Mark McGwire - The painful truth

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by Myke.

“…and the truth shall set you free…”

Not in the case of McGwire.  I have only read one decent story about Mark McGwire admitting to steroids and the rest seem to be bashing him and basically telling him to get lost and that MLB should ban him for life.  So as a society today, when someone admits fault then we should shun them forever and call them cheaters and cowards?!?  This is not the way we want to live our lives.  We should live our lives as a caring and forgiving society, not a hateful society.  Even though these so called baseball experts want McGwire banned for life, we have current and active players in MLB playing and getting paid millions…after they admitted to using steroids.  If we want to take a firm stance, then every player that ever gets caught for cheating in any way needs to be banned for life, no questions asked.  If a sports writer does a false story, they should be banned for life from writing about sports.  MLB needs to do away with their suspensions for failing drug tests.  If you fail, you are banned for life.  Does that make sense to be that critical?  No.  Yes, cheating is wrong and should be punished.  But to say that one player should be banned for life and the others are forgiven is stupid and makes you look like a jackass.  A-Rod can admit to steroids and other drugs, swing his dick around every city in the World and use women like rag dolls…but he gets a free pass because he was young and dumb when he used them…or…he learned his lesson and has never cheated since.  Really?  REALLY?!?  Let’s ask his ex-wife how truthful of a man he is.  Let’s ask Madonna how truthful a man he is.  Come on man, wake the f**k up.  There was an entire era of baseball that was filled with drugs, steroids, HGH and what ever else they could get a hold of.  It was encouraged by trainers, scouts, managers and other players.

Should they hold records in the record books? No.  Should they be hailed as hero’s? No.  Should they be banned from MLB? No.  They should be used as poster boys of the wrong way of doing things for the younger generation out there.  The media always hypes how these drugs make boys into men with great strength and makes it unfair for the non-drug users.  Is that message we want our kids to read or hear about?  No.  The message should be about the side affects that these drugs can cause now and in the future.

I will keep Mark McGwire’s apology recorded for my son to watch when he gets a bit older.  I want him to see a grown man have to admit to the World the mistakes he made.  I want my son to know that there is a right way and a wrong way of playing sports.  The wrong way has life long lasting affects, medical affects and mental affects.

Having McGwire as a coach on the St Louis Cardinal’s is a great thing for baseball.  He will be there to tell every player around him the downside of everything he did.  He is basically like taking an ex-con into a school and letting him/her tell every student the bad side to prison…in graphic detail.  McGwire is going to be a modern day baseball scared straight coach.  He loves baseball and dedicated his life to it.  He has passion and love for a sport and that is something he can pass along to other players young and old.  If McGwire coached my son in baseball, I would feel honored to have such an honest and caring man teach him the right and wrong in baseball.

To be a sports writer and come out and say, “Ban him for life for lying, stealing and cheating”, is ignorant.  He apologized to the World after he apologized to his family, friends, fellow players and more importantly to the Roger Maris family.  He knows what he did was wrong and he came out to tell everyone after telling the ones he hurt the most first.  I also believe he saw how close he was to making the Hall of Fame and that really drove him to admit his wrong doing.  He knows he will never make the Hall after this apology and he accepts that.

You have to remember folks, taking steroids does not give you the ability to hit a 90 MPH fastball, a 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock breaking ball or the coordination to play great defense at a hot corner like first base.  It gave McGwire the ability to heal injuries quicker, get stronger and train longer.  Yes you can account for some homeruns going 500+ feet to steroids, but not every one of them.  Baseball is still a skill of the mind and takes great talent to make it to the majors.  I do agree that records should be cleared out of the record books, but do not clear out the players themselves.

*Note*
Steroids can give you an advantage in many sports, but in a game of skill and coordination it only goes so far.  Sports like boxing, MMA, martial arts, football (certain positions) and rugby, it gives you a great advantage…not in baseball.

Posted in Pro Sports, Rant | Print | No Comments »