When they retired after the 2001 season, Mark McGwire, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken were expected to be linked forever. They would constitute one of the greatest incoming classes that baseball's Hall of Fame had ever known. They were automatic, first-ballot enshrinees, and fans were already counting down the five years until the threesome made it official.
Now it's a class of two -- and one big question mark. With the 2007 election looming, Gwynn and Ripken are as rock-solid to be inducted as ever. McGwire, however, has seen his circumstances twist dramatically in the span of less than two years.
Use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs has become one of the biggest stories in baseball, and in the eyes of fans and many voters, McGwire is one of the faces of that abuse.
McGwire, who retired before the league began testing for such substances, has never been proven to have taken anything stiffer than the steroid precursor androstenedione, which was legal at the time. But he was called to testify in the March 2005, Congressional hearings on steroids in baseball, and he made a showing that disappointed even some of his strongest backers.
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On ballot, McGwire's a question mark
On ballot, McGwire's a question mark
What Now?!
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