Hall No?
Joel Sherman opines today that Mark McGwire doesn't deserve to in the Hall of Fame because steroids made him into the "great" ballplayer he turned out to be:
For the first 990 games of his career, a period from 1986-94, McGwire was an injury-prone first baseman who produced an offensive performance roughly equivalent to that of [Jay] Buhner. . . Then, suddenly, McGwire's career swerved toward greatness. His body broadened and his success soared.
Sherman has a compelling point. From 1996-1999, McGwire's batting average spiked to .289 and his median number of homeruns was 62. Contrast that to the pre-1995 McGwire. Tossing out 1993-1995, in which he missed considerable time, leaves us with dramatically different numbers for McGwire earlier in his career. His batting average was .248 and median number of homeruns was 36 between 1987 and 1992.
Granted, neither Sherman nor I have proof that McGwire started injecting steroids after 1994, but the circumstantial evidence is hard to ignore. Based on these numbers, I'd have to agree with Sherman that McGwire does not belong in the Hall of Fame.
Cross posted on Plum Crazy.