To: Hall of Fame Voters
From: The Indignancy Police

Re: Your Blatant Hypocrisy

They all cheated. Get over it.

You know what? This is ridiculous. The All-Star ballots have been cast, and Mark McGwire, the second-best power hitter of his generation (just behind Pete Incaviglia), received 23.6 percent of the vote.

The 23.6 percent translates into 128 votes—exactly the same number of votes cast for him last year. Less than a quarter of all those honored with the right to cede entry into this country’s most prestigious Hall felt Mark McGwire was worthy.

Now normally, I heed to the columnists’ code: Never Rip on Your Fellow Writer. But due to the fact that I don’t consider myself much of a writer, I’m going to give myself a pass here and have a go at my supposed colleagues.

This “I’m not here to talk about the past” guff has to stop.

The guy cheated. Get over it. So did many (perhaps most) of his generation. It’s time for the voters to get off their holier-than-thou keisters and start treating McGwire honestly.

I get the whole “sanctity of the game” angle. I’m disgusted about what happened to baseball in the ’90s and beyond. The drugs that invaded the game not only tainted the accomplishments of our heroes of the past but also jeopardized our children’s opportunity to play the game purely.

But what’s the solution? Ban all players of the Steroid Era from the Hall of Fame? Or just the ones who got caught? Or maybe only the ones who looked like imbeciles in front of Congress?

And if your thought is “screw them all,” how is that fair? Where is baseball’s culpability in all this? And what about a guy like Ken Griffey Jr.? Do you punish him for the era in which he played? From everything we know, the guy is completely clean. But we all know we’ll never know everything.

Here’s the thing: We can’t compare McGwire’s or Dykstra’s or Bonds’ or Sosa’s stats to those of Ruth, Aaron, and Cobb. The drugs have muddied the generational comparison. But we can compare them to each other. All of these guys—pitchers included—have “enhanced” numbers.

So don’t compare Big Mac’s 583 home runs in 6,187 at-bats to Mike Schmidt’s 548 in 8,352 ABs. Compare them to Sheffield’s 480 in 8,531 ABs or Rafael Palmeiro’s 569 in 10,472 ABs.

Look at the fact that the man has been on 12 All-Star teams--12! No one in history has ever been on 12 All-Star teams and been denied Hall of Fame entry.

Only six men have hit more home runs than McGwire. Ever.

Think about that.

And think about this: Chad Allen, Mike Bell, Larry Bigbie, Ricky Bones, Howie Clark, Paxton Crawford, Brendan Donnelly, Chris Donnels, Ryan Franklin, Tim Laker, Cody McKay, Bart Miadich, Daniel Naulty, Luis Perez, Stephen Randolph, Adam Riggs, Ricky Stone.

Recognize any of those names? All of them were in the Mitchell Report but none of them has any prayer of Hall of Fame consideration (in fact, none of those guys has any prayer of being pre-approved for a credit card).

Maybe the connection between performance enhancers and performance isn’t so clear cut. Maybe you actually need talent to be good. What a concept.

Throughout baseball’s history, there have been tons of cheaters. Corked bats, sand-papered gloves, Crisco, Bardol, Vagisil (“You put snot on the ball?”), pine tar excess, greenie poppers—all these practices dominated the game for decades. And yet, because writers are hung up on the inability to compare apples to apples, they are going to ignore some of the best ballplayers the Earth has ever seen.

Are you going to tell me Barry Bonds isn’t a Hall of Fame baseball player without the Clean and Clear? Or that McGwire never would have had the strength to be one of baseball’s best power hitters without steroids (allegedly)?

The dirty secret is that these guys grew up in a baseball environment that embraced the old “if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’” mantra. So they cheated…along with many (most) of their peers.

But suddenly, the writers got indignant and changed the rules. Thy hallowed ground has been soiled.

What a load of garbage.

Mark McGwire is one of the best players of his generation and deserves to be honored in Cooperstown.

Memo to the voters: They all cheated. Get over it.