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."

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by L.A.Chieffan

LaRussa is as much to blame for roids in baseball as anybody else. Shit, Bash Brothers in the late 80's and then McGwire in the late 90's, and who knows whats going on under his watch now.

So if Manny gets popped again, how long will his next suspension be?

[Royal Fanatic]

Originally Posted by L.A.Chieffan

LaRussa is as much to blame for roids in baseball as anybody else. Shit, Bash Brothers in the late 80's and then McGwire in the late 90's, and who knows whats going on under his watch now.

Go ahead. Say it.

[Royal Fanatic]

Originally Posted by frazod

So if Manny gets popped again, how long will his next suspension be?

Manny should be banned for life just for being Manny.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by Royal Fanatic

So, you think the total obliteration of some of the most revered records in baseball by some drugged-up cheaters ISN'T part of the discussion regarding Mark McGwire and steroid use?

One of the two of us IS a dumbass, that's for sure. But it's not me.

You've already stated that you don't give a shit about baseball's sacred records. That shows that you are, at best, a CASUAL baseball fan, you know nothing about the unique appeal of baseball over other sports, and you should probably refrain from offering an opinion in any thread about baseball.

By the way, why are you so defensive about steroid abusers, anyway? Have you been sticking the needle in your own butt?

I don't give a shit about records in sports period. If that makes me a casual fan in your opinion, I could give a ****.

Secondly, these guys aren't the first guys to cheat, and they won't be the last. There's cheaters all over your precious ****ing hall of fame, and my sole contribution to this thread, which is obviously populated by "serious baseball fans" such as yourself, is that you shouldn't excuse cheating in the past by saying "so what, no records were broken by those guys".

[Royal Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Brock

I don't give a shit about records in sports period. If that makes me a casual fan in your opinion, I could give a ****.

Secondly, these guys aren't the first guys to cheat, and they won't be the last. There's cheaters all over your precious ****ing hall of fame, and my sole contribution to this thread, which is obviously populated by "serious baseball fans" such as yourself, is that you shouldn't excuse cheating in the past by saying "so what, no records were broken by those guys".

My first thought was "Hopefully Brock has better takes on football than he does on baseball". But then I remembered this.

Apparently your football knowledge is roughly equivalent to your baseball knowledge. For a guy with over 23,000 posts on a sports-oriented forum, that's pretty sad.

Now I can't say that I had either the time or the inclination to read a representative sample of your 23,000 posts in order to conclude that you have no idea what you're talking about. However, if the majority of those 23,000 posts are as ignorant as the posts you've made recently, I think my conclusion is pretty solid.

You must spend a hell of a lot of time doing . I'm guessing, what, 3 to 4 times a day?

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by L.A.Chieffan

LaRussa is as much to blame for roids in baseball as anybody else. Shit, Bash Brothers in the late 80's and then McGwire in the late 90's, and who knows whats going on under his watch now.

It was all over baseball. It's not the fault of a single manager.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by penchief

If uppers had increased a player's strength to the point of hitting homers every six or seven times at bat I suppose you might have a valid point. But steroids didn't just help McGwire stay on the field. They made him into an unnatural freak who was able to turn pop flies into home runs.

Amphetamines actually allowed the players the ability and stamina to put up the numbers in the first place. Guys like Hank Aaron extended their careers past 20+ years because of drugs like this. How is that not more important? How is that not enhancement? It just seems to me like an enormous double standard for you to sit here and forgive others for doing exactly the same thing.

By the way, I think your 80% figure is considerably high.

That's because you are incredibly naive.

The "everybody does it" excuse won't diminish the fact that McGwire's numbers are fraudulent. The fact that his numbers spike unnaturally during the time he was juicing should be evidence enough to the objective mind.

Read the Bill James essay for an actual objective take on this issue from somebody who actually knows what the hell he's talking about.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Brock

Cheating=cheating.

If you really want to get technical, neither amphetamine or steroid use was ever cheating (not until 2003, anyway). The use of those drugs without a prescription was against the law, but they were never against the rules of the sport (and both were widely endorsed by the MLB establishment for years).

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Royal Fanatic

Here is what you're missing: Nobody was able to use amphetamines to hit 70 home runs (McGwire), 73 home runs (Bonds), or AVERAGE 60 HOME RUNS PER YEAR OVER A FOUR YEAR PERIOD (Sammy ****ing Sosa).

So, basically, your main issue is that Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa were very good and "ruined" the numbers that other "cheaters" like Aaron and Mays put up. To you, that makes their "cheating" somehow worse, even though the majority of the pitchers those guys faced were also on steroids. I don't get that myself, it seems rather hypocritical.

If you think amphetamines are even in the same ballpark as steroids, you obviously know nothing about baseball.

You apparently know nothing about the strong effects of amphetamine use. Once again, there is a reason the players used greenies for years...and it wasn't because it had no effect on their play.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Brock

They are in the same ballpark. They're both against the rules.

I admit I don't give a shit about baseball's sacred records.

There is no such thing as a sacred record. Not in baseball, anyway...it's a sport of cheaters. Players have always looked for ways to get ahead and they always will.

[penchief]

Originally Posted by Brock

Because this discussion isn't about that, dumbass.

Yes it is. It's about whether the numbers that McGwire put up because of his juicing makes him worthy of the Hall of Fame.

[Brock]

No it isn't. It's about cheating, and why you excuse some cheaters but condemn others.

[Frazod]

I would also surmise from the way penchief is dangling off Mattingly's nuts that he's a Yankmee fan. Speaking of unfair advantages, how about that payroll, eh?

Or do unfair advantages have to be injected into your ass by Jose Canseco to count?

[penchief]

Originally Posted by Brock

No it isn't. It's about cheating, and why you excuse some cheaters but condemn others.

So I'll ask the question again. If a player who played shortstop and never hit a home run his entire career suddenly started injecting a substance that allowed him to hit a home run every time at bat would that make him a Hall of Famer?

If a player's numbers are arrived at artificially then I don't think he can be considered a Hall of Famer. As far as the uppers go, if I had enough evidence to believe that they skewed the playing field as much as steroids did I'd probably agree with you. But the evidence that we have doesn't suggest that is so. The steroid numbers stick out like sore thumb.

I'm not excusing some cheaters and condemning others. I making a distinction between the impact that steroids had on the game's numbers vs. the impact that amphetamines had on the game's numbers. You can't point to uppers and say, "look how much more inflated his statistics are because of uppers." But you can point to someone who has been juicing and say, "wow, the difference before he started juicing and after he started juicing is incredible."

[penchief]

Originally Posted by frazod

I would also surmise from the way penchief is dangling off Mattingly's nuts that he's a Yankmee fan. Speaking of unfair advantages, how about that payroll, eh?

Or do unfair advantages have to be injected into your ass by Jose Canseco to count?

Yes, I've been a Yankee fan since 1970. But the reason I point to Mattingly is because he is a classic example of a great player who won't make the HOF because of injury and premature retirement. The same fate that probably would have been in store for McGwire had he not taken steroids.

So I'm not saying Mattingly should be in the HOF because I don't necessarily believe that. He didn't have the necessary longevity and he fell probably two additional HOF caliber seasons away. What I am saying is that Mattingly was the superior player and therefore, no way McGwire deserves HOF consideration based on the numbers he put up fraudulently.

Rewarding those who juiced by validating the numbers they put up when juicing cheapens the accomplishments of those players who didn't cheat (past and present) while also doing a disservice to the integrity of the game.

JMO.