Coach, you taught McGwire's wife...to do what?
(You dog, you.)
As a Cardinal fan I, too, have more sympathy for Mac. He did take andro (not a controlled substance as steroids are and legal in the MLB at the time). He did have some physical traits (bad skin, injuries) associated with steroids, though we have no information that he ever tested positive (nor do I know if he was ever tested).
However, there are more causes of bad skin and injuries than steroids. He has always been big (differentiating him from Bonds and Sosa).
I wouldn't be shocked if it was reliably revealed that he did take steroids, nor would I howl in disbelief if it were reliably reported that he didn't.
McGwire was very low-key and private during his career in St Louis. His earlier Wild Child gig with the A's messed up his first marriage and then he grew up. Unlike most superstars, he had one house and one car. No lifesize bronze statues of himself in the garden like Pudge, no A-Rod indoor putting rooms. His trophies and awards were spread around his family and friends' homes and offices (including, oddly enough, his dentist's office).
No string of endorsement deals post-career like Jordan. No "appearances". He got married again and became a private citizen. That was his M.O. before the hearings, so no need to suggest it was a result of same.
That he elected to make an ill-advised 'take the Fifth' statement fit right in with what he said he was going to do when he retired....have an out-of-the-spotlight, low-key life. It didn't quite work out that way for him.
It will be a difficult vote, because it will be seen to set a precedent.
Of course, these are many of the same bozos who gave Sosa the MVP award in '98, saying it was because they made the playoffs and the Cards didn't, then gave it to Bonds repeatedly without regard to the Giants' record. And the same bozos who so worship the Home Run that they based this year's NL MVP voting pretty much on that stat alone. And the same bozos who now self-righteously quote the andro in his locker and the physical traits --- all of which were right in front of them in '98 --- as horrific evidence of the Tainted Steroid Era, despite their Purple Prose of Worship while the Great Home Run Race was going on.
These guys have got the memories of goldfish, a politician's ability to justify any action no matter how contradictory, and too often show the understanding of the game of a rice farmer in Kuala Lumpur.
They won't vote McGwire in, and I'd be willing to bet McGwire no longer cares.