"There it is! Sixty-two! Touch first, Mark, you are the new single-season home run king!"
It may have taken some 11 years, but Mark McGwire has finally taken announcer Joe Buck's advice and touched base with all of us.
It was over a decade ago that Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs in one year, captured our hearts, and breathed some much-needed thrills and excitement back into the national pastime after the strike. It was almost five years ago that he stated flatly to a grand jury before Congress that he wasn't here to talk about the past. This presented America with a conflict that resonated long after all of the March Madness games of that day had been forgotten.
We have been conflicted about our views on Big Red ever since.
Just yesterday, McGwire came out and confessed to us much of what we already knew in an interview with Bob Costas on MLB Network. Perhaps there was really nothing newsworthy to come out of this, yet it stirred up plenty of old emotions and arguments nonetheless.
McGwire took 100 mph heat for repeatedly pleading the fifth, causing much frustration and outrage from fans angry at feeling double-crossed. The magical home run race of 1998 went from being an innocent children's bedtime story with a happy ending to a twisted cautionary tale that played fast and loose with our loyalties, our trust, and our fondest memories. Naturally, this made many want to point the finger. Sometimes the index, often the middle.
Sympathy comes in short supply in a jaded culture. Yes, McGwire was admitting fault with his repetition, but what few seemed to see was a man trapped. It was clear on his face that he knew the implications and the ramifications of his testimony, that he was greatly pained by this, and that he could find no other sensible option.
Throughout his baseball career, Big Mac had always carried himself with great pride, integrity, and a willingness to be the role model that the media asked of him, not unlike Cal Ripken, Jr. When he all but disappeared from public view following the testimony, it only made sense. Aside from the fact that he no longer had any obligation to be in front of a camera until now, that pride and integrity had been shattered, and Mark was likely spending his time somewhere coping with great shame, unable to discuss the matter without great difficulty. No one had to tell McGwire that he had just let down millions of little kids around the globe, he knew that, and it's a safe bet that this bothered him far more than it could bother you or me.
During his interview with Bob Costas on MLB Network Monday night, McGwire's tearful and remorseful demeanor confirmed this notion, as he choked out the words, "Today was the hardest day of my life." Through the intermittent sniffling, McGwire claimed that he took steroids starting in 1993 and '94 to overcome the various injuries that had him perpetually on the disabled list. This part is all well and good. But there are several other elements of the interview that are troubling, to say the least.
I do not doubt Mark McGwire's sincerity, but a sincere man can still be misguided. For McGwire to believe that steroids played no role in his massively inflated ability to crush a baseball is highly questionable. His head and body in the late-'90s could be described much the same way. Throughout the '80s and the early-'90s, he could have been described as strong and muscular, but still lean, not quite imposing yet. By the late-'90s, he was the ballplayer who would have been the best candidate for the cover of Muscle & Fitness.
He continually cited his God-given abilities as the sole reason for his home run prowess, even as he continued to put up all his best career numbers in his mid-to-late 30s before quickly breaking down thereafter. Big Mac, in his older state, seems to be a man who is not dishonest as much as he is in denial.
I also could not imagine this being an appeal by Mark to get into the Hall of Fame. McGwire has too far a way to go with the voters to believe that this will change everything or anything. He also does not appear egotistical enough to crave the glory of induction over the simple piece of mind that this confession will allow him.
The other element to this is now an ongoing he-said, he-said with Jose Canseco, baseball's unofficial Devil's Advocate. Canseco alleges some sensational things to be true about McGwire's steroid use that Mark claims never happened. Heads says Jose has continually been right before about most of his allegations. Tails says Canseco is always going to want to sensationalize the truth since he is so fond of selling books on this matter. Time will tell who is ultimately right.
What struck me most, however, is the fact that Canseco actually agreed with McGwire about his God-given abilities to the point of saying, "I think Mark McGwire had so much natural given ability and an incredible swing that he probably would have broken those records anyway.” Even Jose himself will take Mark's side on that one. If it's true, it is a greater shame than anything Mark has ever felt.
What's worse is, time won't tell us the truth on this matter. We will simply never know.
January 19, 2010
Kyle Jahner:
Good article. You kind of get into the complexity of the issue, and it’s not a simple one.
I personally believe Mac would have been a consistent 40 HR/year guy while healthy, maybe even clipping 50 or more in a couple years without steroids. He hit 49 his rookie year; his talent was evident.
I have a serious problem with these guys denying that steroids helped them. Even if it was just for injury, this doesn’t explain the massive upper body bulk they developed.
The irony is that the upper body bulk, such a warning flag, so hard to hide, and the reason we all got suspicious, does relatively little for power. Anyone who has played considerable baseball knows that lower body strength and core strength are exponentially more important than shoulders and triceps, much less the completely useless bulging biceps. Reading this article (http://steroids-and-baseball.com/actual-effects.shtml) will tell you that basically, strength adding effects of steroids on lower body are FAR less than on the upper body, and therefore they add relatively little power.
The juiced ball has distorted numbers at least as much as steroids, but no one really talks about that. Now I don’t buy the idea that steroids don’t help at all as the article insinuates, but the effects seem overstated. Still, when guys like Giambi come back and aren’t what they were before being outed and downsized, when guys like Brady Anderson fade to nothing, you cannot deny their impact to me. But the point is this debate is so much more complicated than anyone acknowledges.
January 19, 2010
Paul Foeller:
Forgive me if I simply missed it, but has McGwire ever said he didn’t think the steroids helped him? All I heard him say is that performance wasn’t the reason he took them. This would imply that they could have helped him, but it wasn’t his intent.