… and he ONLY came clean because he had to. He wants to be back in the game, and for that to happen… he needed to come clean. However, if he truly believes that the "roids didn’t help him with home runs… then he is either lying to us outright, or he is lying to himself… and thus lying to us.

A guy goes from average 30 something home runs a season, to averaging well over 50… with 70 a year. Where is the common sense?

I found this article… and it sums up my thoughts 100%.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ti-mcgwire011109&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

He came clean not for himself, but for the good of the St Louis Cardinals. He wants to coach, they want him to coach, they knew it would be a distraction in spring training, he stepped forward and came clean. now they can move forward.

Nobody has the right to deny him a paycheck.

I just can’t get on board with these players that come partially clean.
 Why did it take close to 5 years for him to come out? The statue of limitations ran out after one year from his congressional appearance.
 Would he have come out if not for the Cardinals hitting coach job? I don’t think so. This is to save the Cardinals, the city, LaRussa, and lastly himself the dog and pony show that would have followed them from town to town.
 He only did steroids to stay healthy or get healthy. So for ten years he was injured, not physically fit to play the game? Don’t buy it.
 He played in the steroid era. Like Kruk said last night, he was offended to be lump in with guys like McGwire. What about other players like Grace etc.. who did not use, what is there recourse? Buster Onley made a good point, what about a guy like Wally Joyner who was a good hitter, who later on in his career got hurt, and as far as we know did not juice. Who knows what type of career he would of had if he would taken the same medicine. A lot of players played hurt, spent time on the DL and did not juice, I don’t buy that argument Big Mac.
 How about the Maris family. Getting the limo to the ballpark to see a roid induced player beating your fathers record. McGwire admitted they were upset with his admittance of steriods.
 And for him to say it had nothing to do with him hitting homeruns is an absolute joke.
 Just a another sad chapter in this story that will never go away.

Does your family have a record to hold onto? No? Then why do you care about the Maris family?

………..being a Cardinal “homer”, would have gone easy on McGwire, but he really did ask the necessary questions. Mac’s responses appeared heartfelt, but the fact that he seemed aloof to the impact of the PEDs, was, well, very hard to swallow. Talk about your “great swing” all you want, but when balls start flying farther with each dose taken, he had to realize the effect of the drugs.

The problem with this “era” is that many didn’t juice up, and they are the ones left in the wake of these so-called records. No matter how many guys come clean, the game will remain forever tainted.

his son is a spitting image of him

Tony LaRussa makes it seem like he was ignorant of the whole thing.

what kind of hitting coach McGuire will be? Sure, he had some talent as a power hitter early in his career, but we all know that a lot of those HRs become routine fly outs sans the medicine. Thus, what’ll he be teaching the Cards this year? What insight as a hitter can he have that can “work” for players not juicing?

I can see it now. Mark explaining to Holliday, Rasmus, et al about how to swing, how to hit for power, and then standing back and scratching his head as the Cards’ hitters consistently pop out or hit lazy fly balls. “Gee. This seemed to work for me.” Right. And it wasn’t the medicine.

He “came clean” for a completely self serving reason. He stayed lied when asked about it during his playing days, saying he only used andro. He back peddled in front of Congress and refused to answer their questions under oath. He’s a liar and a cheat and he was the posterboy for the steroid era, tarnishing the game that I love.

Mark may be a wonderful person, adopt pound puppies, help old ladies cross the street, etc. I don’t care.

Admission of cheating after all this time when he had plenty of opportunities, just because it now suits his interest is a cowards way out. Just like using PEDs during his career was the move of a coward.

In short, I wouldn’t piss on McGuire if he were on fire. He deserves every sneer, jeer and heckle he gets.
He hit 583 homers and had about 1000 other hits for the rest of his career. He was a one dimensional player and now we find out that that dimension was fueled by cheating.

Mark McGuire can kiss my ass.

HR record on steriods, being in the All Star group picture for proven poster children for the steriod era with Palmiero, Tejada, A-Rod, Clemens, Petite, Segui, and Mo Vaugh, I have a new respect for McGuire.

