Two hits and a big miss for Hall of Fame

Baseball Hall of Fame voters made an unmistakable statement with their ballots Tuesday, rejecting steroid-tainted slugger Mark McGwire while enthusiastically embracing Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn in their first year of eligibility.

When the three players retired five years ago, it was widely assumed they would be inducted together at Cooperstown, N.Y.

Ripken was the game’s iron man, having played in a record 2,632 consecutive games and proving that a large man could excel at shortstop. Gwynn was the best contact hitter in decades, winning eight batting titles and posting a career average of .338.

And McGwire ranks seventh all-time with 583 home runs, having mesmerized the nation in 1998 by smashing Roger Maris’ long-standing record by blasting 70 with the St. Louis Cardinals to win a lively long-ball race against Sammy Sosa.

Strong circumstantial evidence has connected McGwire to baseball’s burgeoning steroids scandal, however, convincing more than three of every four voters that he doesn’t belong beside the game’s immortals -- at least not yet. There was McGwire’s flimsy testimony during a 2005 congressional hearing on steroid use, his admitted use of the steroid precursor androstenedione, the detailed accusations of former teammate Jose Canseco, and McGwire’s steadfast refusal to comment on the topic.

McGwire received 23.5% of the votes from 545 members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America, enough to keep him on the ballot next year. Six players who received less than 30% of the vote in their first year of eligibility eventually were inducted in the Hall of Fame, including former Dodgers Duke Snider and Don Drysdale.

The seeming consensus among baseball writers is that McGwire has little chance of getting in unless he publicly addresses the alleged steroid use. Furthermore, many writers believe other players from the so-called steroid era of the 1990s will have difficulty, including Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Barry Bonds. Canseco, who ranks 30th all-time with 462 home runs, got all of six votes and won’t be on the ballot next year.

“This is the first of many years where performance-enhancing drugs will be an issue in the voting,” said John Shea, national baseball writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. “Maybe 20 to 30 years from now we’ll still have the dilemma, we’ll still be guessing.”

A minority of voters determined that it is unfair to single out one player from an era when steroids and other performance-enhancing substances proliferated. Baseball did not test for steroids until 2003.

“In a sport with no rules, no testing and no punishment for using the hottest substances of the day, this was no tiny problem, involving a few obvious home run trotters,” wrote ESPN’s Jayson Stark, who voted for McGwire.

“It was baseball that allowed all this to go on, and it never furnished us with any evidence whatsoever of who did what when. So we hardly know anything concrete about what McGwire may or may not have done.”

Apparently Ripken and Gwynn were above suspicion, getting close to unanimous endorsements from voters.

Ripken was listed on 98.53% of the ballots, the third-highest in the history of the baseball writers’ balloting, and Gwynn got 97.6% of the votes, seventh-best all-time. Ripken established a record by being named on 537 ballots, breaking the previous mark of 491 by Nolan Ryan in 1999.

Relief pitcher Goose Gossage fell 21 votes shy of election with 388 (71.2%). The only other players receiving more than half the vote were outfielders Jim Rice with 346 (63.5%) and Andre Dawson with 309 (56.7%).

Ripken and Gwynn weren’t surprised by their induction, yet when the word came, both became emotional.

“For the last five years I’ve kind of thought what that call would be like, and when I answered the phone and he said, ‘You’ve made the Hall of Fame,’ I lost it,” Gwynn said. “You can’t imagine the feeling you get. It was elation, thinking about my father, thinking about my family, all the work I put in.”

Ripken spent the morning thinking about his late father, a longtime coach in the Baltimore Orioles system. And he couldn’t help but reflect on his own years in the minor leagues after he stepped in the shower and was greeted by cold water because the water heater in his house malfunctioned.

“That made me remember my cold-shower days in [rookie league] Bluefield,” he said. “On a day like this, if you are getting too big for your britches, there is always something that will bring you back to your roots.”

Ripken was the American League rookie of the year in 1982 and most valuable player the following year when the Orioles won their last World Series. He played in a record 16 consecutive All-Star games and spent his entire 21-year career with the Orioles.

He won a second MVP award in 1991 and finished his career with 3,184 hits, 431 home runs and 1,695 runs batted in. Besides earning a place in history as baseball’s iron man, the 6-foot-3 Ripken is perhaps best remembered for paving the way for big men in the middle infield.

