Monday, January 18, 2010

forgiving McGwire

It's been awhile since I wrote about how I felt about 'the steroid era' of professional baseball. Hell, its bad enough these players are getting overpaid! But that's a different ballgame (lol). Mark McGwire is now back in the spotlight since it was announced back in October that he will be a hitting coach for the St. L Cardinals. Yesterday, at the annual Winter Warm-Up, he was greeted with a standing ovation. That proved the public wanted to put his past behind him and the team, and hopefully for this bad era.

What do I think? Well, it's true. I've trashed Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez and many others who I felt have 'cheated' and 'terrorized' a great American sport. Baseball has changed over the decades. Controversy has always been a part of baseball even during the days before artificial turf and back when the average baseball player was paid $20,000 (I learned that this morning while watching Tom Brokaw's 1968 History Channel documentary). Today, we live in an era where baseball players make it look easy to break major records. And of course, we know the sad truth behind it. But the way I look at it is this: I'm almost sure, while it is not known, that the roster for baseball players who have used some sort of 'enhancement' drug is very, very long. I've listened to sports commentators on the radio and they've already believed most players who have played the last 25 years have used some sort of thing that has increased their performance.

I recently listened to a radio interview with Joe Buck, and he was asked what would his father Jack think about McGwire today. He said that Jack would convince people to move forward and forget about all the troubles that McGwire and other players have caused, and start a new day. Just last week, McGwire admitted to using drugs during the 1988-89 season (while he was with the A's). Nothing had been said about other seasons. But whether or not he used any kind of illegal enhancement formulas, he deserves to be given another chance and be a team player.

And speaking of Jack Buck, today I drove on the new 64/40 (which is now named the Jack Buck Memorial Highway), and it felt so smooth and everything, and I was impressed with it of course.

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