Ripken talks steroids, McGwire as Hall of Fame election draws near

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The steroid scandal that tainted Mark McGwire's Hall of Fame chances is also threatening to tarnish Cal Ripken Jr.'s induction.\nA two-time MVP who played in 2,632 consecutive games to break Lou Gehrig's record streak, Ripken is considered a certain first-ballot inductee next year. Tony Gwynn also is eligible for the first time and is expected to be a lock for Cooperstown when the votes are counted in early January.\nSo was McGwire, back when he hit 70 homers in 1998 to break Roger Maris' single-season record. The former Oakland and St. Louis first baseman finished with 583 home runs, seventh on the career list, but his refusal to answer questions about steroid use during a congressional hearing last year has stained his career and his candidacy.\nNow, it's also taking attention away from Ripken and Gwynn as they wait to be enshrined.\n"The Hall of Fame run, it should be a celebration of the player's career," Ripken said Tuesday at baseball's winter meetings. "I hope, if that happens with me, that it would be a celebration."\nAn AP survey last month of 125 baseball writers who are eligible to vote -- about 20 percent of the total -- showed that only one in four who gave an opinion planned to vote for McGwire.\n"He had the greatness of a Hall of Famer," said Tony La Russa, McGwire's former manager, who also speculated that McGwire would consider taking a job in baseball when his sons get older.\nRipken spoke Tuesday on behalf of an artificial turf manufacturer before the questions turned to next month's Hall of Fame balloting. Asked if he would object to sharing the stage with McGwire, Ripken said, "Couldn't get past that question, could we?"\n"I'm curious, but I don't feel that I'm in a position to judge," he said. "History will judge us all in some way. And if you're content with the truth coming out, then whether your judgment day is now or 50 years from now doesn't matter."\nWhile saying he wasn't sure how well steroids worked, he also acknowledged that he had some suspicions when he was playing. Ripken said he built a gym in his house and worked hard to get stronger, but he couldn't match the gains he saw in others.\n"A smarter person will have suspicions when you look around and see people coming back a lot bigger than they were," he said. "I realize that steroids were an issue in other sports. But no way did I know it was as big as it's starting to show it was."\nRipken also said that while it's impossible to determine what effect steroids have on statistics, "if all your numbers are produced by those sorts of means, then I'd say, yeah, they're artificial numbers."\nBut he also stressed that McGwire was not the only suspect.\n"If you start to look at that one, then you need to start looking at everybody else," Ripken said.\nRipken retired as one of only seven players with 400 homers and 3,000 hits and was selected to play in 19 All-Star games. He also revolutionized the shortstop position, setting the stage for superstars such as Alex Rodriguez by adding power to a job typically manned by the quick and the slick.\nBut Ripken's most celebrated Hall of Fame credential is his consecutive games streak. When the Baltimore Orioles star broke Gehrig's record in 1995, the heartwarming moment was credited with bringing baseball back from a strike that forced the cancellation of the '94 World Series.\nThree years later, McGwire's pursuit of Maris' record of 61 home runs energized the sport anew; Barry Bonds topped McGwire with 73 homers in 2001. But that mark, once one of the most hallowed in sports, is now derided as a steroid-enhanced fraud.\n"I think we all were very disappointed that steroids came flying out into the game of baseball. The integrity of the game was in question," Ripken said. "It's sad that a cloud is over baseball. Maybe the whole story has not been told yet. I believe the story will come out in time"