McGwire Lacking Support for Hall

Mark McGwire could miss out on making the Hall of Fame because of baseball’s swirling steroids scandal, heightened by his refusal to answer specific questions before Congress, if results released Thursday from an Associated Press survey of some voters hold up.

According to responses from 155 Hall voters polled this week among the roughly 500 eligible, Barry Bonds would get enough support to make it into Cooperstown, but he’s far from being a shoo-in.

Only 65 said they would vote for McGwire when he becomes eligible in two years or were leaning that way; 52 said no or were leaning that way and 38 were undecided.

Bonds received 105 votes for election and 25 against; 25 were undecided.

Players need 75% of the vote to get into the Hall.

McGwire got 55.6% support from those who gave a yes/no response, while Bonds was at 80.8%.

McGwire and Bonds are two of the biggest names in baseball.

McGwire hit 583 home runs and ranks sixth on the career list, and broke Roger Maris’ record in 1998 by hitting 70 home runs.

Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001, breaking McGwire’s mark. He now has 703, just 52 shy of Hank Aaron’s record.

Among the 20 players to hit 500 homers, all who have appeared on the ballot are in the Hall.

Subpoenaed by a congressional committee to testify last week, McGwire repeatedly refused to discuss whether he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs, saying he would not talk about the past.

The slugger was roundly criticized by fans, media and politicians -- even in Missouri, the state where he set the home run record while playing for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Bonds, who has denied using illegal steroids, was not asked to appear before Congress. But in 2003, the San Francisco star testified before the federal grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, known as BALCO.

There’s no telling when members of the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America will be asked to decide on Bonds -- players must be retired for five years before going on the ballot.

AP contacted members of the BBWAA who are eligible to vote or will be by 2007 and asked whether they would support Bonds and/or McGwire for the Hall.

This year, 516 votes were cast for the Hall by BBWAA voters, who must be members of the organization for 10 consecutive years or more.

The total of eligible voters is likely to increase slightly by the time McGwire and Bonds appear on the ballot.