Two final McGwire thoughts
Posted: January 13th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball, Pop Culture | 43 Comments »
1. “It’s easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on us. Just about everyone was doing drugs in one form or another and we were no different, but the writing was too important for us to mess it up by getting off our heads all the time.”
– Paul McCartney on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
2. I have said again and again that I appreciate that I am in the minority opinion (at least in the media) on this Mark McGwire thing. I have talked with one friend who agreed with me, and a couple of others who partly agreed, and several others who really did not agree at all. There are some columns out there that I were along the lines of my own, including this from my buddy Bernie Miklasz in St. Louis. Most, though, seem to feel like Brother Vac who believes it was a non-apology apology and deserves the disdain of one.
There’s room for many opinions here, I hope. But I will say that one thing that drives me crazy is the “If he only did it for health reasons, then why is he apologizing?” line. People say it like it’s some sort of dagger line from the prosecution.
Man, I’ve heard that bit of nonsense WAY too many times. Maybe:
– He is apologizing because he broke the law.
– He is apologizing because he knew taking steroids was cheating.
– He is apologizing because he knew taking steroids was wrong.
– He is apologizing because he knew he was taking shortcuts.
– He is apologizing because without steroids, he might not have been able to get healthy.
– He is apologizing because without steroids, he might not have gotten the at-bats to break the record.
– He is apologizing because he feels that he let down his family.
– He is apologizing because he is sad about the direction baseball went and that he was a part of it.
– He is apologizing because he feels that he let down his friends.
– He is apologizing because he knows the Maris family thought he was clean and he was not.
– He is apologizing because he felt like dishonestly kept this from people.
– He is apologizing because he feels like he let down kids who looked up to him.
– He is apologizing because he is truly sorry that he took steroids and tarnished his career.
I don’t know. Pick any two of those reasons. Or any eight. Or all of them. Or come up with a baker’s dozen of your own. I couldn’t tell you what is going on inside Mark McGwire. But man, it doesn’t seem like it takes too much imagination to come up with a scenario in which McGwire believes that when healthy he was one hell of a historic home run hitter AND ALSO that he’s really sorry he took steroids.
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Joe, thanks for being the voice of reason on this thing. How these people get so much energy to pick apart what certainly seemed to be a sincere apology and get so worked up about it is beyond me.
CMB.
“If he only did it for health reasons, then why is he apologizing?”
That drives me nuts too! The people that use that line are generally the people who have been screaming confess for the last 5 years and blasted him for his congressional testimony. I guess some people will complain about winning the lottery.
I can tell you why we’re worked up… first, i accept the apology and that’s great and all, but everyone on the planet has to agree an apology 10 years after the fact isn’t as satisfying as an apology right after the fact. But I guess we’ll take what we can get.
And second, even a first grader can look at home run numbers and see that the exponential increase in home runs over a 6 to 8 year period isn’t b/c all these big superstars were on the field more… it’s b/c they were juicing out of their minds and it made them bigger, stronger and able to hit more home runs.
McGwire, like Bonds, like Clemens… they are playing people for a fool if they are able to convince you that they truly believe that steroids didn’t help them get bigger, stronger, faster, AND healthier, and thus allowing them to suddenly hit 70 home runs. If McGwire started hitting 49 home runs again, or even 50 once or twice, then I can believe him. But he hit 60 and 70. For a smart guy, he’s playing dumb, and we are tired of big time athletes playing dumb, b/c it makes it seem like they are scoffing at our intelligence… that’s why we don’t fully accept his apology.
I do appreciate your reasonable take on the steroids issue Joe. Nice to see somebody take a more proper and proportionate stand on the steroid issue. And proportion is where the rest of the sports media is loosing it.
The outrage of the sports media on steroids is disproportionate to the the outrage of the average fan.
The outrage of the sports media on steroids is disproportionate to outrage over other illegal drugs.
The outrage of the sports media on steroids is disproportionate to other forms of cheating is sports.
The outrage of the sports media on steroids is disproportionate to our actual understanding of what steroids does.
The outrage of the sports media on steroids is disproportionate to what it should have been in 1998.