Gwynn also played his entire career with one team, the San Diego Padres. He was a 15-time All-Star, had 3,141 hits and batted over .300 each of his last 19 seasons. The consummate contact hitter, his .394 average in 1994 is the highest in the majors in the last 65 years. He hit only 135 home runs but was the toughest player to strike out in the National League in 10 seasons.

Ripken and Gwynn have remained close to baseball since retiring in 2001. Ripken is part owner of a minor league team in Aberdeen, Md., and runs a youth baseball academy. Gwynn is coach at San Diego State and works as a television analyst.

McGwire, meanwhile, has all but disappeared from public life. Several of his lifelong friends have said he hasn’t spoken to them in years and he turned down a invitation from the Cardinals to appear at the World Series in October.

The last image most people have is of him nearly breaking into tears at the congressional hearing in March 2005, dodging questions about steroids by saying he didn’t want to talk about the past.

“My personal problem with McGwire is that he won’t declare himself on [the steroids] issue,” said Tom Haudricourt, longtime national baseball writer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The voting could radically move upward if he did so.”

On a joyful day they had anticipated for years, Gwynn and Ripken graciously answered questions about the Hall of Fame worthiness of suspected steroid users and about McGwire in particular. Gwynn said McGwire should be in the Hall and Ripken declined to offer an opinion.

“I don’t think it is my place,” Ripken said. “It is an important story for baseball and needs to be debated. I know it’s part of cleaning up the game. The hard part is that we are operating off of speculation.

“It is difficult to make a statement one way or the other, absent of the facts.”

Gwynn said he didn’t condone steroid use, but pointed out that “we knew about it, players knew, owners knew, everybody knew and we didn’t do anything about it.” He said he preferred to think of McGwire as the player who helped make baseball popular again with his record-setting home run binge in 1998.

“When you saw how he was able to bring a town and a country together with what he could do with a baseball bat, he deserves [to be inducted],” Gwynn said. “He almost single-handedly put this game on his back and carried it at a time we needed it.”

Although it isn’t known for certain that McGwire did all that heavy lifting with the help of performance-enhancing drugs, Hall of Fame voters made it clear that they aren’t convinced otherwise.

steve.henson@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Hall ’07

THE VOTE

The vote of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America for the Hall of Fame class of 2007, with percentage of the 545 votes cast (75% needed for election):

*--* x-Cal Ripken Jr. 537 98.5 x-Tony Gwynn 532 97.6 Rich Gossage 388 71.2 Jim Rice 346 63.5 Andre Dawson 309 56.7 Bert Blyleven 260 47.7 Lee Smith 217 39.8 Jack Morris 202 37.1 Mark McGwire 128 23.5 Tommy John 125 22.9 y-Steve Garvey 115 21.1 Dave Concepcion 74 13.6 Alan Trammell 73 13.4 Dave Parker 62 11.4 Don Mattingly 54 9.9 Dale Murphy 50 9.2 Harold Baines 29 5.3 Players with fewer than 27 votes (less than 5%), who will no longer be eligible for election by the BBWAA: Orel Hershiser 24 4.4 Albert Belle 19 3.5 Paul O’Neill 12 2.2 Bret Saberhagen 7 1.3 Jose Canseco 6 1.1 Tony Fernandez 4 0.7 Dante Bichette 3 0.6 Eric Davis 3 0.6 Bobby Bonilla 2 0.4 Ken Caminiti 2 0.4 Jay Buhner 1 0.2 Scott Brosius 0 0.0 Wally Joyner 0 0.0 Devon White 0 0.0 Bobby Witt 0 0.0 x -- elected to Hall of Fame. y -- final year of eligibility.

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Associated Press

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Voting breakdown

The vote of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America for the Hall of Fame class of 2007, with percentage of the 545 ballots cast (75% needed for election):

*--* TOP VOTE-GETTERS: PLAYER POSITION VOTES PCT CAL RIPKEN JR. Shortstop 537 98.5 TONY GWYNN Outfield 532 97.6 RICH GOSSAGE Relief pitcher 388 71.2 JIM RICE Outfield 346 63.5 ANDRE DAWSON Outfield 309 56.7 BERT BLYLEVEN Starting pitcher 260 47.7 LEE SMITH Relief pitcher 217 39.8 JACK MORRIS Starting pitcher 202 37.1 MARK McGWIRE First base 128 23.5 TOMMY JOHN Starting pitcher 125 22.9 STEVE GARVEY First base 115 21.1 DAVE CONCEPCION Shortstop 74 13.6

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Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times