It is a strange time in baseball.
The announcement of Hall of Fame voting is due today, and the issue of performance-enhancing drugs was part of the thought process for voters in determining which of the boxes they checked off. Perhaps it wasn't quite as important as statistics and performance accolades, but, unfortunately, these are the times we live in and you have to think that way.
Former A's and Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire won't likely make it into the Hall in his second year of eligibility, but he may receive more votes than the 128 he received last year simply because there's a growing sentiment among some voters that Hall of Fame credentials should not be affected by whether a player was suspected of using steroids.
The thinking, while not yet conventional, is emerging: The 1990s and 2000s were the Steroid Era, and the fact is that players experimented with them. So now, as a voter, you must decide on a player-by-player basis whether steroids were the main reason, a partial reason, or no reason that a player became great.
Of course, there will always be the staunch segment that will never vote for a player who was linked to steroids or human growth hormone. Then there are those, like myself, who have taken a more cautious, methodical approach, the old "wait-and-see attitude," in the hope that an answer to this riddle drops from the sky into our laps so we can make the right decision.
Which brings us to the Class of 2008.
In the absence of a slam-dunk candidate, Rich "Goose" Gossage and Jim Rice stand the best chance of being elected. There is no steroid stigma attached to either. Gossage is far more likely than Rice to get in because with 388 votes last year (71.2 percent), he became the player with the most votes who did not get in.
Gossage should pick up the remaining necessary votes and join the select company of the greatest relief pitchers of all time.
"I'm optimistic, but it's a guarded optimism, I guess," said Gossage. "It would be the thrill of my life. Like I said, I couldn't be more proud than to go in with someone like Jim Rice. I don't know if there's a hitter I respected more in the game in the time I played. He could hit the ball as far to right field as he could to left. Amazingly strong. Great hitter for a power hitter."
Rice, on the other hand, has farther to go. He got 346 votes last time, just 63.5 percent of the necessary 75 percent. Will he get enough surge in the wake of the Mitchell Report to get elected in his 14th and next-to-last season of eligibility?
Tony Perez was elected in 2000 when he garnered 385 votes - after getting 302 in 1999. Also making a big jump was Ryne Sandberg, who went from 309 to 393 from 2004 to 2005 to gain induction.
I believe Rice will wind up in the Hall of Fame - either today, next season, or through the Veterans Committee vote. You can't elect Orlando Cepeda and Perez and not Rice. The voters who only crunch numbers don't think he should be in. The people who watched him every day and those who played against him think those people are crazy.
"I hope this is it," said Wade Boggs. "I mean, what an incredible thing to have Goose Gossage, Jim Rice, and Dick Williams go in the same year? Jimmy is very deserving. The years he had, even before I got there, were special, really special.
"Goose is one of the greatest ever. To have a Yankee and a Red Sox go in and then Dick - who was a Red Sox manager, and I voted for him on the Veterans Committee - would be a pretty nice ceremony."
You can add to that the late Larry Whiteside, the former Globe writer who will be honored in Cooperstown, N.Y., as this year's recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award. Whiteside covered all of Rice's career.
Rice has always wanted this honor, though he was never very public about his desire. He's always been low-key about his credentials, but he believes he belongs. He would put himself up as a dominant hitter against anyone of that era - Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson, Eddie Murray, George Brett. Longtime Sox executive Dick Bresciani has made a detailed statistical case for Rice, comparing him favorably to his peers over a decade. Rice was at the top of most categories.
"Has there ever been a year when nobody got in?" Rice kidded the other day. "I don't spend too much time thinking about. It's been a long time now and it hasn't happened. If it happens, I'd be very proud."
The first-time eligibles include Tim Raines, with his 808 stolen bases and .385 on-base percentage. He is likely to get support from voters who consider him the second-greatest leadoff hitter of all time behind Rickey Henderson.
Another former Expo, Andre Dawson, is also gaining steam. The former Red Sox DH was a National League MVP with the Cubs, won eight Gold Gloves, and excelled in many facets of the game. He hit 438 home runs and knocked in 1,591 runs with 2,774 hits.
Former Sox closer Lee Smith might also climb the ladder and make a surge for immortality after Gossage gets elected.
In many of these cases, there seems to be a rite of passage. Once Bruce Sutter and Dennis Eckersley were elected, Gossage's star began to rise. Smith might be the next beneficiary of someone better getting in ahead of him.
So we slowly navigate through the Steroid Era of Hall of Fame voting. It's going to the trickier as the years go by. But today it should be pretty simple: Gossage and Rice yes; McGwire no.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com
