Car always has a hard time starting.

Car was outside and supposed to be covered all winter at a friends house, found out the cover blew off some months ago and my "friend" never told me.

I go over with a freshly charged battery and hook it up. Tun key and all I hear is clicking. Place my battery charger on it and wait a couple of minutes and I get a slow crank, wait about 1/2 hour it tries to start and the battery goes dead (Oh I kept the battery charger on and set to the start mode.) Could it be bad ground from being outside all winter?

Check you tranny ground strap

I would certainly take a look at the chassis and engine grounds. I cured a hot start issue I was having by running new heavy gauge ground wires to the chassis and engine.

You can test the engine ground w/ a set of jumper cables. Hook the neg cable to the neg battery terminal and the other end to the engine/trans case for ground. Do not hook either positive clamp. By doing this you are bypassing the existing engine ground. If it starts right up, then you will need to either clean or replace your existing ground wire.