The outrage of the sports media on steroids is disproportionate to outrage over steroids in football.
The outrage of the sports media on steroids is disproportionate to the players and not nearly enough toward the commisioner and the union that did not have testing.
I could probably come up with a few more, but I just don’t care anymore.
“He is apologizing because he feels like he let down kids who looked up to him.”
I’ve never met McGwire and probably never will, but this is the one that rings true to me.
From everything I’ve read about Mac I think he takes the role model stuff very seriously. To have to admit to the world that he did something that’s not worthy of a role model, it has to be painful to him.
I don’t find it inconsistent AT ALL for him to believe that he made some poor choices, that those choices didn’t affect his ability to hit a baseball, but that steroid abuse is a real problem for some kids and that his use of it set a poor example.
I expected a somewhat more balanced, reasonable response too, Joe. Frankly, I feel as though most of the media is out of touch (even more than usual) with the man on the street. I am lucky enough to know about 2 dozen intelligent, informed baseball fans–most living in and around KC. The vast majority have expressed opinions similar to yours. I’ve only spoken to 2 friends, both over the age of 55, that roughly echoed the sentiments of the MSM. It’s as if there’s an inverse relationship between the views of my social circle and the views of the talking heads concerning McGwire and PED’s as a whole.
As is usually the case, I think this argument is missing the fundamental issue here. Being able to feel healthier at older ages is exactly the thing that made the steroid era so drastically different from everything before. Of course McGwire was a smarter hitter when he was older, every player should be. The problem is that their bodies aren’t what they were when they first came up and didn’t understand the nuances of hitting. Knees, backs, bat speed, all of this diminishes over time, and the great ball players use their wits (and the disabled list) to overcome those issues. The fact that Bonds and McGwire used drugs to match their peak of baseball smarts with a physical peak is what’s so egregious (and should be to fans of someone like Griffey (of which I’m not).
Thanks Joe, for being reasonable on this issue. I wonder if the rage of the media is partly overcompensating for their failure to discover and report the story for so long.
I’m just fed up with the people — owners, media and fans — who created the environment in which steroid use was encourage now getting all self-righteous about it.
Andy Pettite used HGH for health reasons and he apologized.
The question, as phrased by the MLB Network guys immediately after the interview wasn’t so much “why is he apologizing” but “why is he so anguished about this if he truly believes he took them only for health and that they didn’t enhance his performance?” I don’t doubt some level of sincerity to his apology, but the apology has been totally obscured by McGwire’s stubborn, don’t-confuse-me-with-the-facts refusal to acknowledge the clear consequences of his actions: His cheating gave him an advantage, and that was the primary purpose of the cheating. We can argue about asterisks and how many home runs he wouldn’t have hit except for steroids, but what people are annoyed by is the arrogant self-delusion of a guy who has had more than five years out of the spotlight to come to grips with reality.
Just another example of “If he’d just apologize, he’d be forgiven and we could all move on…..Oh that apology wasn’t good enough.” This happens all the time. You can’t win, I couldn’t care any less about steroids.
It was a crap apology and deserved disdain. F_ck him.
The notion that McGwire or any other player needs to “apologize” for using PED’s during the 90’s is strange. MLB and the Players Association appear to have actively encouraged steroid use during that time. The Commissioner and the owners wanted to generate fan interest and make money; the Association absolutely refused to allow any kind of testing while players kept getting bigger and bigger contracts (and bodies). Everyone profited.
And despite the hypocritical and self-serving bleatings of many in the sports media, there is every reason to believe that those in the media either knew full well that players were juicing or chose to ignore the obvious. Anyone who watched McGwire, and Sosa, and many others grow into action comic figures knew they were juicing.
The only thing McGwire should feel remorse about is that he still hasn’t been completely honest. The “I wish I had never done steroids” line is nothing but penance; he did what he was encouraged to do for the purpose of becoming a stronger, more durable player, more capable of doing what his teams and MLB wanted him to do. I’m anxious for someone to be honest and start naming the names of those in the Commissioner’s office and in team managment who knew about steroid use, and embraced and encouraged it.
