Robinson: Vote no on Big Mac, By: John Erardi
Performance enhancers taint McGwire, others, Reds great says
Reds great Frank Robinson said this weekend at a card show at Moeller High School that Mark McGwire should not be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Hall of Fame ballots will be mailed at the end of this week to the 500-plus voters of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Besides McGwire, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken are also first-timers on the ballot. Gwynn, Ripken and McGwire are best known, respectively, for winning eight batting titles, breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games streak and breaking Roger Maris' single-season home run record. McGwire has admitted using the steroid precursor androstenedione in the 1990s.
"Should I vote for Mark McGwire?" a visiting writer asked Robinson after the Moeller card show Friday night.
The 71-year-old Baseball Hall of Famer shook his head and firmly said, "No."
When the writer said he already had made up his mind not to vote for McGwire - but just wanted to hear a Hall of Famer's opinion - Robinson said he understood.
Ol' No. 20's retired jersey hangs on the press-box facing at Great American Ball Park. His statue adorns Crosley Terrace out front at Second and Main streets. As the sixth-most prolific home run hitter in baseball history, and one of the game's greatest all-around players and fiercest competitors, Robinson has gravitas.
"Why aren't you voting for McGwire?" Robinson asked.
"Steroids," the writer answered. "McGwire admitted he was taking andro back in the 1990s. It's the same thing as steroids - the steroids he won't admit to taking. Andro turned McGwire into something he wasn't created to be."
"That's exactly right," said Robinson. "Who else?"
"I'm not going to vote for (Sammy) Sosa after that, or (Barry) Bonds after that," the writer said.
"Good, good," said Robinson, nodding.
A woman standing nearby chimed in: "Once it's proven they were on steroids, their records should be stricken."
"I've heard you agree with that," the writer said to Robinson.
"I do," Robinson said. "Why should baseball have to try to prove when (these sluggers) started using (steroids)? They used 'em, and they knew they were wrong."
Robinson hit 586 home runs in his career, 324 of them during his 10 seasons with the Reds (1956- 65). His first game was Opening Day 1956 at Crosley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Vinegar Bend Mizell. Robinson was 20. He would have been called up a full year earlier, but he aggravated a sore arm on a throw in winter ball before the 1955 season.
In his first major-league at-bat, on April 15, 1956, Robby hit a double that missed being a home run by about 2 feet. He hit 38 homers that year to tie a rookie record that stood for 31 seasons until McGwire hit 49 in 1987.
Robinson did not shy away from the steroid discussion when invited to talk about it. He is one of baseball's most outspoken players and a champion of the right way of playing the game.
"Let's take Barry Bonds," Robinson said. "You don't get better as you get older."
Bonds won his last four - consecutive - of seven Most Valuable Player awards after he turned 37. In order, in those four seasons, Bonds hit 73, 46, 45 and 45 home runs. When Robinson was the same age, he hit 19, 30, 22 and nine homers , respectively, the usual decline as a slugger passes 35 years old.
"We don't know what it (taking steroids) really does for you," Robinson said. "I've been told you can bounce back from injuries quicker. Your eyesight gets better. Your reflexes get better."
He said it's undoubtedly true that many more players were using steroids than have been implicated.
"There are so many guys in this game that have used it or are using it or were using it, that we didn't even think about it while it was going on," Robinson said. "We only looked for the big guys.
"But when I see something my eyes can't believe, I ask myself a question - and it's too bad you have to question it, but that's what happens - 'How is he able to do it?'
"I sat in my chair and watched the Mets (in the playoffs) before the Cardinals beat 'em and went to the World Series. (Relief pitcher Guillermo) Mota was in almost every game. I can't say every game, because he may have missed one (actually two) , but I believe he was up throwing every game. And I said to myself, 'How in the hell can he do that?' Then, three weeks ago they busted him (for using steroids)."
Mota had revived his career with the Mets after his late-summer arrival from Cleveland, only to test positive for steroids. He was hit with a 50-game suspension, to be served next season.
An even bigger scandal would have occurred had the Mets made it to the World Series and Mota pitched well and the Mets beaten the Tigers to win the Series.
"Imagine the mess," wrote Chicago Tribune national baseball writer Phil Rogers in early November. "Given the slow-moving nature of the process, (Mota's positive test for steroids) probably was collected before the playoffs."
Mota, acquired by the Mets Aug. 20, went 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA with the Mets. He had been 1-3 with a 6.21 ERA with the Indians.
ROBBY ON ROSE: Robinson said that if he had a Hall of Fame vote and his former teammate Pete Rose had been on the ballot, Robinson would not have voted for him.
It's a moot point now.
Rose's 15-year window of eligibility ran out before he could even be considered. After Rose had been banned from baseball in 1989 for his involvement in gambling, the Hall of Fame board of directors passed a rule that a person on the permanently ineligible list cannot appear on the ballot.
What Rose did - betting on baseball - was even worse than what the steroid users did, Robinson said.
"It's the No. 1 rule in baseball," Robinson said. "That rule is read to you every year before the season starts. To bet on baseball, (even) to bet on your own team, that's worse than the other (steroids), because the other is doing it to yourself. But none of it is good."
