next »

[Razornole]

Mark McGwire Admits Using Steroids
Far from election to the Hall of Fame in four chances and about to re-enter baseball after a long absence, Mark McGwire on Monday admitted to using steroids.

McGwire -- who set a single-season record with 70 home runs in 1998, a feat that is credited with helping baseball rebound from the 1994 players' strike -- said he used steroids in the 1989-90 offseason, 1993 and "on occasion throughout the nineties, including during the 1998 season" in a statement released by the St. Louis Cardinals.

Part of the statement reads:

I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry.

The team, for whom McGwire played in '98, had hired McGwire as hitting coach in October but had yet to face the media. His reputation took a major hit -- and the suspicion that he used steroids multiplied -- when in a 2005 hearing before a House of Representatives committee he declined to address the matter, saying only, "I'm not going to go into the past or talk about my past. I'm here to make a positive influence on this," and "My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family and myself."

Now he has answered the questions.

Except that The Associated Press reports that McGwire also used human growth hormone, citing a person close to McGwire as the source. McGwire did not mention HGH in his statement.

McGwire ranks eighth all-time with 583 home runs, including 245 in a four-season span (1996-99). But in four appearances on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot, he has appeared on 23.5, 23.6, 21.9 and 23.7 percent of the ballots -- with 75 percent required for induction.

Much like Alex Rodriguez, who admitted to steroids use last year, McGwire blamed the culture of the time:

I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.

The first public accusation of McGwire regarding steroids use came in 2005, by former Oakland "Bash Brothers" partner and admitted user Jose Canseco. In his book Juiced, Canseco said he personally injected McGwire "more times than I can remember."

In a phone interview with the AP, McGwire said he called commissioner Bud Selig and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa on Monday to personally apologize.

McGwire is scheduled to appear on MLB Network Monday at 7 PM ET in an interview with Bob Costas.

The statement in full:

Now that I have become the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, I have the chance to do something that I wish I was able to do five years ago.

I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize. I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 offseason and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the nineties, including during the 1998 season.

I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.

During the mid-'90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a rib cage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries too.

 I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry.

Baseball is really different now -- it's been cleaned up. The Commissioner and the Players Association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did.

I'm grateful to the Cardinals for bringing me back to baseball. I want to say thank you to Cardinals owner Mr. DeWitt, to my GM, John Mozeliak, and to my manager, Tony La Russa. I can't wait to put the uniform on again and to be back on the field in front of the great fans in Saint Louis. I've always appreciated their support and I intend to earn it again, this time as hitting coach. I'm going to pour myself into this job and do everything I can to help the Cardinals hitters become the best players for years to come.

After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my Congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team.

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/01/11/mark-mcgwire-admits-using-steroids-in-1998/

[TOBS]

about time he manned up

[Razornole]

when all of that was going on I thought the ball was juiced not the players

[nitrovern]

Hell they all were juiced, pitchers and hitters and Major League Baseball knew and condoned it to get ratings. IMO  Players have taken and done whatever possible to get a competitive edge as long as sports have been played, amongst other things.

[Razornole]

Would it matter to you if he was banned at his home golf course for cheating in their local tournament?

[nitrovern]

Would it matter to you if he was banned at his home golf course for cheating in their local tournament?

Hell I played golf once, everybody cheated, now if he got caught cheating at a bass tournament that would be a different thing.

[Razornole]

Hell I played golf once, everybody cheated, now if he got caught cheating at a bass tournament that would be a different thing.

it IS the same thing to real golfers

[Razornole]

http://kevin-blackistone.fanhouse.com/2010/01/12/in-battle-of-cheats-only-women-lose/?ncid=webmaildl5

In Battle of Cheats, Only Women Lose

1/12/2010 6:17 PM ET By Kevin Blackistone


If there was going to be some real price to pay, then maybe the breaking voice, quivering lips and sniffles to fight back tears would generate some catharsis in me for steroid cheats like Mark McGwire when they hold their meet-the-press confessionals and employ such a full range of histrionics. The problem is there isn't any tangible penalty. There is only reward. In McGwire's case, a job with, of all employers, Major League Baseball, the very game he played and ripped off.