I agree with Joe. Mostly, Mac’s apology felt real.
But the questions somebody REALLY has to answer is: Is my McGwire USA card back to being worth something?
Can we step back for a minute here?
EVERYONE knew that baseball players were taking steroids throughout the 90s. I think we are all just forgetting that we knew, like this is something new. But really, we all knew. There was enough media coverage raising the possibility of rampant steroid use way back in the early 90s. I remember making jokes about Canseco in high school in the early 90s. We all knew. It wasn’t confirmed, but we all knew. I specifically remember the stories about McGwire’s Andro in his locker. There were quotes from a lot players in those stories saying how that was commonplace for any player’s locker.
The only point that I’m trying to make here is that we are coloring the steroids story with the wrong lens. We are still making it sound like it is a story from the 2000s. I don’t understand why.
The most amazing and curious thing to me in all of this is the connection of Mark McGwire with the Hall of Fame.
As a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s and a baseball fan, Mark McGwire would’ve been one of the first 5 names I would’ve come up with if asked if I could name any great baseball players’ names. Heck, the Sosa/McGwire home run race was one of my favorite baseball memories, even if it is tarnished by the drug use.
I know there’s still time, but if the Hall of Fame voters continue to hold steroid use against him when he was a product of the environment where cheating was encouraged, then shame on them. I understand the desire to have “pure” nominees get instated, but it’s history now and to hold it against a guy who deserves to be in there is criminal.
I highly doubt they will use the same arguments in the future against A-Rod and his drug-enabled numbers. But to give it to him and not to McGwire is just a pitiful thing.
It’s becoming clear that admitting use and apologizing for it is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” proposition, which sounds similar to what the culture of steroids was like in the 1990s.
I not very impressed by apologies that are filled with self-aggrandizing lies. It shows tremendous arrogance to admit taking a “performance enhancing drug” while simultaneously denying it enhanced your performance. McGwire must think the media and the average fan are all morons. I remember his 1991 line: .201/.330/.383. I remember he only played a combined 74 games in 1993 and 1994. He cheated to stay in baseball. He cheated to put up super-human numbers. And now his “apology” is filled lies about why he used and about his “god-given gifts.” And the only reason he offered this lame apology was so that he could take a high profile job in the major leagues. More disgusting self-service. I am not impressed.
Thank God for Joe. The majority of those commenting on Mac (I’ll borrow from Spiro Agnew and call them the “nattering nabobs of negativity”) remind me of how dire a world this is.
Could part of it be that McGwire doesn’t want the general public to think he was some no-talent schlub who took some pills and turned into Joe Hardy? In reality–assuming his steroid timeline is accurate–he *had* been a great power hitter when he was clean, from Little League to his early years in MLB. Maybe he’s afraid this will get lost, and the average person will write him off as a cheat and not acknowledge any of his accomplishments. I’m not talking about the records or a HOF candidacy, but just the pride/ego of once being near the top of his profession.
Mind you, I do side with the majority in thinking McGwire messed up that part of the interview. But I can sort of understand it on this level, I guess, and I do agree with Joe that the level of outrage is getting a tad overheated.
#19 – Could you quote someone who didn’t walk on bribery charge? (paid fine ; no jail time ; resigned as VP)
The thing that I cannot quite fathom is why if there is so much outrage at (a limited number of) players who used steroids, then why is there not as much outrage at the people who stood idly by while it happened*? It seems pretty clear that just about everyone either knew it was happening or had a very good idea about it. For years the people who were in a position to make a change did nothing because it was good for baseball. Only when it was in their best interests did anyone start to institute the changes necessary to help rid baseball of steroids.
*Not the greatest comparison but try to imagine a situation where the players are children at a school and mlb ownership/ the comissioners office are the teachers/school board. Would you be more outraged at the kids for doing the wrong act than the teachers/school board who actively encouraged the behaviour because there were improved exam results. (I probably haven’t made this point as clearly as I would like but I’m no JoePo)
To me, McGwire’s statements make it clear that, with respect to two of the reasons Joe posits as possibilities, he is definitely NOT apologizing, to-wit: (1) because without steroids, he might not have been able to get healthy; and (2) because without steroids, he might not have gotten the at-bats to break the record. On the contrary, he seems to offer the hypothesis that, if he only took them for “health reasons,” it really isn’t “cheating” from his perspective. This is where he loses me.
