The St. Louis Cardinals are trying to decide how they should handle the return of Mark McGwire.
ESPN Story About the Cards Introducing McGwire
Obviously, the elephant in the room is the belief (by just about everyone paying attention, anyway) that Big Mac used steroids. To break HR records. While baseball ignored it.
Now, we could get into whether he did or he didn’t, whether it was right or wrong if he did, all that kind of stuff. I’m not sure we will really get anywhere with that conversation; no one else seems to have been able to over the past couple years, anyway. Personally, I have enough evidence to believe that he did. I think most people are in that same camp with me.
However, McGwire becoming the hitting instructor of the Cards isn’t a big story because he did steroids. The simple fact of the matter is that this is such an issue because McGwire has made it one. By not talking to the media (or congress, for that matter), Big Mac has a created more questions than answers and has given legion of reporters something to write about. Does anyone write about Alex Rodriguez or Andy Pettitte doing steroids anymore? Not really. And that’s because they addressed the situation and moved on, right or wrong.
McGwire needs to do the same thing. It’s the only way it’s going to go away. He seems like a really nice guy, a non-confrontational type. He seems like he just wants to go about his business and be left alone, which I can certainly understand. But that strategy isn’t going to work, no matter how much he might wish it would, for someone who is going to be in the public eye – which he will be on a certain level as the Cards hitting instructor.
I would imagine the Cards have already discussed it with him – there is no way they go a whole season where reporters want to talk to the hitting coach more then the players after every game. I have to assume that McGwire will address the media at some point before or during spring training, admit he used, and remind everyone that he’s not an active player any more so the whole issue is moot for the future. It’s the right thing to do.
Additionally, this would be a perfect time for the Commissioner’s office to come out and say they support the hiring. It would be a great time for them to man up and admit that they could have (and should have) done more to prevent all this and that they didn’t.
But, c’mon, that will never happen, right?
God, absolutely he has to talk about it. My son has McGwire baseball cards from his rookie season with Oakland and then with the Cardinals. Big guy in the first one; enormous in the second. I want him to tell my kid that taking ‘roids was dangerous to his body and shouldn’t have happened, regardless of the climate at the time. And then he can get down to work on his new job.
As far as I’m concerned, there is really no question that he took steroids. And, unfortunately, that concept doesn’t bother me as much as it used to.
But you do bring up a good point – kids watch this game and are the future of the league, the future fans of the league. Don’t they deserve a little bit of a guy like McGwire’s time?
McGwire is in a little bit of a unique position in that he hasn’t been caught with a failed test and he isn’t an active player. He *should* have a little bit more freedom of speech, if he chooses to use it.
I hope he does.