He followed in pro football Rodney Harrison, who retired after last season from the New England Patriots -- where in 2007 he was suspended four games for using human growth hormone -- and walked right into an NFL Sunday Night Football broadcasting job with NBC. Harrison shares the broadcast with Bob Costas, who on Monday, interestingly, had McGwire delivered to him so McGwire could further display his emotions in a bid to win the public's forgiveness. (Did I miss the NFL Sunday Night telecast on NBC where Costas grilled Harrison about his use of banned drugs?)

And before Harrison last year, there was Alex Rodriguez, who kept his gig after his training camp mea culpa: "I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth ... being one of the greatest players of all-time. And I did take a banned substance. For that, I'm very sorry," A-Rod said. At the end of last season, he walked away with a World Series' ring.

Truth is, despite all of the choked-up press conferences, none of these guys have really taken the medicine all of us have made seem so hard to swallow, that they cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDS, as we call them cutely these days like some child's candy. The only athletes who have danced to the music they were forced to face are women -- two to be exact, former all-world track and field star Marion Jones and sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas, who won a silver medal for the United States at the 2001 World Track Cycling Championships. (Tim Montgomery, Jones' old boyfriend and cheating sprint champion, got sent up on a money laundering plea.)

Jones and Thomas went to court. Jones and Thomas got sentenced -- Jones behind bars and Thomas behind the walls of her home under house arrest.

Jones got six months in prison, plus two years of probation and community service, for lying to federal prosecutors investigating the use of performance-enhancing substances tied to the infamous BALCO (Bay Area Lab Co-Operative) operation that ensnared names from a myriad of sports like baseball's other big slugger Barry Bonds and boxer Shane Mosley. Thomas was handed six months of home confinement for lying to the grand jury investigating BALCO too.

 Share
But the punishment didn't end there for Jones and Thomas. It's continued.

Unlike baseball, which is returning McGwire to its bosom as a Cardinals hitting coach -- and has yet to jettison other admitted cheaters like the Giambi brothers, Troy Glaus, Andy Pettitte, et al. -- USA Track & Field hasn't invited Jones, its face for a decade, back to coach or mentor or even advise up-and-coming stars what not to do. Even cyber hacks cut deals with the government or industry to show them how to better secure their computer systems.

Neither ESPN, NBC nor ABC, who share the broadcasting of USA Track & Field events like the venerable Millrose Games at the end of this month and the Indoor Championships the end of next month, have sought Jones, as NBC did Harrison for Sunday Night Football, to join their commentary booths.

The University of North Carolina, where Jones was a scholarship athlete, hasn't asked her to help coach its women's track team, either. Jones has been left to fend for herself after getting out of prison. She's attempting an athletic comeback now as a basketball player, which she played at North Carolina as a point guard on a national championship team.

Thomas had fewer things in her sport to fall back on if there was going to be anything for her to fall back on at all. Cycling isn't a lucrative sport for many unless they're named Armstrong. So Thomas was working towards becoming a lawyer and had taken out loans to attend law school at the University of Oklahoma at the time she was indicted. She is on pace to graduate with an Oklahoma law degree later this year, but it has been suggested that it will be difficult for her to make the bar in any state with a perjury conviction -- a crime of moral turpitude -- on her record. So Thomas' involvement in the Steroids Era could even cost her a second career unattached to her first as an athlete.

None of this is to suggest that Jones and Thomas should be suffering less harsh consequences for their mistakes. Jones confessed in her own teary-eyed press conference as the smoke around her suggested she was on fire, too. Thomas infamously lashed out at jurors and prosecutors as she heard her conviction read in court a couple of years ago. She refused then to admit guilt and charged those who convicted her with simply being out to ruin her life.

  McGwire's life certainly wasn't ruined by his admission at the start of this workweek. He gained employment out of it and, to read a few baseball writers, maybe even a few votes for the Hall of Fame. A few people may even have felt sorry for him as he struggled to say that the lie he lived with for so long was the toughest thing he had to do in his life.

Of course, the tougher thing would've been to man up, as they say in the vernacular of tough-guy sports like baseball where the 6-foot-5, 235-pound McGwire loomed for so long, and admit to wrongdoing when lawmakers on Capitol Hill first asked, immunity be damned. That would be the thing for Bonds and Clemens to do as well, federal investigation be damned.