Even if you accept that 0% of his power spike was a result of ingesting chemicals, and was attributable to natural improvement and hand-eye coordination, the simple fact remains that, without those same chemicals, he would not have been on the field in sufficient volume to put those numbers up. There are those who will no doubt say “You can’t know that for sure.” The lawyer nerd in me would respond “res ipsa loquiter.” He says it himself, by trying to justify his action by playing the health card. It’s up to everyone’s individual viewpoint to decide, but to me, that’s cheating, every bit as egregious as the career Double A shortstop trying to add a few feet to his warning track power.
Hey Joe, this is the biggest question of all:
Why is McGwire calling Canseco a liar?
Geoffrey @22:
The analogy you’re looking for is this: when a kid is declared ineligible because his test results were doctored, whose name do we remember 20 years later — his, or the athletic department personnel who perpetrated the fraud?
I have never been a McGwire fan, I knew he and Sosa and a bunch of others were juiced, and I never asked for his apology. The man cheated the fans and other players of his era. He is delusional if he thinks that it did not give him a power advantage. It took him five years after his pathetic congressional testimony to bring out his confessional. And yet as pathetic as he is in all of this, Tony “I didn’t know anything was going on” LaRussa is even more pathetic. McGwire was a ‘has been’ who had no shot at the Hall when he turned to the big juice in the mid 90s and then he put up the monstrous numbers. The man lied about taking steroids in the past and made a mockery of the era and yet were supposed to take his apology at face value. I think not. Long live Hank and Roger as the real home run kings.
Ahh, I have too much more to say. First, Rich @24: for the same reason I call Ted Bundy a murderer.
To general points:
This argument that the fact that he took steroids allowed him to get back on the field invalidates his accomplishments is fairly weak. Why, you ask? Because if one is using steroids to help the body heal, then one is actually using them for their medically described purpose (the illegality of one’s acquisition and use notwithstanding).
Does nobody grasp this? If you, the non-athlete, suffer certain kinds of injuries, you can bet your ass that one of the things the doctor is going to prescribe for you will be some form of steroidal medication.
Furthermore, there are actually steroids which are legal and which are used every single freakin’ day right there in the damned clubhouse, under the supervision of a doctor and with the full acquiescence and consent of the league. You all know which one I’m talking about even if you don’t register it as a steroid:
Cortisone.
Why are players injected with cortisone? To get them on the field.
Cholesterol’s a steroid too, by the by.
Anyway, my larger point is this: if players are physically unable to perform, and if using steroid treatment in order to make themselves physically able to perform again is an abomination in the sight of Gehrig or whatever, then you need a wholesale change in the rules. Surgery? Oh, that’s forbidden now — especially the rash of medically-unnecessary Tommy John procedures being done to guys because of the belief that it actually strengthens a weak yet uninjured ligament. Cortisone’s right out. For that matter, I think we probably need to ban Advil. If you’re physically unable to perform, then you’re just SOL, buddy.
Yes, I know. That’s ridiculous. QED.
Don’t misunderstand me. Arguments about how unsupervised steroid use cannot be condoned because such unsupervised use is dangerous, illegal, against the rules, and provides benefits beyond simple injury recovery? Those are completely valid. This other nonsense is a different matter.
I don’t understand all this talk about apology. I didn’t need him to apologize, I needed him to ADMIT he took steroids. That’s all. I’ll deal with what it means to me. His apology doesn’t mean anything.
I don’t care if Clemens or Bonds is sorry they took steroids, I want them to ADMIT that they took steroids.
I am also not trying to gather additional information from him, such as his method of injection, when where, how much. WE THE PUBLIC ARE NOT WRITING ADDITIONAL ARTICLES ON THE SUBJECT OF STEROIDS, AND WE DO NOT NEED THESE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS ANSWERED. For crying out loud.
