McGwire admits steroid use

[Shag]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4816607

NEW YORK -- Mark McGwire finally came clean Monday, admitting he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998.

McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade.

"I wish I had never touched steroids," McGwire said in a statement. "It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era."

McGwire also used human growth hormone, a person close to McGwire said, speaking on condition of anonymity because McGwire didn't include that detail in his statement.

McGwire's decision to admit using steroids was prompted by his decision to become hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, his final big league team. Tony La Russa, McGwire's manager in Oakland and St. Louis, has been among McGwire's biggest supporters and thinks returning to the field can restore the former slugger's reputation.

"I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come," McGwire said. "It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected."

He became the second major baseball star in less than a year to admit using illegal steroids, following the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez last February.

Others have been tainted but have denied knowingly using illegal drugs, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and David Ortiz.

Bonds has been indicted on charges he made false statements to a federal grand jury and obstructed justice. Clemens is under investigation by a federal grand jury trying to determine whether he lied to a congressional committee.

"I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids," McGwire said. "I had good years when I didn't take any, and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids, and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry."

Big Mac's reputation has been in tatters since March 17, 2005, when he refused to answer questions at a Congressional hearing. Instead, he repeatedly said "I'm not here to talk about the past" when asked whether he took illegal steroids when he hit a then-record 70 home runs in 1998 or at any other time.

"After all this time, I want to come clean," he said. "I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team."

The person close to McGwire said McGwire made the decision not to answer questions at that hearing on the advice of his lawyers.

McGwire disappeared from the public eye following his retirement as a player following the 2001 season. When the Cardinals hired the 47-year-old as coach on Oct. 26, they said he would address questions before spring training, and Monday's statement broke his silence.

"I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 offseason and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again," McGwire said in his statement. "I used them on occasion throughout the '90s, including during the 1998 season."

McGwire said he took steroids to get back on the field, sounding much like the Yankees' Andy Pettitte two years ago when he admitted using HGH.

"During the mid-'90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years," McGwire said in the statement. "I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years, and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too."

Since the congressional hearing, baseball owners and players toughened their drug program twice, increasing the penalty for a first steroids offense from 10 days to 50 games in November 2005 and strengthening the power of the independent administrator in April 2008, following the publication of the Mitchell Report.

"Baseball is really different now -- it's been cleaned up," McGwire said. "The commissioner and the players' association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did."

[wild1]

Originally Posted by L.A.Chieffan

McGwire as a hitting coach...lolz. Other than juiced-up HRs, he wasnt even that great of a hitter. Whats he gonna tell his guys when they start to go in a slump?

"Don't worry man, next week is the end of your flush cycle bro."

You don't think .260 career hitters are qualified to be called "great hitters"?

Well, actually, who knows what he would have hit without all the juiced home runs, the way he was pitched to (or not) in those days.

.260 might be a pumped up figure for him too.

[penchief]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Don't care at all about McGwire. I'm really more of a Bonds fan.


The Yankees never would have won the World Series last year without proven steroid users in ARod and Pettitte. Asterisk.

Last year everyone was tested for steroids so they had to be clean. But if a governing body determined that they had an unfair advantage last year I'd say give the team an asterik.

Bonds would have made the HOF before he started juicing, IMO. But I have no doubt that the home run records are bogus.

[Consistent1]

Originally Posted by penchief

Last year everyone was tested for steroids so they had to be clean. But if a governing body determined that they had an unfair advantage last year I'd say give the team an asterik.

Bonds would have made the HOF before he started juicing, IMO. But I have no doubt that the home run records are bogus.

The NFL has testing for steroids also....seriously.

[penchief]

Originally Posted by wild1

You don't think .260 career hitters are qualified to be called "great hitters"?

Well, actually, who knows what he would have hit without all the juiced home runs, the way he was pitched to (or not) in those days.

.260 might be a pumped up figure for him too.

Pop flies turned into home runs will inflate all of the offensive stats (average, hits, runs, rbi, total bases, etc. etc. etc. ....)

[penchief]

Originally Posted by Consistent1

The NFL has testing for steroids also....seriously.

I hear what you are saying but one has to believe that testing in baseball is being taken seriously considering the PR hit that the league and the players have suffered.

I think when you look at the home run totals it's obvious that they have tailed off considerably, which might be a sign that testing is working.

[Royal Fanatic]

Originally Posted by penchief

I think when you look at the home run totals it's obvious that they have tailed off considerably, which might be a sign that testing is working.

