Look, anyone that has any common sense and anyone who has followed baseball, whether it be casually or a die hard fan, knows that something was beefing up baseball, but what was it, specifically??? NO ONE KNOWS, not even Mark Mcgwire. Although admitting to using steroids for a better part of his career, he could not remember what it was he was taking....seriously??? He is a professional athlete, his body is his money maker, you think someone who relies on his body to support his family doesn't know what he is putting into it?...yeah right!
Before I get into all of this lying that he somehow thought would make his admittance to peformance enhancing drugs(PED's) go over smoothly. I want to thank Mark for actually coming out, on his own terms, and saying he took them, saying he was sorry to the Maris family for taking Roger out of the record books with the help of a substance. Its hard to apologize, even for a regular person apologizing is uncomfortable for the person who has done wrong, and also the person that was wronged. Now, Mark had to apologize on an interview with Bob Costas, in front of a camera(so pretty much the whole world can watch it), but to all of the people that have ever played the sport of baseball, whether you are in Little League,high school, college, semi pro, pro, and even members of the Hall of Fame. He apologized on his own terms. He wasnt forced. He is still the only former MLb'er that we all suspected of doing roids to come out and admit it.
Now on to his actual interview...He said that when he went in front of congress that he "was not there to talk about the past", but Mark thats exactly why you were chosen to go to the congressional hearing on the matter. They didn't have Randy Johnson or Orel Hershiser there for a reason, those guys weren't ever involved in talks of PED's, ever!
Another thing that really irritates me is all of the excuses he made about why he made the decision to take the drugs. He said he "wishes he never would have played baseball in the Steroid Era", MARK-YOU WERE THE REASON WE CALL IT THE STEROID ERA! You played on the Oakland Athletics with Jose Canseco, you two might/are the reason PED's are so overwhelming in professional baseball. He also stated that he was given a god-given gift to play ball. This is very true. He also stated that "he did not take steroids to get any gain for any strenth purposes, I have always had bat speed". That might not have been the reason why you started to take them, Mark, but when you realized that a, what would be, normal lazy fly ball to the outfield was suddently flying lazily over the wall, it was addicting. Numbers of home runs=more number of 0's on the end of your paycheck. So steroids do not improve your hand-eye coordination, right! But like I said before, they do give you power, balls that aren't supposed to go over the left field wall are, and balls that are already going to be a home run are suddenly turning into 500 ft. moon shots.
I commend Mark for what he said, I am sure it was hard to do, and who knows this might hurt his future of hall of fame status, or it might help. All I know is that an apology with excuses is not an apology. An apology with excuses is a squirmy way of trying to get people to look past what you reallly did, and feel sorry for you. I wish he would have just said "I took Steroids, I cheated the game of baseball, I made the decision to stick the needle in my ass, and for that I am sorry!" Don't blame an era, don't blame the media, don't blame anyone but yourself. No one made you take them! Man up for your decision!
Hopefully Marks half-ass apology will spark something in some other players to come out and discuss how they have cheated the best game on earth!
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