Victim?
One of the steroid era’s “good guys” is on the record saying he and others who cheated the game and their competitors are being treated unfairly.
Mark McGwire, long lauded for at least admitting to cheating, and Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are all victims now, apparently, and we should ignore the fact that they systematically conspired to cheat their opponents and the game’s fans of a fair fight…because, “That was what was going on in those days.”
So, what all is McGwire saying? On the relatively anonymous Legends Territory podcast, co-host AJ Pierzynski, asked the disgraced home run hitter if he felt he were being “punished unfairly” in a reference to his exclusion from the Hall of Fame
“Well, it seems like it,” said McGwire. “…I think I heard Barry (Bonds) say it the other day. There was no rules and there was no regulation…There was no testing. There was no nothing.”
This is all true, but it is a convenient omission of facts, like steroids were already known to be used to increase strength and were dangerous. And using Barry Bonds as a character reference on the matter does not help McGwire’s case. Bonds was convicted of obstructing justice in relation to the BALCO investigation, before the conviction was overturned in 2015. His best friend and trainer, Greg Anderson went to prison rather than testify in the trial.
McGwire’s assessment of Major League Baseball’s drug testing at the time is fair, considering Bud Selig stuck his head in the sand and pretended like nothing was wrong and union leader, Donald Fehr, refused to show anything regarding a moral compass with regard to testing players. “If there was any rules in place, that stuff would not have happened,” said McGwire. “That’s what was going on in those days.” Perhaps, but that ignores the fact that cheating is wrong. It is not okay to square off against an opponent when you have an illicit, unfair advantage. Period.
McGwire has always held this strange space in the steroid era. He admitted while he was a player to taking a supplement that was strength-enhancing but not expressly prohibited by Major League Baseball. This is from the New York Times:
He came out publicly in 2010 to admit he used steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. He felt guilty enough then to contact the family of the true home run king, Roger Maris, to confess that he did use steroids during the 1998 season in which he broke Maris’ record of 61 home runs by an incredible 15 percent. Barry Bonds’ clownish 73 home run season bettered the mark by 22 percent. McGwire also admitted to using in 1989, then in 1990, then in 1993 to heal from injuries and did so again throughout the 90’s. His assertion that he only used the drugs in the healing process were immediately challenged in 2010 by his former supplier, Curtis Wenzlaff:
Even if McGwire did only use steroids to improve his healing time, they have been proven to cause stresses on the body that increase the risk of injury. Judging by McGwire’s butchering of the English language during his chat with Pierzynski, it is possible Big Mac was not what you would call an avid reader. You could make the case that maybe he was under the illusion that he wasn’t really cheating. But, if that was the case, why did he apologize, why did he say he would do it all differently if he had the chance, and why did he apologize to Roger Maris’ wife?
Told by Costas that certain Maris family members have said that they now consider Roger Maris’ 61 the authentic home run record, McGwire responded: “They have every right to.” – January 11, 2010, ESPN.com.
That sounds like a man who was finally fully self-aware and contrite. But was it partially an act because Selig’s twin ostrich, St. Louis Cardinal manager Tony LaRussa, was about to hire McGwire as a coach? Fourteen years later, his recent comments sound like a man who now feels some sort of victim status. It’s all MLB’s fault! I wouldn’t have if only MLB had told me to not do the thing that I knew I shouldn’t be doing. It’s like your spouse telling you not to leave the stove when you’re cooking burgers and then you blame your spouse when you burn the burgers.
Saying now, “There was no rules and there was no regulation” is a cop-out. He was a grown man who conveniently and selfishly ignored the firestorm of conversations about the drugs and the raging debate about when testing would be implemented, while also ignoring the idea that he was giving himself an unfair advantage on the field.
As far as being treated unfairly, he admitted to what he did and has been employed as a hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres. Unfairly would seem to apply only to his exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Considering that he admitted to using steroids in 1989, 1990, 1993, 1998 and in other seasons as well, the word unfair would seem to be a gross misuse of the word.
Some of his claims are true, some are not, and some of his on-field performance is in doubt. As for his assertion that he was given a gift of power that allowed him to hit the long ball? True. Would he have hit 586 home runs? No. Would he have hit 70 and then 65 a year later? No. Would he have hit 500 home runs? Maybe. Fifteen percent of 583 is 87. Would he have hit the line drive 62nd home run that just barely cleared the wall? Maybe not. When did he last use steroids before that hit? How much power did it give him? Baseball is a book of numbers. The Hall of Fame is a house built on numbers. His use of these drugs skews that data.
Sometimes, we make mistakes. Sometimes, we make the same mistake repeatedly. Sometimes, we just have to accept the punishment for our actions.
Big Mac, that would be you.