More on McGwire

While it appeared to be a refreshing break on Monday to hear Mark McGwire had confessed to his steroid usage, the more we hear from him, the clearer it is his just doesn't get it. Excuses won't work.

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He still won't acknowledge that he took drugs to enhance his performance. The excuse that he took them to help comeback from injuries just doesn't fly. Look at how his physique changed, and that wasn't just filling out from maturity was it?

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The pissing contest he has entered into with Jose Canseco is comical. Jose Canseco might be a serial liar on some accounts, but he did give us a look behind the curtain that nobody wanted to believe at all when he did. We just realize Canseco is a scum bag. There were no noble motives in his ratting out his profession. It was calculating and self-serving.

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The truth, the whole truth, and a clear statement of what an athlete did was wrong is the only acceptable outcome to involvement in this dark chapter of professional sports. McGwire continues to equivocate and rationalize. That is unacceptable.

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As the week passes, he has done little to look any more authentic than his silly remarks about not wanting to talk about the past when he testified on Capitol Hill. Mark McGwire and dozens more have a long way to go. There will never be a better time than now to set the record straight. The integrity of baseball deserves it.

Mark McGwire: "I Did It..."

Mark McGwire finally gave a full acknowledgement and apology for steroids use during his career.

It’s about time. He made a complete ass of himself in the meek “cover-your-ass” manner he responded when grilled on Capitol Hill with his constant statements repeating, “….I’m here to talk about the future….”

Those watching that circus were screaming, “BALONEY.”

Today his remarks take on a different tone. How the sports world will react remains uncertain as there is much more to learn.

It's very emotional, it's telling family members, friends and coaches, you know, it's former teammates to try to get ahold of, you know, that I'm coming clean and being honest," … "It's the first time they've ever heard me, you know, talk about this. I hid it from everybody."

The most obvious focus of McGwire’s acknowledgement is that he was the first player to break Roger Maris’s homerun record of 61 hitting 70 round trippers in 1998 must be seen as a tainted record. While Maris was forced to have his record marked with an asterisk because he hit his 61 homers in a 162 game season longer than Babe Ruth’s, what can be said of McGwire’s and then Barry Bonds’ records?

We believe all players involved in performance enhancing substances must come forward, admit their actions, and be responsible. In return, they should be promised or assured nothing. It’s simply the right thing to do.

McGwire could have entered the Hall of Fame with Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn 2007. Baseball writers clearly sent a message not supporting his induction by a wide margin. He has not done better in subsequent elections.

The Hall of Fame claims to mean more than simply a player’s on the field accomplishments. As such, the steroid users who don’t accept responsibility for their actions and Pete Rose for gambling on the game invalidate their claim to Hall of Fame Status.

Having seen what happened when steroids raged out of control in the NFL in the 1970’s and watching former star defender, Lyle Alzado physically and mentally fall to pieces dying a miserable young death should have been all the warning ever needed to put steroids out of the picture. Ironically, the steroid craze in baseball was only just beginning when Alzado died.

The steroid players are perhaps too young for the world to know just how seriously they could have destroyed their health abusing their bodies with such drugs. The fate of their Faustian deal with the Devil remains an open book, but the message is clear from baseball to the NFL to NASCAR, there is no place for performance enhancing drugs in athletics. They not only have a responsibility to themselves and their sports but everyone who follows them to do the right thing. Like it or not, their behavior does serve as models for young people and such behavior is learned young.

Mark McGwire is on the road to earning back his respect. Today’s action closes nothing but serves as a positive beginning.

Alex Rodriguez: Young and Stupid Doesn't Cut it

Young and Stupid Doesn’t Cut It!

Alex Rodriguez faced the press on reporting to the Yankees’ Spring Training Camp giving further details about his performance-enhancing drug, a material transported from the Dominican Republic, which his cousin informed him about. He attempted to give more specifics on his use while playing for the Texas Rangers and insisted he stopped using such materials after sustaining a neck injury.

Through out the conference, he kept coming back to, “I was 24 years old,” and “I was young and stupid.” He began his baseball career at 18 making his major league debut with the Seattle Mariners at 19 years old. First, the math does not add up. His birthday is July 27, 1975, which would have put his 24th birthday in 1999 while he was still in Seattle. He began his playing career with Texas in 2001. You do the math! as they say.

We’ll simply his rationale, he was stupid. Stupid that he would trust his cousin. Stupid he would inject anything without medical supervision. The whole thing starts to sound a little like Mark McGwire’s excuse line to the queries directed at him from Congress, “I’m here to talk about the future.”

Jose Canseco made further accusations based on his association with Rodriguez as a Texas teammate who said A-Rod questioned him about a substance and Canseco recommended a trainer who could supply him. The extent to which one should trust Canseco is surely subject to doubt. The sad thing is, as outraged we might have been when Canseco first starting spilling the beans, as time goes by, his charges have proven shockingly honest. Who would have thought Raphael Palmeiro used junk until that fateful day his suspension was announced by the Baltimore Orioles in 2004.

Having done something as misguided as performance enhancers, the only proper course of action is complete disclosure and corrective behavior in the future that does not appear self-promoting. Somehow, as much as fans would love to give A-Rod, the benefit of a doubt, it’s hard not to still be mystified.

Players’ irresponsible use of drugs and supplement will cast a cloud over baseball that shall be known forever as the “Steroid Era” from the conclusion of the 1994-95 Player’s Strike until proper policies were put in place by 2005. The great McGwire/Sosa homerun chase, Barry Bonds’ records, and the stellar performance of Roger Clemens all is tarnished into severe disrepute forever more. That power stats across the game were so escalated would also be suspect. Could this even influence how fans in the future might regard accomplishments like Cal Ripken’s remarkable consecutive game streak when all associated with Cal Ripken would affirm no one played the game with more regard for the rules and a healthy approach for playing the game. Most man made disasters have severe collateral damage.

In viewing athlete’s behavior, there’s a big difference between “boys will be boys” and “young and stupid” behavior compared to actions intended to cheat the game and true lawlessness. The NFL understands these issues and addressed player conduct accordingly. Some players like Jaime Moyer and Curt Schilling have been quite outspoken with anger on the issue of drug-enhanced play.

Mark McGwire was ready to go into the Hall of Fame with Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn. Raphael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds would surely be first ballot Hall of Fame inductees were the steroid issue not in play.

We would hope Alex Rodriguez has the opportunity to redeem himself and he seems to be doing the right thing but is so caught up in all the consequences of saving face while trying to come clean, he is failing to clear his name or gain much public sympathy so far. Once again, we come back to, Luke 12:48, “to whom much is given, much is required.”

For Alex Rodriguez, especially playing in New York, much will be required of him on and off the field. The rest is up to him.