Sorry Mark, but your tearful admission to using steroids only made things worse on the PR scale. And that’s coming from an avid A’s fan who thinks McGwire is basically a good guy at heart. His problem? He just doesn’t get it.
McGwire, who has been hired by former manager Tony LaRussa to be the St.
Louis Cardinals‘ hitting coach, had to “come clean” before the 2010 baseball season got underway. So earlier this week he sat down for an interview with Bob Costas to set the record straight. An emotional McGwire did indeed confess to using steroids for several years, starting around 1993, according to the slugger.
OK, fine Mark. The timeline is up for debate – just ask Jose Canseco, who has so far been vindicated for his accusations aimed at other players at every turn – but the part I personally found most comical is McGwire’s claim that steroids didn’t help him hit home runs. He only used them to help deal with injuries that had slowed his career.
Really Mark? You honestly think the ‘roids DIDN’T have anything to do with your massive power surge into 70 home run territory? Yeah, pull this finger and a rabbit comes out of my cap. McGwire once had Popeye forearms on an otherwise normal looking body, albeit a large one. By the end of his career he looked like Paul Bunyan in the batter’s box! All that added muscle – which no doubt was developed to a great extent by his steroid use - didn’t add considerable power to an already powerful swing?
Please…
I don’t dispute that steroids don’t have much to do with hand-eye coordination, which McGwire claims was the true reason he hit so many home runs. But to think the steroids didn’t add muscle and make it easier to bounce back from the daily grind of nagging injuries, both key factors in being able to hit a baseball a long way, is nothing short of laughable.
I wish McGwire the best in his return to the baseball field. But if he thinks this interview is going to make life on the road easier now that he has “come clean” to the fans, he is in for a rude awakening.
