Five thoughts on former St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire’s admission of steroid and HGH use on Monday:
1. It’s never too late » Big Mac took a lot of heat when he arrived in Washington five years ago and famously said, “I’m not here to talk about the past” when asked whether he took steroids. Other players in the room — including Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa — denied the allegations, then were later linked to performance-enhancing drugs. So while McGwire was roasted for not answering questions in 2005, at least he didn’t lie.
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2. Record books » This adds another layer to the ongoing debate regarding how baseball should notate records set by admitted steroids users. At the core of this problem is that baseball, for years, lagged behind the law. McGwire broke the law, but he never broke baseball rules (he retired in 2001 and the MLB steroid policy was implemented in ’02). Baseball has spanned such a long period of time that the record book can be compartmentalized into different eras. In McGwire’s case — as a now-admitted steroid user during the steroids era — anybody looking up his records will know the context of the times. In total, 89 players were named in the Mitchell Report, linking them to performance-enhancing drugs at some point in their careers. The baseball record books can’t hand out asterisks like hard candy. Instead, we’re better off passing individual judgment. Let the record books chart the numbers and the history books tell the story.
3. No real way to quantify the numbers » Okay, so McGwire took steroids on and off for a decade. What does that even mean? He hit 49 homers as a skinny 23-year-old rookie in 1987. He hit 32 and 33 in 1988 and 1989. His first admission of steroid use came after that 1989 season. Do we throw out the first three full years of his career, too? McGwire claims the first instance of drug use was brief and the second began after he was hurt in 1993. Well, he hit 42 homers in 1992. The man obviously had natural talent. Which numbers are legit and which aren’t? No one knows for sure and we never will, especially after the above point that other players of his era clearly weren’t steroid or HGH-free, either.
4. Drug use from earlier baseball eras » We condemn the illegal drug use of the 1990s and 2000s. Shouldn’t we do the same for the rampant amphetamine use by ballplayers in the 1960s and 1970s? We know about it because dozens of former major-leaguers have said so – years after the fact, of course. Those little “greenies” – like guzzling down cup after cup of coffee – helped players get through the dog days of summer. It’s physically taxing to fight through 162 games with few off days. It was an advantage to pop a few pills before a game and get that added energy boost. Steroids are an extreme form of that, of course. But greenies were still a form of “cheating”. The point: Baseball has never existed in a “natural” state.
5. Hall of Fame » Now this is an entirely different animal than the question of notating the record books. Induction to the Hall of Fame (by the Baseball Writers Association of America) requires 75% of the vote. McGwire received 23.7% of the vote this year, suggesting that he’s a long way from even being considered for induction. There is a large core group of writers who will never vote for a player implicated or rumored to be linked to steroids. That — at the end of the day — is the invisible asterisk for McGwire and other admitted steroids users. They put up huge numbers, but they might never reach Cooperstown because of tarnished images.
