I Can't Get Angry At Mark McGwire

it seems a wee bit hypocritical to all get uppity about it 5 years later

I’ve never been incredibly angry at people using PED’s because I know the feeling that is to never play the sport you love again, or the pressure to succeed. They cheated and that’s that but I can’t bring myself to fully hate them, it’s a dark time yes but I guess I can understand why they did even though if I don’t like it at all.

As part of our culture of baseball and storytelling, we and future generations should always understand that there’s a certain context under which every event happens. Having that knowledge and applying it when evaluating the past seems a lot more reasonable than pretending this was the first generation in which players cheated and/or took drugs. We can’t just ignore a whole era because we’re disappointed by what we saw or embarrassed by what we encouraged.

Baseball saw a lot of hitting records broken during a time when parks became friendlier, the ball became livelier and players were taking PEDs. Armed with that understanding, we don’t need an asterisk and we don’t need a witch hunt.

As a St. Louis native (now Ballardite) who saw 62 and 70 in person, who fell in love with baseball that year, it’s been hard to see Big Mac go through this. You state my current position exactly: he succumbed to the pressures of greed and desire for fame, joined the culture around him, and cheated… just like everyone else.

McGwire certainly is not innocent, certainly not above reproach… but certainly classy enough to protect his family from grand jury inquiry, plead the fifth when he had to, and admit what we all suspected when he certainly had no need to come clean. A man with serious flaws and regrettable mistakes, but deserving of some respect for his ability to hit a baseball and ability to finally come clean.

To Brian Williams.

I don’t give a shit what these guys did before, but I think there should be a crackdown on PEDs that cause harm to athlete’s bodies permanently. Anything that doesn’t kill them is fine, but dangerous/unregulated stuff has to go. My reasoning: thousands of kids and minor leaguers are causing lasting injury to their bodies because it’s impossible for most of them to have even a dream of reaching professional sports without them (and even with them). Let’s say that even now over half of baseball players are on something, and it’s putting those that don’t to a huge disadvantage.

Why these PEDs should be banned:
Imagine you have a kid who’s a high school baseball player and pretty damn good. He’s not quite big or strong enough to really catch the eyes of scouts, but he has solid contact skills and a big league swing. He knows that almost everyone in the MLB is using, and if he doesn’t it puts him at a severe disadvantage. There is virtually no discouragement, even today, for him to not use PEDs.

How I want it to happen:
Take blood samples of every major and minor league player twice per year at random intervals, store them, and test them retroactively as new PED detecting tests are developed. That way players will be discouraged to take even the undetectable new designer drugs. After that, impose quickly escalating penalties and fines that actually discourage these guys.

What happened in the past happened in the past. It was good for baseball and I’m ok with that. I’m ok with PEDs, too, as long as they don’t harm the athletes long-term. I want to see the best baseball ever: faster pitchers, quicker swings, longer homeruns, all of it, but I also don’t want to see the guys who care about their bodies to be penalized for not using drugs that hurt themselves. I don’t want thousands of kids to hurt themselves by using these drugs in imitation of the stars, either. We all know what kind of damage the NFL has done to high school players, right?

As for McGwire, HoFer without the PED issue but I can see arguments against him being a HoFer if you’re really one of those people who cares a lot about longevity or a block of dominant years or something.

McGwire and Sosa helped baseball a hell of alot more than hurt it in 1998. That chase was amazing and I will be eternally grateful to them both for what they did for the game.

With any luck, his coming out will coax other players from their holes. I have a hard time dicks like Clemens and Bonds will come out, but with time hopefully it will happen.

He obtained and used substances banned by US law and the act of obtaining them from other individuals and using them illegally amounts to conspiracy. By using these substances illegally he gained an unfair and immoral advantage over law abiding players who were not using illegal substances. He cheated and broke the law and then denied it before congress and the American people. He is not a man worth emulating or respecting. I watched Roger Maris and Henry Aaron break home run records and admired their accomplishments. I still do. Bonds, Sosa, A-Rod and McGwire and any other cheats do not deserve respect for their baseball accomplishments. There are right and wrong ways to do things. It’s not fuzzy or a grey area, it’s simple and black and white. Do the right thing, do not cheat and do not lie. To do so cheapens the game you supposedly love and hurts those who do it the right way and the fans who paid to see an honest contest.

McGwire hurt exactly one person, and that is Mark McGwire.

Then…

These players have a lot to be proud of, and they alone possess the right to be angry about the steroid era, because they alone were hurt by it.

Maybe I’m missing something.

In the American college system, use of Amphetamines like Adderall and Ritalin to pull ‘all-nighters’ and maintain focus is widespread. I attended a small Christian college and even at my school such abuse was seen as the norm. This shouldn’t really be that suprising, after all, since Adderall and other amphetamines/detroamphetamines are given to fighter pilots during the Iraq war.

Everyone I know would probably do something illegal (if they didn’t think it was immoral) to gain more recognition at their job and in turn make more money. I could think of many many examples, but you can’t argue that fact, because it is simply true.

As far as the sanctity of the HOF is concerned, there are known cheats, other drug abusers, gamblers (yes someone other than Rose and Jackson bet on Baseball and got away with it), racists, Klu Klux Klan members, a player that reportedly sharpened his spikes to deliberately injure (Cobb) and Pedophiles (It has been reported that Ruth would sleep with girls younger than 15) in the HOF. Admitting a steroid user shouldn’t be so bad.

The players who cheated? They were actors, not real villains. The rest of us are the ones who wrote the script.

Chicks don’t dig slow rollers back to the mound, remember. Chicks dig the long ball.

Seriously this has become my least favorite story of the past decade. I would take roids in a New York Minute if it meant that I could provide financial security for my family and their children also. Most people would. Not all, but MOST. The ones who wouldn’t are already financially set or hate having money.

is Jose Canseco. Guy was right about pretty much everything…

But no one really cares any more, and Jose is still an asshat.

Maybe they should just create a special wing of the HOF, where all the players that took growth hormone or steroids can be inducted. Call it the section for the artificially enhanced. Arod, Clemens, McGwire, etc. can all be inducted when they get voted in. Then we can stop having to worry about whether a steroid user should or shouldn’t be in the HOF.

He hit dingers!

The media response to the McGwire confession has been bothering me. Almost every article I’ve read mocks and criticizes McGwire for tarnishing the integrity of the game. Many criticize MLB for not imposing stricter penalties. Many point to the fans, who ignored the latent steroid issue because of the excitement of the home run chase. However, what each one fails to mention in their holier-than-thou condemnations is the final complicit party—themselves. If anyone knew the degree to which steroids were used in the 90’s, it was beat reporters who talked to players and coaches off the record and were allowed (albeit limited) access to the clubhouse. If steroids and other PEDs (such as andro, which McGwire admitted to using long ago) “tarnish” the game of baseball, where were those who are supposed to inform the public? Portraying the 1998 season as a “legendary” home run chase, portraying it as inspirational, captivating.

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