I'd feel sorry for them if they went to prison and faced bankruptcy and lost their homes because no one in their sport would embrace them anymore. But compared to the ladies, they're just fine. They're still playing games -- with everyone.

[Razornole]

Missouri Ends Drive on McGwire's Highway of Deception

    * 108Comments
   

3/02/2010 11:50 PM ET By Greg Couch
It's a stretch along I-70 that welcomes people to downtown St. Louis, like a welcome mat, really. A first impression. And the Missouri Senate has voted unanimously to take down the signs showing its honorary name and change that stretch to Mark Twain Highway. It had been this:

Mark McGwire Highway.

So at least the government is hitting the right Mark now.

I'm sure there is some good lesson in this, but my first thought is this:

One of America's great literary figures is Plan B to a cheating baseball player. Somehow, this is a cross between an insult to Twain and straight comedy.

"When a person cannot deceive himself, the chances are against his being able to deceive other people,'' Twain once wrote.

You see how timeless he was? It's as if he said that right after McGwire's testimony in Washington at the steroid hearing.

The road had been named after Twain, and then was switched in 1999, the year after McGwire hit 70 home runs.

That's 70 more, after all, than Huck Finn ever hit.

Now that McGwire has finally fessed up about the obvious, that he used steroids, imagine how embarrassed the state government feels about drooling over an athlete.

Of course, they were surely embarrassed already. In the years that McGwire declined to admit anything, he wasn't deceiving himself. He wasn't deceiving other people.

State Sen. Ryan McKenna, who was in on changing the name from Twain to McGwire in the first place, proposed removing McGwire's name.

"Having been one of the people who carried that bill, I do have a sense of regret that I moved it forward,'' he told reporters. "We basically wrote the final chapter in a book that wasn't written yet.

"I think the legislature should take, and I personally should take, this as an example to not name roads after people while they're still alive.''

Yes, the dead have difficulty embarrassing themselves later.

But this isn't about naming roads. It's about a lesson over why we shouldn't turn athletes into heroes and gods. Tiger Woods has been giving us daily reminders about that, too.

And somehow, as part of a partnership among athletes' vanity, corporate interests, and media, with willing fans, these sports figures are put on a mountaintop without ever having to divulge who they really are.

Never again.

I think it is ... an embarrassment as you drive down the highway and you see that. It's clear what we thought we were celebrating when we named it after him is not actually what happened.
-- St. Louis Alderman Antonio French Ha! I was just kidding there. The message has come through so loud and clear for so long, but nothing changes.

It's nice at least, though, to see someone not accepting these fake apologies for a change, saying straight out that it's not OK to keep playing this game of accepting our love and money dishonestly, and then making a brief, phony apology and having everything immediately forgiven.

So now the Missouri Senate is suggesting that it not honor anyone again until the person is dead.

Not a bad idea. How many Final Four banners, bowl victories, Olympic medals and bicycle races have been returned anyway?

Might as well just wait until the statute of limitations has passed.

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.''

Twain wrote that, too.

This is just so telling. I can just see the Senate 11 years ago thinking this through:

Seventy home runs. I-70. Our hero. Votes in the bank.

One of the greatest American writers? Yeah, whatever.

"I think it is kind of an embarrassment as you drive down the highway and you see that,'' St. Louis Alderman Antonio French told the local Fox News about the McGwire sign on I-70. "It's clear what we thought we were celebrating when we named it after him is not actually what happened. It is not the case.''

The Senate bill now goes to the State House for vote.

So McGwire is now the batting coach in St. Louis, and it's obvious that he only admitted to steroid use as a way of getting a pass back into baseball.

It was a terrible thing that McGwire did to you, did to all of us, by deception.

Reports from St. Louis now are how hard he's working. Good for him.

Maybe he can find peace with himself while writing the final half of his life's story. I hope he does, really, but it won't be easy if he drives to work every day on Mark Twain Highway, then puts on the uniform of his false glory.
http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/03/02/missouri-ends-drive-on-mcgwires-highway-of-deception/?icid=main|main|dl4|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fmlb.fanhouse.com%2F2010%2F03%2F02%2Fmissouri-ends-drive-on-mcgwires-highway-of-deception%2F