Hold on there just one minute, Buster! Didn't you hear? Steroids don't help you hit home runs! It's all hand-eye coordination!

[Consistent1]

Originally Posted by Royal Fanatic

Hold on there just one minute, Buster! Didn't you hear? Steroids don't help you hit home runs! It's all hand-eye coordination!

It has to have changed things some, yes. However, guys are going up against four different dudes in the same game that are all throwing 95 MPH with damn good control these days also.

[KC_Connection]

From Bill James' essay: http://www.actapublications.com/imag...27Roids_F2.pdf

But at the same time, I do not believe that history will look at this issue from the standpoint of Will Clark. I don’t see how it can. What it seems to me that the Will Clark defenders have not come to terms with is the breadth and depth of the PED problem, which began in the 1960s and expanded without resistance for almost 40 years, eventually involving generations of players. It seems to me that the Will Clark defenders are still looking at the issue as one of “some” players gaining an advantage by using Performance Enhancing Drugs. But it wasn’t really an issue of some players gaining an advantage by the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs; it is an issue of many players using Performance Enhancing drugs in competition with one another. Nobody knows how many. It would be my estimate that it was somewhere between 40 and 80%. The discrimination against PED users in Hall of Fame voting rests upon the perception that this was cheating. But is it cheating if one violates a rule that nobody is enforcing, and which one may legitimately see as being widely ignored by those within the competition? It seems to me that, at some point, this becomes an impossible argument to sustain—that all of these players were “cheating”, in a climate in which most everybody was doing the same things, and in which there was either no rule against doing these things or zero enforcement of those rules. If one player is using a corked bat, like Babe Ruth, clearly, he’s cheating. But if 80% of the players are using corked bats and no one is enforcing any rules against it, are they all cheating? One better: if 80% of the players are using corked bats and it is unclear whether there are or are not any rules against it, is that cheating? And…was there really a rule against the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs? At best, it is a debatable point. The Commissioner issued edicts banning the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs. People who were raised on the image of an all-powerful commissioner whose every word was law are thus inclined to believe that there was a rule against it. But “rules”, in civilized society, have certain characteristics. They are agreed to by a process in which all of the interested parties participate. They are included in the rule book. There is a process for enforcing them. Someone is assigned to enforce the rule, and that authority is given the powers necessary to enforce the rule. There are specified and reasonable punishments for violation of the rules. The “rule” against Performance Enhancing Drugs, if there was such a rule before 2002, by-passed all of these gates. It was never agreed to by the players, who clearly and absolutely have a right to participate in the process of changing any and all rules to which they are subject.It was not included in any of the various rule books that define the conduct of the game from various perspectives.
There was no process for enforcing such a rule. The punishments were draconian in theory and non-existent in fact.
It seems to me that, with the passage of time, more people will come to understand that the commissioner’s periodic spasms of self-righteousness do not constitute baseball law. It seems to me that the argument that it is cheating must ultimately collapse under the weight of carrying this great contradiction—that 80% of the players are cheating against the other 20% by violating some “rule” to which they never consented, which was never included in the rule books, and which for which there was no enforcement procedure. History is simply not going
to see it that way. The end of the day here is about the year 2040, perhaps 2050. It will come upon us in a flash. And, at the end of the day, Mark McGwire is going to be in the Hall of Fame, and Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro, and probably even Barry Bonds.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by penchief

Last year everyone was tested for steroids so they had to be clean. But if a governing body determined that they had an unfair advantage last year I'd say give the team an asterik.

Ever heard of undetectable steroids?

That's the stuff Manny Ramirez was using. The only reason they caught him was because he slipped up with his masking agent.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Royal Fanatic

Hold on there just one minute, Buster! Didn't you hear? Steroids don't help you hit home runs! It's all hand-eye coordination!

I've never argued that once in this thread. But you've ignored all the relevant points I've made.

[penchief]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Ever heard of undetectable steroids?

That's the stuff Manny Ramirez was using. The only reason they caught him was because he slipped up with his masking agent.

And he got banned for 50 games. At some point it's not going to be worth it. And I think the obvious fact that guys aren't hitting ridiculous numbers of home runs fraudulently is a testament that (between testing and punishment) something must be working.

[2112]

What about Cal Ripken jr? he had to be juicing..he was roommates with brady anderson..and I know he was juicing. its a shame that lou gehrig's streak got broken by a cheating pos.

[Royal Fanatic]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

From Bill James' essay: http://www.actapublications.com/imag...27Roids_F2.pdf

I must admit that Bill James makes a pretty solid argument.

Of course, he always does.