As recently as yesterday, I mocked and belittled McGuire’s 2005 testimony to Congress and his language tricks to not “talk about the past.” I was wrong to do so.

McGuire’s admission he was looking to confess/discuss fully at the hearing and had his lawyers working diligently in the days leading up to secure immunity for any confession of criminal wrongdoing, the corroboration supplied by the members of Congress lobbying then AT Alberto Gonzalez for the immunity gives me better understanding and respect for how McGuire wanted to present himself after his playing days.

While Sosa, if guilty (inserted for drew’s sanity) could rely on clever language and state he never took “illegal steriods” and fall back on their not being illegal in the DR, Mac had no fallback and ricked prosecution for any admission of illegal activity.

Mac’s no saint and I’m no fan, but I now understand can’t fault the way he testified to congress as he worked so he could tell the truth and when no safety net was presented, was very careful to not lie under oath.

Interesting take on this from ESPN’s Jayson Stark

…I caught McGwire’s 48th HR in 1998, the first of two that day as Al described above. Well, actually, I caught it, dropped it, and then grabbed it.

It was a low line drive that barely cleared the high fence over the old family section. I came charging in and basically pulled a Matt Holliday, except mine was a little higher up. Ball goes off the glove and the gut, into the street in front of me, hits curb, rolls back, I try to stop, stumble, end up landing on curb, twist around and then waited for what seemed like an eternity, anguished millisecond by millisecond, as the ball started to roll back towards me thanks to the crowning of the street. Meanwhile a huge herd of humanity is thundering towards me from all sides…

I finally get my glove on it, pull the ball in, and then the pile-on began. Eventually fellow ballhawks were able to pull everyone off and I got up, a little dazed, a little shaken up, but oh so very excited. Had that ball in a death grip.

Congratulations and back slaps all around, people wanting their picture taken with me – I never quite got that part of it. A few offers to buy the ball – one guy started peeling off c-notes. I kept saying no but he kept going. He was up to 15 before he finally got the message.

And the reporters were quick to swoop in and ask questions – local papers and from out of town. It all kind of blurred together but was pretty exciting. One thing I do specifically remember – having to repeat and spell my last name out a zillion times. One reporter empathized – Peter Schmuck from the Baltimore Sun. We both a had a laugh over that.

I still have the ball, along with one from Sosa that year. Always thought they’d make a great set of bookends or something to remember that great Summer of ‘98. Got Sammy to sign his, but had pretty much given up hope of ever getting McGwire to sign it. Now, maybe there’s a chance…

I’m 100% positive that there is no way that McGwire will convince 75% of HoF voters that he deserves induction, not now and not in the next 12-13 years that he will be eligible.

But the question remains of whether he should be there or not. I’m not a hardliner on this, but I just can’t see how his numbers aren’t viewed as fradulent whether or not he should be judged with others in the “steroid era”. It’s just not credible. While he was coming up he was considered a good slugger, but I don’t think anyone every really considered him HoF material up until his fraudulent numbers, as opposed to, say, someone like Bonds. That being said, I don’t believe he deserves induction.

One final note, I still don’t feel like the steroid issues is ever going to be fully behind us until owners accept thier responsibility in this. The players are taking huge hits for this activity. The union has come out and said that they did try to do everything possible to avoid testing players. It seems to me that the last group left are the owners who, I believe, had to have known and were negligent in thier actions. I still haven’t heard that from the owners. Until that’s said, it seems to me that this is an unsettled and unfinished story.

Here’s an interesting take from a former FBI agent; McGwire was supposedly identified as a user in a FBI investigation as early as 1990:

“I figured that he would either continue to try and finesse the question or back out of the whole coaching thing and say, ‘Fine, I’m not going to do this. I don’t need this,’” Stejskal said. "It is too bad he waited so long to do it, but I am glad he finally stood up.

“Now I hope he does what he said he was going to do in the 2005 congressional hearings, and that is taking a stand against these performance-enhancing drugs. That he’ll fight for more stringent testing and punishment and all that kind of stuff. I don’t know that it is going to help him in terms of [election to] the Hall of Fame. I have heard some people speculate that that was part of this, his way of trying to give himself a chance to get into the Hall of Fame.

