in partial defense of big mac
Mark McGwire is a retired baseball player who now is a scratch golfer. He even won the e=mc2 golf skills challenge two years ago, defeating all the PGA pros in the event.
Two days ago, McGwire was subpoenaed to testify in the “steroid” hearings in Congress, along with Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Kurt Schilling, Frank Thomas, and Jose Canseco. Everyone but McGwire and Canseco deny taking steroids. McGwire and Canseco essentially “took the fifth,” although Canseco’s already admitted steroid use in his latest book.
So apparently, now all the “buzz” is about Mark McGwire. His local congressman is even threatening to have his name taken off the stretch of highway dedicated to him. Read here.
From the highlights (or lowlights) of McGwire’s testimony, I can understand some of the criticism he’s received, but not all of it. Both Congess and the media should WAKE UP: anyone who’s ever stepped foot in a gym to lift weights can tell pretty easily who probably is on steroids. There should be no surprise with Mark McGwire, Jose Caseco, or Barry Bonds. C’mon, let’s be real. The blame should not lie solely at the foot of the players. At least some of the blame falls to the lax policies of MLB, and the “blind eye” thrown to the issue by the media — who hyped up the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa home run derby as being the “magical” return of baseball after the strike year.
If the media, MLB, and Congress want to be surprised about something, they should be surprised it’s taken everyone this long to address what has been staring MLB in the face daily — for over a decade.
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