Sports Arena
McGwire’s Lament
One last strikeout from a steroid era chump — who could have been a contender.
“Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid
era.”
— Mark McGwire, Jan. 11, 2010
With that statement, one of the greatest sluggers in the history of baseball reduced his decision to take steroids down to an accident of bad timing.
Mark McGwire would have been a great major league slugger had he never touched a performance-enhancing substance stronger than Gatorade. I will never forget his 1987 rookie season, when he hit an astounding 49 home runs in 151 games, the most home runs in a single season since George Foster slugged 52 in 1977. Even before McGwire won Rookie of the Year or was named an All-Star, the only baseball card every boy wanted was his. He was clean that year, according to the story he gave to the Associated Press on Monday — the all-American kid from Claremont, California, a Paul Bunyon effortlessly striding the base paths and hacking down American League pitchers at will.
McGwire hit 32 home runs in 1988 and 33 in 1989, when he helped Oakland to a World Series title (though he hit no home runs in the Fall Classic). Then, he said, he tried steroids for the first time. He hit 39 homers in 1990 and led the league in walks, with 110. He seemed to indicate in Monday’s AP interview that he didn’t take steroids again until 1993-94, when he was out most of both seasons with injuries and hit only nine home runs each year. That would make his 1991 (22 homers) and ‘92 (42) his last without the regular use of steroids.
If that is true, even if 1989 is removed from the books, McGwire had one of the great first five years in baseball history. He averaged 35.6 homers a year in his first five non-steroid seasons.
Barry Bonds, whose rookie year was 1986, averaged 23.4 in his first five seasons; Hank Aaron 28; Willie Mays 36.6 (excluding his 34-game sophomore season); Ken Griffey Jr. 26.4.
Of the top five home run hitters of all time, only Babe Ruth (43.6) averaged more home runs in his first five seasons than McGwire. (I started Ruth’s count in 1919, though he still pitched 133 innings that year, because he played nearly a full season (130 games) as a position player, accumulating 412 at bats. Starting his hitting career in 1918 (95 games, 317 at bats) would bring his average down to 37.6, just a hair above McGwire’s.)
Count McGwire’s enhanced 1990 season, and he actually drops below Willie Mays to an average of 35 homers a year in his first five seasons. Of baseball’s top 10 home run hitters, only Ruth, Alex Rodriguez and Harmon Killebrew hit more home runs in their first five seasons than McGwire did in his first five seasons if 1990 isn’t counted.
Which raises the point of timing. McGwire’s lament that he “played during the steroid era” is an indication that he views himself as having been caught up in the current of his times. Using steroids was not a decision to cheat, but just something that everybody did. Hey, it was “the steroid era.”
“When you work out at gyms, people talk about things like that. It was readily available. I tried it for a couple of weeks. I really didn’t think much of it,” he said.
But Commissioner Bud Selig caught the dodge of responsibility in McGwire’s statement when he issued his own, which read in part, “The so-called ‘steroid era’ — a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances — is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark’s admission today is another step in the right direction.”
Never mind that Selig’s statement is designed to dodge his own responsibility for looking the other way for years. That’s another subject for another day. His point remains. What of “the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances?” Are they, too, not products of the steroid era?
McGwire chose to use what he knew were performance-enhancing drugs when others chose not to, which he also knew. If he “didn’t think much of it,” then why did he have his brother secretly supply him the goods? One doesn’t hide fair play in the shadows of the clubhouse when no one is watching.
Had McGwire been born on Dec. 18, 1886, he might have been the greatest home run hitter of all time without the slightest taint of steroid use. But then, like Ty Cobb, who would share his birthday, he might be known today as a horrible racist. To some extent, one is a product of one’s time. But not all Americans at the turn of the 20th century were racist, and not all players in the “steroid era” juiced. One does make up one’s own mind, despite the pressures of one’s peers.
And that is why McGwire’s tears don’t wash his sins away. His were sins of commission, direct and deliberate. In taking the forbidden substance, he lost his status as a god, an idol of teen boys with sparkling diamond dreams of their own, and fell farther than the mere mortals surrounding him. Their numbers, produced honestly, naturally, outshine his, and he knows it. His only hope for forgiveness, for a chance to rise from villain back to hero, is to deploy the passive voice, to blame the era in which he played.
About the Author
Andrew Cline is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader. His Twitter ID is @Drewhampshire.
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susan bisceglia| 1.12.10 @ 7:13AM
cheating does not mean nothing to you look at the clintons how madame fee fee hillary clinton wanted to be president the clinton' s did everything to try to get obama out of there that is what is wrong with america the mighty think they can do anything and get away with everything mark was afraid of going to jail if he did not come clean and you admire him you and others are crazy jose canseco can not come back to baseball a mark mguire can that is wrong jose brought baseball to there knees like monica did with the pimp bill clinton and jose gets nothing unreal
L. Ross| 1.12.10 @ 10:40AM
Punctuation. Use it. The Shift Key. It lets you make letters capitals. Use that to.
saberzedge| 1.12.10 @ 9:19PM
Yes, Susan. I lost interest very quickly, although what you said seems applicable. Your run-on paragraph, with no punctuation, made my dyslexic mind spin in anguish.
