A strong message sent to McGwire

Mark McGwire hit bottom yesterday. Twenty-two months after his devastating appearance in front of Congress, the former home run king officially was deemed a cheater and a pariah by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

His public support is gone, his disgrace complete. Two years ago, he was a virtual cinch to win a first-ballot ticket to Cooperstown. He was going to walk into the Hall of Fame hand-in-hand with Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn. Now the writers have done what Big Mac refused to do: They have spoken.

Jose Canseco admitted his transgressions when he sat before Congress. Rafael Palmeiro lied to us. Sammy Sosa hid behind the language barrier. Barry Bonds never was called to testify because of a case already pending. But McGwire sat there, all lawyered up, looking about 80 pounds smaller than in the days when he was hitting those tape-measure shots. He kept saying, "I'm not here to talk about the past." And we've heard nothing from him since that day.

It was universally viewed as a confession. It eliminated any chance of a perjury charge (something Bonds yet may face), but it cost McGwire his reputation. Yesterday it cost him Cooperstown.

It tainted everything else about yesterday's announcement, just as it will pollute Hall of Fame discussions from here into the next century. McGwire, the first of the Steroid Boys to come up for election, was humiliated in his first appearance on the ballot. And the worthy celebrations for Messrs. Ripken and Gwynn will be tainted by association with the first Steroid Sinner to get shot down by the electorate. Cal and Tony are going to get asked about McGwire every day from now until induction day. It's unfair. They did nothing to deserve this.

Every Hall-eligible big league ballplayer with 500 home runs sailed into the Hall of Fame without argument. McGwire has 583 homers. And yesterday he received only 23 percent of votes cast (a candidate needs 75 percent for election). It was a drubbing worse than Florida vs. Ohio State, worse than Deval Patrick vs. Kerry Healey.

Mac might get a little bounce next year when the strongest ballot newcomers will be Shawon Dunston, David Justice, and Tim Raines, but that weak class is more likely to help Rich Gossage and Jim Rice, who finished third and fourth yesterday. Rice took a small step back from his 2006 total, but next year should be the year for Jim Ed. His résumé (homers and dominance without juice) gets better every year, and voters looking for candidates will have nowhere else to turn.

McGwire, meanwhile, is not going to get a plaque in Cooperstown until new information surfaces or he goes on a tour of contrition, begging forgiveness and telling kids not to do what he did in order to break some cherished records. We'll never be able to quantify how much he was helped by cheating and, yes, it looks like many players were doing the same thing, but McGwire had the bad luck to get subpoenaed -- and the bad advice to take the fifth.

Once more we remind you that Hall voters are instructed to consider not only what players did on the field, but also character, integrity, sportsmanship, and contributions to the game. Football doesn't worry about anything other than playing ability, which is why there's no outcry to remove O.J. Simpson's bust from Canton, Ohio.

Baseball has cared about these things since the Hall was established, though it's fair to suggest that sportswriters (this typist has been a member of the BBWAA since 1977) are probably not a group best suited to be judging other people's character. And most of us who are turning thumbs down on McGwire now were celebrating him as a hardball savior in '98. Including me.

Based on what my eyes and ears told me March 17, 2005, I did not vote for McGwire. Still, it pains me to see him crushed in this manner. He was polite and cooperative in his dealings with teammates, fans, and media. And the home run race of 1998 was instrumental in bringing baseball back from the post-strike years after 1994. Who in Boston will forget McGwire's exhibition at Fenway in the home run derby of 1999?

But that was when we were all innocent. Duped, really. McGwire put together his Hall résumé based on sheer home run power, and there's every indication that his prowess was artificially enhanced. We don't have to prove it in a court of law. This is a free voting system. And the voters yesterday came down against McGwire. With a vengeance.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is shaughnessy@globe.com.