Jesus to Judas

I'm not much for nostalgia, but the 1996-2000 Mark McGwire run was the golden period of baseball for my generation. How quickly the same baseball writers who crowned Mac as baseball's savior now blackball him. Think back honestly to yourself, to the summer of '98. For the true fan it was a mythical time where the entire country watched his every at bat. He became bigger than life as he broke the Babe's and Maris's 60 homer mark. To put in perspective, only two people in the over 100 year history of baseball had accomplished what McGwire did.

To me, there were only two unbreakable records in baseball. Maris' 61 homer mark and Dimaggio's 57 game streak. All of the longevity records have a finite number of participants. But the above stated records are open to the entire field-every baseball player who has ever played even one season has the oppurtunity to break these marks. McGwire brought us close to 60 homers for several years as he built even more drama into the pursuit.

As he broke through the wall of 60, everyone, and I mean everyone, cheered this big red-headed all American now playing in apple pie St. Louis. The President immediately called and the record breaking home run was played continuously for days. Baseball was officially back and we couldn't get enough. And what a player to break it- big, white, Californian and a humble man to boot. Here was a model athlete, he did charity work disadvantaged children and even said he liked his ex-wife's husband. The media made him Christ like.

Jesus is now gone and the media sees only Judas. He betrayed us all they say. Their vote tells us he lied, cheated and even used us. Did he use steroids-probably. Was he ever caught cheating ala Sammy-no! Mac hit 49 homers as a skinny rook before taking the last week off to see the birth of his son. He went to three World Series and won one. He hit 583 homers even though he almost missed two entire seasons. He broke the unbreakable record and even held off a corked bat Sammy. And yet he is now punished and shamed for the sins that were rumored since his early Oakland days as Conseco's bash brother. Why did we choose to overlook during the magic of 96-00? The andro was there for all to see. Did we need the euphoria that badly? It really was the rush that allowed us to ignore what we knew was there. We all knew he used steroids, but didn't care because we all collectively wanted the record to be broken.

McGwire now pays with the media vote and his refusal to talk. Barring some mea culpa or fantastic media relations push, I don't think Mac will make into the Hall of Fame. He has taken the bullet for now. Whether others follow or not has yet to be seen. Hall of Fame Inductee Tony Gwinn stated it best, "We all knew about steroids in the game. Players knew, the media knew, the owners knew, -nobody said anything about it. We now have rules in place, in the 80's and 90's, we had no rules."

Mcgwire was able to bring a country together with his magic ability with a bat. That carries a lot of weight with me. Perhaps someday the writers will remember that magic when its time to vote.