NEW YORK – Mark McGwire is getting another swing at the Hall of Fame.
The former slugger who admitted using steroids joins Bud Selig, George Steinbrenner and seven others on the Today’s Game Era ballot to be considered for election to Cooperstown in December.
The announcement was made Monday by the Baseball Hall of Fame. The ballot is part of changes to the election process announced by the Hall’s board of directors in July. It includes five players, three executives and two managers who made their biggest impact from 1988 on.
“It’s flattering. It’s fantastic. I mean, thank you,” McGwire told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “It’s very flattering to have another opportunity to possibly get into the Hall of Fame. It’s exciting.”
McGwire said he’d heard of the committee, but didn’t think his name would come up “for a long time.”
“I didn’t know it was going to be this year, considering last year was my last year on the (writers’) ballot. It’s very flattering.”
Harold Baines, Albert Belle, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Davey Johnson, Lou Piniella and John Schuerholz round out the class of 2017 candidates on the new ballot.
All are alive except for Steinbrenner, the bombastic and successful owner of the New York Yankees from 1973 until his death in 2010.
Selig served as baseball’s acting commissioner from September 1992 to July 1998 and then as commissioner until January 2015. He oversaw an era of immense change that included expansion, wild cards and interleague play.
It is Selig’s first appearance on a Hall of Fame ballot, and the third for Steinbrenner. He fell short on 2010 and 2013 Expansion Era ballots.
Voting is Dec. 5 during the winter meetings in Maryland. To be enshrined, candidates must receive votes on at least 75 percent of the ballots cast by the 16-member Today’s Game Era Committee.
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