Hypocrisy and deceit as Hall of Fame denies Big Mac a berth

If you value great theatre, drama rife with hypocrisy and an institutionalised web of deceit, then baseball circa 2007 is your game. Last week, the self-appointed guardians of morality, otherwise known as baseball writers, kept America good and great by excluding slugger Mark McGwire from the Hall of Fame. Exactly 545 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America cast ballots in an election that requires 75 per cent - or 409 votes - to gain a player entry into the hallowed hall.

Despite being credited with rescuing the game in the late '90s thanks to his memorable home-run feats, McGwire received only 128 votes for a measly 23.5 per cent, falling way short. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken were the only players to garner entry and will be enshrined this summer amid a hail of platitudes and gratitudes. McGwire, a 12-time All-Star who is seventh on the career list with 583 home runs, will spend his summer in pariah-like solitude. You see, McGwire is recognised as a steroid-abusing cheat.

McGwire, Sammy Sosa and most notably Barry Bonds, apparently, artificially enhanced their way to breaking some of the most cherished records in US sports. Because the home run is a romantic and mystical icon of Americana, its sanctity must be protected at all costs. Barring McGwire from the Hall of Fame is a de facto effort by the keepers of the game to dismiss his record-breaking total of 70 home runs in 1998. Three years later, Bonds hit 73 homers and will presumably face the same fate as McGwire once he is eligible for the Hall of Fame.

'Not in any good conscience could I vote for someone who used performance-enhancing drugs for so many years,' Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, one of the most influential baseball writers in the US, wrote of Bonds' Hall of Fame candidacy. Verducci also abstained from voting for McGwire for the same reason, although neither Bonds nor McGwire has ever tested positive for steroids. There is, however, a plethora of circumstantial evidence that Bonds and McGwire did use steroids. There is also circumstantial evidence that pitcher Roger Clemens, whose late career dominance is every bit as suspicious as Bonds and whose name recently appeared on a government affidavit into a steroid investigation, used performance-enhancing drugs as well.

Ironically, in his latest book, Inside Baseball, the Best of Tom Verducci, the introduction is written, one would assume in good conscience, by none other than Clemens. Yes, it's hypocrisy in its most naked form and while Verducci is not alone, he is perhaps the most visible and unrepentant member of this pious fraternity. These writers of 'great conscience' are just one small step removed from the ultimate purveyors of hypocrisy: politicians.

In his 2004 State of the Union message, US President George W. Bush called on owners and players in sports, particularly baseball, 'to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough and to get rid of steroids now'. As the former owner of the Texas Rangers, the president knows of what he speaks. Or at least he should.