Baseball's Problems

Wow. Did anyone watch those hearings yesterday? The pressure in that room had to be overwhelming, not only between the players themselves and the committee, but squarely on Mark McGwire’s not-so-broad shoulders.

Call me naïve, but at the time of the great homerun race between Sammy and Mac, steroids didn’t cross my mind. I just thought he was a huge, buffed up power machine. But, I have not been a big baseball fan, so I didn’t have the early version of Mac in my mind’s eye like I’m sure many baseball fans did.

I do have the current version of Mac, and he now looks like an ordinary guy since retiring. I also had the pleasure of meeting him briefly three years ago at The Toshiba Senior Classic, ironically the event Fuzzy is playing in this week. He was big, but looked much slimmer than what I expected. I have to admit that steroids did cross my mind then.

There is no doubt that Mac has taken steroids. Now that I am aware of the physical marks (acne, knee injuries, weight gain and loss, etc.), it’s obvious.

Mark McGwire is a nice guy, period.

I felt for him as the various congressmen and women took their shots at him even though he stated that he would not answer questions regarding the topic. In a setting such as this, he seemed to be a boy among adults. His responses were canned, lacking confidence and displayed naivity. I am certain they were carefully crafted by his attorney with no thought given to the PR damage he/she was about to inflict by sending him in with such a small list of canned responses.

“I am here to talk about the future.”

“I want to make something positive come out of this.”

“I will not talk about the past.”

Yikes….

I feel that in his opening comments, he exhibited the hurt he feels for now realizing in hindsight that kids have probably died trying to be like the hunked up version of Mac. He is a father, and since being removed from the arena spotlight, I am sure his thinking is a bit clearer and more introspective.

It’s a shame to see a good guy go down, but it is my opinion that his approach to the hearing yesterday has put at risk his chance of gaining entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I can’t stress enough how nice of a guy Marc seems to be. But, he made wrong choices in his climb to the top, and he will certainly pay for them one way or another.

And the biggest question of all. Where the hell was Barry Bonds? Supposedly he rubbed cream all over himself and injected things into his body not knowing what they where, only to find out later they were steroids???? If someone in baseball should have been sweating bullets in front of this committee, it was Bonds.

As it relates to Canseo, and as much as I hate to admit it, I feel what he placed in front of the committee was the truth. I do find it a bit disturbing that the fame he is regaining for himself will lead to more sales of his book, which from what I hear actually encourages the use of steroids. Supposedly, he has now changed his opinion and supports eliminating them from the game of baseball. While I am certain he spoke the truth yesterday, it is my opinion that his motivation in all he does and says is self serving in nature.

The entire scene was surreal, sad, and dripping with irony. That’s just the sort of thing that TV executives love to see on their 24 hour news programs.

I hope Mark and his people figure out a way to be accountable for his actions. As it stands now, he looks weak and self serving in his own right. I realize there are legal issues involved, but let’s hope all can come together and work out a compromise that allows these players to come clean and share with the youth of our country why their decisions were wrong and should not be followed.

All the best,

Dave