My Thoughts on Big Mac Breaking His Silence

As we are a week beyond the Hall of Fame announcement of Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Mark McGwire in an interview recently with the Cal State-Fullerton school news paper that he’s proud of his career, in spite of the spector of steroids and drug use hanging over him.

Although much of the media sees him as a pariah, still fans and the media flocked to see him, and in many cases, to get an autograph as well.

And Mark did sign for fans.

Well, Mark McGwire fell well short of a chance of getting into the Hall of Fame this year, with only 23.5 of the voters placing him on their ballot. Much of debate centered on his Hall of Fall candidacy is with his Capitol Hill testimony in March of 2005 along with allegations of drug use in the media.

McGwire asserts:

"I had an absolutely wonderful career that I am very proud of," McGwire said Friday as he signed autographs at a charity event benefiting the Orange County Abuse Prevention Center. "I'm not in control of what happens -- I was in control of hitting the ball."

He’s right. Steroids will not help you to go from a .200 hitter to a .300 hitter. Performance enhancing drugs are mostly used in the conjunction of athletic training, (i.e., weight training, bodybuilding, running, etc.) and are not used, let’s say before a game. These drugs assist in the recovery time, and therefore, speed up recuperation rate after a workout, and help athletes train harder and longer.

Thus, an athlete may or not may be tired as they would be otherwise, and obviously in conjunction with training, the muscles are stronger, and you have a an athlete whose performance will most likely improve due to training.

With the increase in strength, players are stronger and faster.

Simply, the drugs work and work well. That is nothing short of a lure for professional athletes fall into temptation to try to increase their stats or battle for the next contract.

Until I saw this interview, he’s been nothing short of a hermit, even a recluse. A few weeks back, Wright Thompson of ESPN tried to get in touch with him and wrote an article about him, but was unsuccessful.

If you have read the Oriole Post enough, you know that I think McGwire should be in the Hall of despite his drug allegations. Not to beat on a dead horse, but baseball I feel was a party in allowing the proliferation of drug use to explode in the sport.

Personally, I think McGwire, if he did do drugs should just say that he did. America is a very forgiving society, and unless you have committed murder or ruined the lives of many people, most do forgive celebrities for their misdeeds. If he does want to get into the Hall of Fame, or perhaps get the rain cloud off his head, he should start by admitting what he did and not lie about it.

If he in his mind know he did nothing wrong in terms of using performance enhancing drugs, he should say so. Honestly, if I knew I didn’t do something, I’d be adamant against what allegations, and perhaps would even take legal recourse.

Right now, in the court of public opinion, McGwire is facing nothing short of exclusion.

If he does care about his legacy, and as well as the sport, he needs to speak out against drugs in sport, like he said he’d do in the congressional hearings of 2005. As well, since athletes in his stature have such influence, he should speak out and warn against the supposed dangers of performance enhancing drugs, as inform those who are impressionable that should be no shortcuts to hard work and success.