I find JPod’s emailer persuasive, and, that aside, if a guy hits 583 career home runs and 70 in a season, that would be enough for me. Except McGwire was (very, very likely) a cheater, and deserves to be kept out of the Hall.

UPDATE: A McGwire defense via e-mail:

“McGwire was (very, very likely) a cheater, and deserves to be kept out of the Hall.”
Do you want to kick out Gaylord Perry and Phil Niekro, too? How about Barry Bonds? He’s inarguably one of the top 5 hitters in the history of the game – does the fact that he, too, (apparently) used illegal substances that a) weren’t at the time explicitly banned or b) tested for and c) for which there was no punishment, in order to improve himself and perform better for his team, mean that he must be kept out as well?
McGwire unquestionably put together a Hall of Fame quality career, and if he did use “Performance-Enhancing Drugs,” well, he did it at a time when baseball wasn’t looking for them, or punishing their use, and he certainly wasn’t the only one who used them, and he certainly faced many pitchers who had likewise increased their strength by doing so. MLB and the players union had not even collectively bargained a ban on those substances that McGwire is suspected of having used until after his retirement. The sanctimony of the sportswriters who refused to vote for him because of the (admittedly well-founded) suspicion that he used “artificial” means to improve his performance (unlike, apparently, players who have laser-eye surgery) is more than a little bit nauseating. Certainly, if he were inducted, it’s extraordinarily unlikely that he’d have been the first member of the Hall of Fame who had experimented with performance-enhancing substances. How many Hall of Famers had their energy levels boosted regularly with illegal amphetamines? As far as I know, suspicions of that nature hasn’t kept anyone out…