McGwire deserves to be first of ‘steroid era’ in Hall

Do you feel that?

It's that calm, cooling feeling that comes with honesty.

It's the monkey off the back, the weight lifted off the shoulders and the past finally laid to rest.

Mark McGwire, after five years of hiding, ducking and evading the dark cloud of steroids, finally admitted to the world on Monday that he used      performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

He becomes yet another poster child for the so-called "steroid era" in baseball, but this time, for me, McGwire should be       honored differently. He should be the first player of the steroid era elected into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

I know he cheated. I know he used a substance to enhance his game, including when he broke Roger Maris' single-season homerun record of 61 in 1998, when he went on to smack out a career-high 70 homers. However, this era can't continue to be swept under the rug of baseball history.

McGwire is one of the greatest power hitters in the history of the game. His numbers are legendary, and he was one of the best  players over the last two decades, being elected to 12 All-Star games and with a carrer slugging percentage of .588.

Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Andy Pettite, Roger Clemens, Curt Shilling and others fell victim to an era of lies and deception and have all been linked to performance-enhancing drugs, but they all deserve a shot, too.

McGwire should lead that era into baseball immortality.

If I had a vote, all of the above would be on my ballot in their respective eligible years. There are too many names and too many players that were on PEDs that still haven't come clean to keep eligible players from going into the Hall. Of all the players that have reached the 500 home run milestone in the last 15 years, only Ken Griffey Jr., Jim Thome and Frank Thomas have not been linked to steroids. PEDs was the norm of the ‘90s.

McGwire didn't go the route of Andy Pettite, who admitted using PEDs openly. He didn't choose the path of Roger Clemens either, who is still in denial today. He choose not to address the past back in 2005 when he was ask to speak about steroids in court. He let it eat away at him, until he couldn't hide it any longer, and the truth was no surprise.

Commisioner Bud Selig turned a blind eye to steroids in the ‘90s to save baseball. He sold his soul for the betterment of the game and saw the swelling of his league's fan base along with his players. He's as much at fault as the guys who were taking steroids.

McGwire's Hall of Fame status will need a major turn of events for him ever to be elected. He's never received more than 23.7 percent of the required 75 percent vote to get in. Maybe honesty will finally set him free.

McGwire shouldn't have cheated, but he is a statue of the last two decades, which can't just be forgotten and discounted in history. If elected, McGwire would be the breath of fresh air for baseball that's been needed for the last two decades, and he'd open the gates for an entire era to follow.