If he admits it. Good, fine. I’ll figure out how to deal with it.
Who actually wants him to apologize them? Honestly what the hell do you care if he’s sorry?
“when healthy he was one hell of a historic home run hitter”
really. he says he started taking steriods in 88 or 89. he wasn’t a great home run hitter before then. he wasn’t a great home run hitter until unless he was taking steriods. why do you believe him?
Greg @ 29:
The man only broke the rookie record for HR’s in 87…he was pretty widely acknowledged as one of the top HR hitters in the league from the moment he arrived.
Re: apology:
McGwire was really damned no matter what he did…unlike Pettite, ARod, ManRam, and to a large extent Giambi (whose confessions came when they were playing), McGwire doesn’t have an opportunity to put it behind him and make good on the field. Thus, the only way his apology would sway people was if he gave exactly the apology everyone wanted…that steroids helped him hit home runs.
Honestly, I primarily agree with McGwire. I think the strength side-effect of McGwire may have helped him hit 2-3 more HR/year (would be interesting to see a distance chart for each of his HR compared to the fence), but the ability for him to play healthy (as opposed to being on the DL or playing injured) had a MUCH larger effect.
I think, “If you took steroids for legitimate health-related reasons, why are you apologizing” is a very valid question.
Look, I know firsthand that there are perfectly sound reasons that a doctor might prescribe steroids or HGH. When my mother-in-law was recuperating from cancer, her doctor gave her steroids, and they made a noticeable difference in her recovery. I have two nephews who have been taking HGH for several years, under a doctor’s care.
So, I don’t fault ANYONE for taking steroids, if there was a valid medical reason.
But if there’s a valid medical reason, why would you get your steroids from some sleazy jock-sniffing ex-con, rather than fro ma reputable physician?
If you had a valid, health-related reason for using steroids, you wouldn’t NEED to apologize at all, nor even use evasive language. All you’d have to do is call brief press conference, say, “Yes, I took steroids/HGH for a few months, and here’s my physician, Dr. Rosenrosen*, to explain why that was necessary.”
If you weren’t getting steroids/HGH with a valid prescription for a specific reason, you’re a cheater. Period. End of story. Whether you’re a Yankee or a Padre.
* Yeah, I slipped in a “Flecth” joke. Sue me.
One thing’s for sure; Mark McGwire’s reputation is destroyed.
Joe, the one thing that stuck out in my mind about the summer of 1998 was the way the Maris family encouraged McGwire and Sosa to chase the record. I remember thinking how grotesque it would be if it turned out steroids were responsible for 61 falling. I was utterly disgusted when McGwire ignored the Maris family in his self-serving pseudo-apology and very disappointed to see nobody in the national media speak up for them. People dissected McGwire’s statement like it was the Gettysburg Address, but no mention of the Maris. snub Roger Maris went through hell to break Babe Ruth’s record. He endured the most famous asterisk in history. He had his amazing achievement fraudulently surpassed, no less than six times, by a trio of bloated cretins. Now, McGwire can’t even muster an apology to Roger’s family after he lied to their faces repeatedly during the summer on 1998? Why no outrage for these decent people?
Jim @33: You must have missed it in the piece, but McGwire did make a passing mention of calling the Maris family to apologize (in the context of explaining how painful it was to own up to the whole deal). Frankly, I’d rather he do that than make a big deal of doing so publicly precisely because of the personal nature of that relationship.
I mean, if I do something to you which warrants an apology, apologizing to YOU is apologizing, and if I don’t feel like telling everyone else that I’ve done so… well, everyone else can go pound sand, really.
Making a big deal about ensuring that everyone else knows I apologized to you, on the other hand, is self-serving horsepucky, the only purpose of which is appease the sort of person who thinks they’re justified in being outraged on behalf of people they don’t even know over a situation they know absolutely nothing about because they have it in their head that the personal relationship between two complete strangers is somehow their business.
Me, I blame the tabloid mentality.
