Mark McGwire - 60 HOMERS CLUB MEMBER

Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963 in Pomona, California) is a former first baseman in Major League Baseball who played from 1986 through 2001.

In his prime, he was perhaps the Babe Ruth of the 1990s. Like Ruth, he was a big man, and a prolific home run hitter; he hit the ball out of the park once in every 9.42 at bats, beating out Ruth for the highest home run ratio in major-league history. Like Ruth, he had begun as an outstanding pitcher. And like Ruth, he was a superb low ball hitter who learned to golf the ball for titanic home runs, balls that sometimes cleared the fences with 100 feet (30 m) to spare. Because of this uncanny ability to hit the long ball, teammates called him "Colossus". Other nicknames of his included "Big Mac," "Big Red" and "The Reptile".

Since he retired, McGwire has kept a low profile. His admission that he used the supplement androstenedione has led to speculation that he also took steroids. Although McGwire had repeatedly denied using illegal performance-enhancing drugs, he refused to do so under oath when he appeared before the House Government Reform Committee on March 17, 2005. As McGwire said in his opening statement, "Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem. If a player answers 'No,' he simply will not be believed; if he answers 'Yes,' he risks public scorn and endless government investigations." When asked if he was asserting his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, McGwire said: "I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject."

Barring any steroid-related action taken against him by Major League Baseball, McGwire becomes eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in the election of January 2007. Some members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), who vote on the recently-retired players, have suggested that they would not vote for him at all, or at least would not vote for him in his first year of eligibility, due to the steroid controversy