here’s one of those quiet voices of reason, jayson stark at espn on why he will vote for mark mcgwire to be admitted to the baseball hall of fame:

and i vote for him because he was a sport-altering figure: a man who compiled the greatest home run ratio of all time. a man who got mvp votes in every healthy season of his career except one. a man who made 12 all-star teams. and a man who was always a feared slugger from day one — a man who (lest we forget) slugged .618 in his rookie year. just so you know how to compute that, adam dunn, adrian gonzalez and jason bay are among the many folks who have never slugged .618 in any season.

if mcgwire ever gets elected, i’m all for putting on his hall plaque that he was a controversial figure who wasn’t interested in talking about the past. but it’s all a moot point. even if he triples his vote total, he’ll still be more than 50 votes short. so i guess i’ll be delivering this same speech next winter, too.

i lived in st. louis when mcgwire broke roger maris’ single season home run record, i can affirm he was not only a sport-altering figure, he altered the entire city. i was disappointed to discover that his character wasn’t as tall as his batting average but its the baseball hame of fame, not the citizenship hall of fame.

and while we’re at it, let pete rose in too. again, a sport-altering figure. why try to erase his achievements and failures – highlight them all in his biography so maybe the next generation can learn a thing or two.