McGwire still belongs in the Hall

These are the names I checked off last month on my baseball Hall of Fame ballot:

Roberto Alomar, Andre Dawson, Jack Morris, Lee Smith -

And, yes, again, Mark McGwire.

These are the names I would check off today after McGwire admitted Monday that he used steroids during his career:

Roberto Alomar, Andre Dawson, Jack Morris, Lee Smith -

And, yes, again, Mark McGwire.

Nothing changed. McGwire used steroids? Tell me something I didn't know.

What's next, Wanda Sykes admits she's funny? Lovie Smith admits he's boring? Jay Leno admits he flopped?

Of course McGwire used steroids.

The only surprise would be if an autopsy showed that he or any other baseball player from the 1990s didn't use performance enhancers.

Ironically, McGwire's written admission sounded like he doesn't care anymore whether he makes it to Cooperstown.

McGwire went as far as to say that he wishes he never played during the steroids era, though he said nothing about donating all his earnings to drug prevention in sports.

McGwire had to do what he did Monday. He's going to spring training next month as the Cardinals' batting coach. Reporters would have suspected something about his past if he showed up the size of, say, Julio Lugo.

All of baseball's significant users will squirt out of the syringe at some time or other. Barry Bonds will. Sammy Sosa will. Roger Clemens will.

I haven't forgiven or forgotten that they corrupted the game I love.

But to me - and I admit to being stubborn on the subject - the aforementioned are Hall of Famers.

Sorry, folks, but I still can't dismiss what I witnessed in 1998, when McGwire set the single-season home-run record with 70 and Sosa hit 66.

It happened. I saw it. I can't deny it. I enjoyed it.

That was the most entertaining season ever, way ahead of the Cubs' run in 1969 and the White Sox' run in 1977.

So I'll keep voting for McGwire, until the Hall of Fame takes him off the ballot and declares that his career never happened.

I'll also plan to vote for Alex Rodriguez and other steroid users with Cooperstown credentials, until commissioner Bud Selig erases himself from the game's history books.

I'll assume all those steroid-enhanced homers off all those steroid-enhanced pitchers really were hit, until all the owners, administrators and uniformed personnel who prospered from the era return the money.

You might infer that I voted for Dawson - as I have every year he was eligible - because he was presumed to be clean during the dirty little era.

No, I would have voted for Dawson regardless. I saw him play and remember his performances as Hall-worthy, just as I saw McGwire play and regard his as Hall-worthy.

Since baseball tolerated or enabled or encouraged steroid use, the game will have to live with the consequences.

That includes cheats getting Hall of Fame votes, though it'll be interesting to see how many actually make it to Cooperstown.

McGwire received 23 percent of the vote this year and you'll be glad to know that I do doubt he'll ever get the required 75 percent.

mimrem@dailyherald.com