Dave Kindred

So, does Mark McGwire get in next year?

Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn are locks. Goose Gossage and Jim Rice deserve it. Andre Dawson, we can argue. If I were king of the world, Dale Murphy already would be in the Hall of Fame.

But McGwire?

If only we could rewind history …

If only McGwire had chosen a counselor both daring and wise before his congressional testimony on March 17, 2005 …

Then he might have raised his right hand and sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. After which he would have said, "Yes, sir, I used steroids, didn't everybody? Nobody told us not to, and there was no rule against it. Now, let me tell you some stories."

Over the next year and more, then, it would have been clear to everyone, even sportswriters, that the juice didn't run only in the veins of home run hitters with Popeye forearms. Nor was it only in hitters at all, for a scorecard would show that for every position player using performance-enhancing drugs there was an offsetting pitcher. For every Rafael Palmeiro, a Jason Grimsley.

McGwire once seemed a certain Hall of Famer. The 70 in a season, the 583 lifetime. In his time, under his conditions, against his contemporaries, he was the best home run hitter in the game. Then came Ken Caminiti's confession, Barry Bonds' 73, Jose Canseco's boasting, BALCO's baggage and Congress' calling in Palmeiro, Canseco, Sammy Sosa and, alas, poor Mark McGwire, who refused to answer questions about his use, if any, of steroids.

"I'm not here to talk about the past," he said, when that was exactly what he should have done.

If only we could rewind history …

If only he had said …

"The androstenedione in my locker? The Cardinals knew about it. They could have asked me about it. No one did. No one reported it to the commissioner's office, did they, Mr. Selig? The owners and players at that time had not created a drug policy banning steroids. The absence of such a policy seemed to most players to be a tacit OK to do whatever we wanted to do. If you remember, MLB's marketing department created advertisements that were happy glorifications of, if I may be immodest, Mark McGwire and my great friend here, Sammy Sosa.

"This is not an excuse. I believe the use of steroids is wrong in athletics. Human growth hormone, for which there is no test now and no test coming anytime soon, is also wrong. Those drugs are invaluable in medicine, but in athletics they're an insidious form of cheating. They do for the body what the body cannot do for itself, and they do it, most often, at the long-term risk of an athlete's health. Mr. Congressman, ask the families left behind by athletes dying young if there's good reason to say no to the pharmaceuticals that make you run faster, jump higher, train harder.

"But let me also say, sir, that I'm a born-and-taught competitor in the meritocracy known as professional sports. When my competitors are using drugs that our sport has no rules against, I'm going to use those drugs, too. At the same time, I understand the danger in their use. That's why athletes in many sports, especially track and field, have hired the very best trainers and doctors to create programs and monitor their health. If you'd like, I can tell you some stories about that, too."

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McGwire said none of that. But his silence on those issues is beside the point. The point is, he could have said it all because it was all true. Instead, by refusing to answer reasonable questions asked reasonably, he opened himself up to unreasoned attacks by unreasonable critics. The court of public opinion quickly declared him guilty. A piece of his punishment likely will be handed down this winter when the 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America mark their Hall of Fame ballots. Odds are, McGwire won't be elected.

Johnny Bench, the Hall of Fame catcher from Cincinnati's Big Red Machine days, recently told a radio interviewer that the steroids debate has become so infected with gossip, innuendo and circumstantial evidence that he has adopted a new way to think about it. Unless a player has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, Bench believes the player should be treated as if he were clean.

"So Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn and Mark McGwire should go into the Hall of Fame next year," Bench said.

Agreed.