Column:
McGwire taking right steps to move on
Published March 5, 2010
I was 8 years old in summer 1998, and it seemed like Mark McGwire could do no wrong. His epic chase with Sammy Sosa for Roger Maris' single season home-run record was the stuff of legend, and if I missed my chance to see history in the making then, I was sure I would have to wait 30 plus years for the record to fall again.
I barely had to wait three plus years for Barry Bonds to hunt that one down, but for some reason, it didn't captivate me as much as McGwire's feat did. Perhaps I found Bond's quest less exciting because he wasn't actively dueling someone for the record or maybe because I didn't even know what steroids were when McGwire and Sosa were batting.
Now I do, and until recently, it seemed like McGwire could do no right.
As much of a bang McGwire's record-breaking season was, he made as much of a whimper during his final seasons as he quietly trailed off into retirement. He was now the bad guy, labeled a "cheater," even before his former teammate Jose Canseco revealed a version of McGwire's steroid history different than McGwire had previously claimed. His younger brother, Jay, is releasing a book of his own soon as well, supposedly detailing how his brother was actually introduced to steroids.
First of all, if the price of fame is having your brother sign a book deal in hopes of making bank by throwing you under the bus, count me out, however minute or harmless the accusations are. I'm going to stop being envious starting now. The reality seems like everyone wants a piece of the pie — access to fame, riches and fortune, and they're willing to step on anyone to get their name in the headline. As many know all too well, fallouts happen. It's sad, but it's life and human nature. We do our part, do what we can and move on.
What Mark McGwire did to baseball, and himself, was wrong. He has been perpetuated to be synonymous with baseball's steroid era, and it might be awhile before he gets voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, if ever, but what's done is done. That's in the past now, and it seems like he is trying his absolute best to turn the page in that part of his life. He got back into St. Louis Cardinal baseball as the team's hitting coach and in January admitted to his steroid use. He is trying to start over, to move on, but it seems like he keeps getting sucked back into this mess.
Although using steroids to help McGwire get the record might permanently cement him as the butt of any steroid reference and prevent him from reaching baseball immortality, it doesn't detract from my experience that summer 12 years ago.
I might have had the naïveté back then to think everyone was on an equal playing field, but that doesn't cloud the excitement and anticipation I felt, eyes locked to the TV whenever he would step up to the plate. I wasn't a St. Louis Cardinals fan then, and I am still not to this day, but I was a Mark McGwire fan then, and I still am now.