That’s exactly how McGwire could rehabilitate his reputation. Be the leader of a movement to take a stand against PED’s. Be the guy who says, “I did it, it was wrong, and don’t YOU do it”, to high school and college players.

regarding McGuire’s situation. He likely makes the admission now to diffuse the spring training environment- where he will begin a career as a ‘hitting coach.’ The Cards organization is anything but stupid- obviously they feel the guy has insight to offer hitters. So, Mac, like Bonds was a good hitter, who became elite w/ the help of roids/ hgh. I kind of believe that he took the roids to rehab from injuries, but certainly believe he continued to do them as he saw how they elevated his performance.

Sosa’s elevated average during the roid era is interesting to me- he wasn’t a great, or even a very good hitter early in his career, yet hit over .300 in his peak. Did pitchers start making more mistakes to him b/c they were trying to pitch around him? Did his increased girth lead to more singles as well as homers? How roids influence contact is has always been debatable, but they certainly don’t hinder batting averages from that era.

McGwire taking drugs
Slugging many a homerun
Zits on Baseball’s tush

But it took him this long to come clean about this? He retired in 2001. He has had nearly 10 years to admit to this, and he does this now?

To also suggest he didn’t do this to hit home runs. I’m sorry, but I can’t believe that at all. Nor can I believe that Tony LaRussa didn’t know this was happening.

This admission came far too late.

“The Steroid Era is clearly a thing of the past.”

I think the truth about the “Steroid Era” may just be coming out, and we’re not quite out of the “Steroid Era” just yet.

These two comments illustrate why I’d very much like to kick Big Mac square in the nuts.

“I wish I never played in the Steroid Era”
“I wish there had been steroid testing”

Apparently, despite the fact that he was a grown man, he needed other people to make the decisions for him, and its really everyone else’s fault that he did steroids for TEN FREAKING YEARS

Go F*** yourself Mac

I’m going to watch, and no longer participate.

is appreciate a guy like Mark Grace more. I wonder if he juiced during that time frame would he have hit 300 hrs with 400 doubles instead of 173 and 511. Perhaps he is not a hall of famer but given the numbers that he had in comparison to clean people during that era it makes one wonder if he should get more consideration.

I don’t think Grace was a HOF game guy. Not with Garvey still not in.

9/18/97—-got to fly to Chicago on business and my customer (Sears) was gracious enough to provide me with tickets. A coworker from Cleveland who was also a baseball lover was with me and we witnessed a sort of Roy Hobbs moment, but didn’t know it til reading the papers the next day.

During the game I turned to my amigo and said “how many times in our lifetimes will we get to see someone stand in the box already having 50HRs on the board for the year?” We obviously had no idea what was to come in ’98 and beyond.

McGwire had broken some of the siding and front porch railing spindles on homes on the perpendicular street to Waveland in BP—but during the game he took a huge cut that Lance Johnson initially broke back on then came in and caught in medium center. According to the media the next day, that ball had to be taken from the game because he had egg shaped it!

so commonly, and so routinely, really bothers me. There is zero proof of him doing roids. Blah blah blah, don’t waste your time giving me all the crap saying that he did. I’ve heard the arguments a billion times. Would I be surprised to learn that he was on roids? Not in the slightest bit. But until there’s something — ANYTHING — that legitimately connects him, how about leaving his name out of the conversations that center around the guys that we KNOW have done it.

Tony LaRussa.

He has nowhere to go and nothing to say that will not make him look like a clown.

…Not that I’ll cry for him.

…courtesy of the same Players’ Union, MLB and, above all, Media sources that ignored or participated in this massive fraud. There is an industry worth billions to protect, and even those involved who are troubled by conscience will tend to rationalize in the same way McGwire did during the interview, or temporize as Bob Costas did in the substance and manner of his questions.

Mark McGwire hugs Roger Maris’ son Richard after he broke Maris’ HR record in 1998

and shattered the son’s spine while puncturing his lungs in the process.

McGwire was heard to say: “Sorry dude.”