500 home runs has been denied election.)

Granted, McGwire never failed a drug test (because he was never tested, as he retired before steroid testing became mandatory), but what made the suspicions surrounding him very huge was his infamous appearance before Congress in March 2005. That was the day when many of baseball's most famous sluggers went before a Congressional committee to answer questions about the use of steroids in baseball. It was the day that Rafael Palmeiro wagged his finger before them and said, "I have never taken steroids," and failed a steroid test later that summer. (The same fate that befell McGwire awaits him in a few years as far as the Hall of Fame goes.)

McGwire basically "clammed up" that day, or in the words of Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe, "took the Fourth and a Half Amendment." He said nothing about any type of drug use with his now-infamous reply, "I'm not here to talk about the past." It was apparent to just about all intelligent observers that McGwire clearly had something to hide, and it is out there somewhere. He basically did not directly deny any steroid use on the fear that one day he would be brought up on perjury charges for lying to Congress if it indeed ever came to light. He looked terribly guilty that day, admitting to nothing.

McGwire was disgraced before the entire baseball world that day, and decided to retreat to his home in an exclusive gated California community. He has denied almost all interview requests and doesn't talk to many of his old baseball friends. Of course, that is his right to do that.

But his Hall of Fame chances sailed out the window that March day as well. He probably still feels that the silent treatment to those probing questions about steroids is the right route to take, but it will not help his case for the Hall at all. (It is rumored that McGwire has told close friends that the Hall of Fame is not important to him at all.) While McGwire still has 14 more chances to be elected by the baseball writers (and then the Veterans Committee takes over from there), a few Hall of Famers, like Bruce Sutter and Tony Perez, got similar totals as McGwire in their first year of eligibility, and eventually were elected as the years went on. But they did not have steroid allegations hanging over their heads.

Granted too, that the Hall of Fame has players in it of rather dubious character, like drunks, wife-beaters, avowed racists and other men of questionable makeup. Many have questioned why the writers would get so high and mighty about steroids when many of them in the 1990s basically looked the other way when McGwire was setting home run records in that decade. It is a quandry many of them are in, and some have made passionate pleas why McGwire should and shouldn't be elected. And this controversy will not go away any time soon, as when players like Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa come up for election, it will once again be a raging storm in baseball among fans and writers alike.

It will be interesting to see what kind of numbers McGwire gets in the next election, and the next few if he is not elected in 2008 (most writers figure his numbers won't greatly improve). Next season, there is only one significant candidate up on the ballot for the first time, and that is Tim Raines. He was a very good player, but no slam-dunk first-ballot candidate.

And that leads me to the two players who finished behind both Ripken and Gwynn in this year's election. Rich Gossage and Jim Rice finished third and fourth, with Gossage getting 71% of the vote, and Rice 64%. Both were strong candidates this year, but with Ripken and Gwynn both first-timers, they were hurt by their presence. Gossage was helped by fellow reliever Bruce Sutter's election last year, and Gossage's numbers this year were better than 2006. Rice's candidacy continues to grow, as the steroid allegations surrounding many of the game's sluggers of the 1990s and 2000s have made many realize just what an awesome force he was in the 1970s and 80s.

But with Raines the only first-timer of note in 2008, Gossage and Rice have an even stronger shot at the Hall next year. And both deserve it. They were both dominant players at their positions over a long peroid of time, and should be enshrined. Rice is running out of time however, as 2008 is his next-to-last shot at being elected by the writers. (It will be his 14th chance at election. A good omen perhaps?)

It was a shame that the election of Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn was overshadowed by the McGwire controversy, as this should have been a time for baseball to celebrate the good things that these two players accomplished in their baseball careers. But baseball is paying a heavy price for basically looking the other way when it was "saved" in 1998 by the season-long home run chase of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

And whether McGwire cares about it or not, baseball fans will be debating his exclusion from the Hall (and undoubtably that of a few others from his era) for a long time to come.
 

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