A few words about Mark McGwire's comments regarding steroid users being 'treated unfairly'
"No comment" would have sufficed, but a retired juicer had to whine.
I get it, Mark McGwire.
You think Major League Baseball players who were juicing back in the day get a bad rap, because that’s all people look at. They see the rules being broken, and don’t care to think that mad skill was still required to crank over 560 home runs. I agree.
But, the good option is to shut up about it all together. Whether it’s embracing a Hall of Fame election-less world or just opening up, McGwire thinks steroid users who also wore a big league uniform are “treated unfairly.” I won’t elaborate on that, nor do I need to provide a link to "45 ads popping up” Yardbarker or Fox *Puke* News.
Mac is defending his own, and that’s not unpredictable at all.
For years, I have said that taking back the 70 home run 1998 season or the rescue of baseball from the clutches of relevancy for a higher moral ground would be the dumbest thought in the history of mankind--and there’s been some bad decisions that happened before you woke up this morning.
Working behind the manual scoreboard at Busch Memorial Stadium and hearing McGwire ding a batting practice fastball off the face of the board will never get old. The memories shared with friends shouldn’t be traded in so I can sleep better at night knowing Big Mark did it clean.
He didn’t, the same as Mickey Mantle ingesting or snorting whatever drug he could get his hands on. If we’re slamming the outright usage in a time period where many were using performance-enhancing drugs, then widen your gaze.
My stance on that hasn’t changed. Let it be. I wish McGwire would do the same. Shut it down, and don’t start becoming the Joe Rogan baseball martyr for former sluggers who won’t enter the HOF. Be a rebel, but retain some dignity by not asking for more empathy from sports fans. No one’s carrying a candle for you, Mac.
Keep the homers, save the whining. Next time, pull out your patented “I’m not here to talk about the past” go-to when asked about steroids and how they affected your career. Any person with a working brain will know that the drugs alone didn’t allow you to smash Roger Maris’s record; they sure did help, though.
Leave it be. Go back to that mumbling, anti-media guy that this town knew all those years. Now isn’t the time to get all lippy and needy with attention for the people who knowingly broke the rules. If only he could remember that the ones who had it the hardest were the ones who actually played clean.
McGwire was my favorite player for the entirety of his career. His recent comments aren’t much different than the ones he made during his tearful interview with Bob Costas in which he admitted his steroid use. He was deluded then and he is deluded now. He deserves all of the criticism he receives for cheating and I’m glad he’ll never be in the Hall. That said, I enjoyed every minute of his career.