JP| 1.12.10 @ 7:27AM
During the last 15 years I've grown weary of professional sports in gerneral, and MLB in particular. McGwire's mea cupla aside, there is an unwritten rule in MLB that dictates players need every edge available to pad thier stats in thier run for the grand-prize: THE BIG CONTRACT. For most players, there have only one shot. That magical period where youth and expirience come to together at the right time (the final year of thier first or second contract). With the right numbers thier agents can pry millions in guarenteed money from owners. Most players will do anything to get there.
Pingback| 1.12.10 @ 8:55AM
McGwire’s Lament links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.12.10 @ 9:23AM
I am copy/pasting this comment from the blog on home run kings. The blogs here don't last long and I wanted to follow up with with you folks who are working with a kid or grandkid.
Line-shot doubles...are king!
See guys, RBIs also include one's own flat feet, heh, so homeruns are neat...but.
George Will wrote "Men At Work". Probably one of the coolest books on MLB I've ever read. The consensus he gathered from star pitchers, past and present, was that the most "feared" hitter in history was Hank Aaron.
Everyone probably knows he hit a slew of homeruns in his career,
But!
They tended to be line-shots that got out of the park.
He would also insert a gazillion screaming doubles off the fences...in any park. Doubles often spark rallies as well.
I was just trying to make that point in the blog.
Brute strength is not the answer. The ability to "crack the whip" on a ball is the answer.
Best regards all
RAMIII| 1.12.10 @ 1:55PM
As usual you are correct sir. Home runs without the other hits (esp. doubles) are just "single" RBI's. The pitchers feared hitters like Rod Carew, because a man on base is a potential run and often a double down the line would clear the bases.
PittsburghPete| 1.12.10 @ 12:15PM
MLB will never be redeemed until it 'fully' acknowledges its PED transgressions. Every time they pull the McGwire or Selig act out it simply reaffirms that MLB is degenerate.
Cpm| 1.12.10 @ 1:15PM
McGwire knows the only shot he'll have at the Hall of Fame is with a mea culpa, but it probably won't be enough.
txb4ever| 1.12.10 @ 2:07PM
I have no problem with pro-athletes doing whatever they think is necessary to gain an edge. It's their life, their bodies, and their choices.
Players of every era have tried to do one thing or another to keep them on the field or to give themselves an advantage.
I do have a problem with a guy who, like Clinton , tries to excuse his own behavior by tainting everyone else in order to maintain his legacy. "Hey, it was the steriods era and I just did what everyone else did. Now I'm ready for the Hall of Fame." Simply disgusting.
Richard Baker| 1.12.10 @ 3:40PM
L. Ross:
susan bisceglia seems to think that she's the new e.e. cummings. Either that or incredibly lazy or uneducated. cummings was know for some interesting poetry. This one isn't.
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.12.10 @ 4:58PM
One of my faorite quotes from Babe Ruth.
A young newspaper reporter was given an interview with the great man ...and asked: "Sir, what is it like to be considered one of the best athletes in the world?"
As some of you might know, the Babe replied: "Athlete? Athlete? bud I ain't no athlete...I'm a ball-player."
heh!
Pingback| 1.13.10 @ 1:01AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : McGwire's Lament [spectator.org] on links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
JmsA| 1.13.10 @ 9:28AM
How pathetic; at least Canseco owned up to it without crying.
Jim| 1.13.10 @ 4:55PM
To Marks credit he is at least now trying to do the right thing. Sheeeez, can't we give him a little bit of a break.
Richard Baker| 1.13.10 @ 5:55PM
Correction:
cummings was known, not cummings was know
boys3rsk| 1.13.10 @ 10:05PM
Mark McGwire is the typical cheater , loser, lier and coward like Sosa, Bonds, Rodriguez, Clemons,ect. They do steroids behind everybody's back , and get as big as a house, and lie about it. They also like Bonds, get furious when you call them on it. They continue to lie, because you have to be a MAN, to have COURAGE and honor and do the HONORABLE thing, and not do steroids. Now they blame it on the "steroid times" and everyone was doing it!!LIES, because I have to believe there were some who were NOT DOING IT!! These are little boys who have to CHEAT and then either they don't want to talk about it, or like Sosa , can not remember how to speak english, ect., because they know they are COWARDS!! I love baseball, but these LOSERS and I am including Selig, have ruined our wonderful game of baseball all because of GREED!! I seriously doubt it will ever be clean again. Mickey, Babe ,Maris and all the other great ballplayers are rolling over in their graves !!! Sad!!
Frank Moore| 1.14.10 @ 10:51AM
I get a real kick out of people who act as though MLB's problems with performance enhancers (at least, what we now have come to think of as performance enhancers) started in the 1990's.
The fact is that baseball has been chock full of stimulant use and abuse for decades. Willie Mays and Hank Aaron took amphetamines, drugs proven to have more of an effect in game performance than anabolic steroids. Not only are they respectively #4 and #2 in career HR totals, both are in the Hall of Fame.
Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson were pumped so full of Cortisone (another steroid) and other pain killers that they were practically numb the day after a game. Both of them are in the Hall of Fame.
Pud Galvin used to drink a concoction of animal testosterone before every game he pitched. He's in the Hall of Fame.
People need to get off their high horses and accept the fact that use of performance enhancing substances have been as much a part of American professional sports history as gambling on the outcomes of the games has been.
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Converse | 8.11.11 @ 10:00PM
is good