I know we have beat this to death, but do we really know if we was honest about the years he used? What if we was using steroids during his time in the minor leagues and during his rookie season? Wouls that make a difference how some of you feel? We know he lied for many years about his steroid use. Do we really know the whole truth now? McGwire certainly didn’t appear to be telling the whole truth. And that may be because he is so heavily invested in his deciet that he has come to believe in his own lies. I don’t know. What we do know is this: he lied for years about steroids. Are we now supposed to take what he said as absolute fact without questioning his veracity?
Here’s what gets me.
If they are going to cite “God given ability” for why they hit home runs, then they mean that they were blessed (by God) with the bodies they had. The bodies that could hit home runs and the bodies that broke down.
So, if they are going to cite God for their ability to home runs, shouldn’t they cite God for their bodies’ frailties, too?
Weren’t they going against God’s will when they took PEDs?
Or, is all that piousness a sham?
I don’t have a problem with him believing in his ability to hit home runs on or off the stuff. For the hundreds of players that have taken steriods only 3 went over 60 home runs. If it was all due to steriods, wouldn’t there be many players challenging the record? Not saying the roids didn’t play into it somehow, but he didn’t hit 70 homers just because of them. The national media are a joke. If he was a Yankee or a Redsuck he would be getting a free pass ala Pettite and A Rod. I’m not sure what more they want the guy to say.
@30
He was very good in his early years but not great. He did not become great (or hit 50 home runs) until and age when other players start breaking down. Did not miss many games from injury (and become a walking MASH unit) until well after his admitted steriod use began.
I like what Carney Lansford (former teammate) said.
“Nobody hits 70 home runs without using some kind of substance like that,” Lansford told the Oakland Tribune. “Look, 61 home runs was the record for all those years for a reason. When you’re talking 70, now you’re getting close to one every other game and that’s just silly. Obviously, the record is tainted. It can’t not be.”
And since testing began no one has come close to 70 or hit 60.
Making excuses for any of these roid monkeys only diminishes your credibility. McGwire’s appearance changed DRASTICALLY almost immediately after he became a rookie. Add the fact that Canseco has been revealing the inside scoop and we have slam dunk case.
McGwire is the liar. Canseco is a rat but he tells the truth.
I think there is an important point here that most people are missing completely.
Doctors prescribe legitimate steroids to promote healing from injuries all the time, and they are completely legal. They are also completely different from anabolic steroids, which are used to create lean muscle mass and promote quicker recovery times between workouts.
If McGwire had truly taken the non-anabolic type steroids to promote healing from injuries, I submit he did a rather poor job of choosing them, since he spent the better part of two straight years out of the starting lineup he was trying so desperately to get back to.
Maybe I am too cynical, but my own takeaway from McGwire’s statements are that he is trying desperately to repair his image as he sees his window for HOF candidacy shrinking slowly while gaining no traction. If he had truly been sorry, he’d have come up with something far more believable than he did, and he would have done it well before now. He strikes me as not being nearly so sorry for taking steroids as he is sorry about having gotten caught doing so.
I’m not that worked up over this but I truly don’t think McGwire meant a thing he said in his “apology interviews”. I think he was just parroting what his consultants told him he needed to say to attempt to put this issue behind him. I don’t begrudge an athlete his money or his fame but I do begrudge the arrogance and contempt for the public that so many of them, such as McGwire, Sosa, Clemens, and many others have.
I read your column in SI.com and I have to totally disagree with you on the McGwire apology. First off, he is still lying. Most writers who have followed McGwire’s career believe he started steroids BEFORE the injuries. Indeed, the injuries may have been partly caused BY the steroids. Secondly, McGwire claims that steroids did not boost his HR totals. To you, that is admirable. You contend that other writers put too much emphasis on the positive effects of steroids. But, by claiming steroids helped him more quickly recover from injuries, he himself is focusing on the positive attributes of steroids. It’s a darn shame that McGwire would go through all this and not come completely clean. What we need now is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. What we got instead was a cover story.
DJ Spooklight #19, and coldbeer4thesoul #21:
Actually, those words were written by the late William Safire, who also came up with the gems “pointy-headed intellectuals” and “pusillanimous pussyfooters” as a speechwriter for the Nixon administration.