McGwire, Roid Freak

[Farmer Ted]

Finally admits to the juice.


"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 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the '90s, 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 ribcage 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."

[Valadius]

The truth of the matter is, we'll never know how many players were on steroids, but it's not like this is any kind of shock. And despite this, I'd still put him in the Hall of Fame, though I'd be holding my nose.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He also admitted he was full of shit when he hugged his son after hitting his record-breaking dinger.


srsly, Though I don't think he seriously regrets it, that's probably about the most we can hope to get from an admission. It sucks and it changed things but that's the way they played the game.

[TransMonk]

It's about f'n time.

[metsmarathon]

wait... he was juicing?!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Coming clean, I'm thinking, is part of a two-step process to get him in the Hall.

Second? Circumstances allowing, one pinch-hitting appearance this year... which will push back his "retirement clock" another five years, giving him more time to wait for a more sympathetic BBWAA.

[Farmer Ted]

He should give back all the money he made off his home run heroics while sporting band-aids on his arse, salary and endorsements. That's just me, Judge Wopner Ted.

[Guest themetfairy]

He should give back all the money he made off his home run heroics while sporting band-aids on his arse, salary and endorsements. That's just me, Judge Wopner Ted.[/quote:1tafl5s7]

I don't recall McGwire doing all that many commercials after the fact. What I do remember is that he could have let his contract expire after 1998, but instead picked up his option that had St. Louis paying him less than what he could have re-negotiated.

I'm not making any excuses for the man. OTOH, I do feel that this is the case of a good person who made a bad choice; I'm not going to demonize him.

[Guest Kong76]

[Guest attgig]

McGwire seemed like he tried to stay out of the spotlight as much as he could, and only cracked a smile around Sammy. anyways, it's about time, and it's not like he said anything so mindblowing. this will die pretty quick, but no amount of delay will keep this out of the baseball writers minds when it comes to hall of fame voting.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Plays the patented "Pettitte I was injured" card.

It's a good day. Now we can endure the week of "I knew all along he was juicing" columns and then move on. Deal with the notion that all teams but the Mets had juicers -- I'm entitled to my little fantasy -- and look forward.

[Guest Edgy DC]

There's more he can tell. Who else was using? Where did he get it from? Did his team or the league assist him in any way? (McGwire's brother says the league did.)

[Guest holychicken]

Though I don't think he seriously regrets it,[/quote:1iz688ve]
This is what bothers me about these types of apologies. I know he "has" to say it because if he said "Am I glad? Fuck yeah! Doing so made me millions of dollars" he would be tied up and beaten.

But it just makes me wonder what else about this apology is just what "needs" to be said and what he truly means.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm exactly as sorry as I need to be to reverse the course of my declining legacy --- particularly as regarding my Hall of Fame chances. No more, no less.

While acknowleding my usage and my subsequent coersed penitence, I don't acknowledge that performancing enhancing drugs helped me hit a single homerun. You have any questions? Fuck you. That's your answer.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

"Not in a position to do that?" If seated in front of a Congressional inquiry is not the position to do that, what the fuck is?

[Centerfield]

An apology to the Maris family would have been nice.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Bud says......


Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig issued the following statement today regarding Mark McGwire's comments about the use of performance-enhancing substances:

"I am pleased that Mark McGwire has confronted his use of performance-enhancing substances as a player. Being truthful is always the correct course of action, which is why I had commissioned Senator George Mitchell to conduct his investigation. This statement of contrition, I believe, will make Mark's reentry into the game much smoother and easier.

"While we, along with all sports organizations, continue to battle the use of such drugs and continue the intensive search for a valid test for HGH, I believe our drug testing program is the toughest and most effective in professional sports. Last year in the Major Leagues, we had only two positives for steroids out of 3,722 tests. We have banned and aggressively test for amphetamines, substances which club doctors and professional athletic trainers have told me had presented serious problems for the sport for decades. Our minor league program will begin its 10th year in 2010. We conducted 8,995 tests in the minor leagues last year of which less than eight-tenths of one percent was positive.

