Mark David McGwire, nicknamed “Big Mac”, is an American former professional baseball first baseman who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1986 to 2001 for the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals.

McGwire led the major leagues in home runs in five different seasons and set the major-league record for home runs hit in a four-season period from 1996 to 1999 with 245. He demonstrated exemplary patience as a batter, producing a career .394 on-base percentage (OBP) and twice leading the major leagues in bases on balls.

Will Mark McGwire be in the Hall of Fame?

He and Giles, who I didn’t vote for but was shocked at his low vote count, were my two biggest surprises. And McGwire – some people are going to hate this – but a steroid user has officially been inducted into this Hall.

To maintain consistency, you kind of have to vote in other steroid users now. McGwire would be a really strange exception to the no steroid users thing voters have had in the two modern ballots.

As for the future, I am taking a brief break from the Hall of Fame. On Thursday and next week, I will have posts unrelated to the Hall of Fame. Two weeks from now, we continue voting. I’ll do three rounds instead of four of voting.