The first year I had a Hall of Fame vote also was the first year Mark McGwire was on the ballot.
My son was 12 at the time and a huge baseball fan so I included him in the process, and we went over the bios of all the players on the ballot, discussing traditional Hall of Fame benchmarks, career peaks and intangibles.
We also discussed McGwire’s alleged use of steroids, including former teammate Jose Canseco’s descriptions of their injections while together in Oakland and McGwire’s refusal to directly answer questions about it during a Congressional hearing.