I Applaud Davidoff for His Stance on McGwire
By Mike Silva ~ November 30th, 2009. Filed under: Hall of Fame.
On Saturday Ken Davidoff wrote a column that should have received more national recognition. It’s not often that anyone, mainstream media or otherwise, admits to being wrong about something, much less a position on Mark McGwire. It’s easy to take the high road and treat McGwire’s career as the baseball version of the anti-Christ. His 98′ record breaking season is sometimes viewed as the poster for all that went wrong during the steroid era. Since none of us- that includes fans- can absolutely say how PED’s impacted McGwire’s performance we can’t deny the results. It’s just as ludicrous as when the NCAA bans a team from the record books for violations. As I have said before did I not see UNLV win a title in the early nineties? Should I receive a lobotomy because of some rules violations off the court? Am I supposed to forget watching the 1998 baseball season, or any season in the steroid era? Do you see how silly these political nanny positions sound?
Davidoff provides solid rationale about how steroids weren’t illegal during McGwire’s career, how he was never found guilty of its usage, and how none of the “clean” players chose to speak up- including St. Jeter who has skated through some hypocritical behavior during his career. The best point is how the steroid era wasn’t the first time that baseball produced results that could be considered tainted. He points out how gamblers held their grip on the game during the early twentieth century. Ironically I was talking about how I watched “Eight Men Out” over the holiday weekend. The point that Davidoff makes is should we disqualify the results from that era or punish everyone since we don’t know who threw games. Of course that is silly, but this is essentially what many writers are doing by keeping McGwire off their ballot.
It’s ok if they don’t vote for McGwire because they believe his performance on the field is not Hall worthy. To use their vote as a means to perpetuate a “holier than thou” position on the ethics of the game bothers me. It’s the same type of thought process that produces talk radio phone calls from some “baseball dad” that wants to know what he is going to tell his kid now that their favorite player was caught using PED’s. It’s the proverbial throwing rocks while standing in front of a glass house. Davidoff is man enough to admit he is wrong and I hope others follow. As for the baseball dad- and his kid – little Johnny is going to learn the world is a cold and cruel place soon enough. If Mark McGwire cheating is the worst thing he has experienced to date consider him lucky. It’s only going to get much harder from there.
If you want to hear more about Mike Vaccaro’s book that was mentioned in Davidoff’s column click here to hear Mike Vaccaro on NYBD Radio during the World Series.