"The use of steroids and amphetamines amongst today's players has greatly subsided and is virtually non-existent as our testing results have shown. The so-called "steroid era" - a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances - is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark's admission today is another step in the right direction."

[Guest Edgy DC]

His re-entry into the game? How about slapping him with a suspension starting right now?

It'd probably be doing McGwire a favor.

[G-Fafif]

Imagine if an active superstar like Alex Rodriguez admitted using. Why, I'll bet that if he fessed up during the offseason, the cloud would hang over him for the rest of the following season, that the fans of the team he played for would never forgive him and if he somehow got to a World Series and excelled that nobody would credit him for it, because if there's anything we have as consumers it's a long memory.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

"While we, along with all sports organizations, continue to battle the use of such drugs and continue the intensive search for a valid test for HGH, I believe our drug testing program is the toughest and most effective in professional sports. Last year in the Major Leagues, we had only two positives for steroids out of 3,722 tests. We have banned and aggressively test for amphetamines, substances which club doctors and professional athletic trainers have told me had presented serious problems for the sport for decades. Our minor league program will begin its 10th year in 2010. We conducted 8,995 tests in the minor leagues last year of which less than eight-tenths of one percent was positive."

Reminds me of a moment from the late, great Arrested Development:

MICHAEL: "We have a private eye, huh?"

LUCILLE: "Oh, I hired him a hundred years ago to find out if your father was cheating on me. He never did find anything."

(beat)

MICHAEL: "Well, he can't be very good, then."

[Fman99]

Big Mac on the juice, Sarah Palin going to work for Fox News, my no-shit-o-meter is up to about 11 today.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm amazed that this is being treated as major news and it's a whole lotta nuthin as far as I'm concerned.
Nothing was learned that even that even the most naive weren't already 99+% sure of and at best this just short-circuits the story that was going to come out at the Cards' ST site.

But at least it hands the main-stream sports media their favorite excuse to talk baseball.
Today, despite it being an obvious football news day (pro playoffs, Pete Carroll, etc.), ESPN's 'PTI' made this their lead story and also went back to it later on - maybe three or four minutes total (Sportscenter led with it also). Last week I was watching the same show (PTI) during an otherwise uneventful mid-week day and they still couldn't manage to dedicate a full minute to either the HoF results or the Big Unit retirement, instead jamming them into a single segment as if to put the topics behind them as quickly as possible.

[ashie62]

McGwire's statement was genuine

[Guest Edgy DC]

I disagree most completely.

[Willets Point]

As far as I'm concerned, every professional baseball player used performance enhancing drugs up to 2003. Not just the bad guys everyone wants to see shamed but the so-called good guys too. Every single damn one of them used ped's. Coaches, managers, trainers and executives helped them use ped's or turned a blind eye . They all used it and it was bad and it's good that MLB finally cracked down, but in an odd way they were on a level playing field in that era too. Constantly leaking or confessing old news about guys who used and trying to determine who needs and asterix is counterproductive. Find out who is using and abusing and screening their PED use now. Everything before 2003 is irrelevant.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't think McGwire being more honest about what he did is counterproductive.

[batmagadanleadoff]

As far as I'm concerned, every professional baseball player used performance enhancing drugs up to 2003.[/quote:2ys8vgtr]

John Olerud used steroids?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

As far as I'm concerned, every professional baseball player used performance enhancing drugs up to 2003.[/quote:2pucoibc]

John Olerud used steroids?[/quote:2pucoibc]

Olerud freebased the shit, man. I agree with Willets -- everyone's a suspect.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I agree that everyone is a suspect from that era, and would further add that I'm not too comfortable with those in the current era. But he goes beyond that, claiming (a) everyone is guilty, ( they balanced each other out, and © a player confessing from that era is beyond irrelevant, but actually counterproductive. He loses me on those points.

Believing everyone is guilty seems just as easy as believing everyone is innocent and both seem to me to be avoiding the hard work.

The same foxes, meanwhile, are still watching the hen house.

[ashie62]

I disagree most completely.[/quote:20bt53ko]

I'm shocked!