So I make the mistake of watching Mark McGwire's entire interview with Bob Costas. You can watch it here, if you care:
Yes he admits taking steroids. He wants to coach hitters in St. Louis so that's why he's fessin' up now. What is terribly disappointing isn't really the steroids admission, it's his unbelievable delusion that he could have racked up the numbers he built without steroids!
He basically blames the "steroids era" for tainting him. He absolutely believes "The Man Upstairs" gifted him so greatly that he could have hit 583 home runs without the aid of performance enhancing drugs. Costas does a great job pressing him on his insistence that roids didn't give him better numbers, but he stays firm- he could have done it all without them. It's just plain ridiculous.
I do commend McGwire for confessing but ultimately it does seem like a simple case of highly rationalized CYA.
Update: Read excellent analysis from Ken Rosenthal here
Update: Read excellent analysis from Ken Rosenthal here
5 comments:
Dear Mark McGuire,
If you could have done it without the steriods, WHY DIDN'T YOU??
From,
me
There are many parties at fault here, MLB for not having a policy in place, the fickle fans who wanted to see the long ball, and the players not being accountable. Yes, McGwire along with other MLB players took HGH or Steroids to enhance their performance and MLB took a wink and a nod stance so long as the revenue was coming in. Every network that covered baseball during this era kept talking about a juiced baseball and water down pitching, and not once even considered a juiced player. It is all about revenue, (granted it has always been about revenue) and that is why professional sports are no longer enjoyable. Yes, I still root for the Yankees, Steelers, Celtics, and Blues, but the days of going out to a ballgame and actually believing players are playing at their best without HGH or Steroids that doubt cannot be erased having seen this era of inflated stats to put fans in the seats gone by. Bud Selig thank you for lack of leadership that made this happen now if you really wanted to go out with honor you will strip McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds of any record they broke in a single season and forever place a scarlet S next to their names and ban them from the Hall of Fame or having anything to do with Major League Baseball at any capacity just like your predecessor A. Bart Giamani did to Pete Rose.
What’s worse? The horribly corrupt ego crazed politicians or the lying, greedy, drug enhanced, ego crazed professional athletes? It’s interesting, in our Nouthetic Counseling course just last night we were learning about the first lie, cover up and Blame Shifting!
(God) “He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”” (Genesis 3:11–13 ESV)
They both blamed others for their sin and so McGwire blames everyone but himself! What a hypocrite, even with his tears, he is a jerk!
I'm old enough to remember when sports was a subculture in life, when the real issues of life didn't depend on a sports figure's misdeeds. Now, with the constant media glare on so many non-essentials in life, sports is on par with everything else, to our shame. But, that honestly doesn't really make something worth our attention. I suppose that McGwire needed to make some sort of admission of his blatant lie concerning taking steriods, for no other reason than to sooth his own conscience, no matter what the full reason, though others claim his admission was incomplete. But, really, who cares about any of it! America has other, more pressing, real issues to worry about: terrorism, the economy, job loss, the Obama takeover, Haiti, will my kids graduate?, should I send my parent to the old-folks home?, is my friend, brother, dad, going to get saved?, etc. And, for some, their only concern is will they eat today. So, let's not take this McGuire choice and admission out of context and not take over our thoughts and lives. Unless he's in our family, or he's one of our personal friends, his day-to-day life really means nothing to any of us, even if he gets to the Baseball Hall of Fame, or not. Besides, since he's originally lied about taking steroids, it's been some time. So, it's really an old sports issue that being dredged up and perpetuated by people who must earn paychecks. But, again, there are much more timely pursuits to concern ourselves with. Yet, we can still pray for McGuire without diving into the same swamp he's in and getting caught up in the worthlessness of his issue.
Tom, I appreciate what you are saying and agree we spend too much time and energy contemplating issues like Mark McGwire. Still though, pop culture is impossible to completely avoid. If you have a kid that likes sports, he or she will inevitably take note of stand out athletes like McGwire. Therefore the actions of such a person have at least a partial impact on our lives and considerations and have to be addressed at some level.
Yes, MANY things are more important than Tiger Woods and Mark McGwire, however, such issues still touch our lives and the lives of many begging us to consider their ramifications. Such is human existence.
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