It’s not the first time that life has followed Sports Central.  How so you ask?  Last night, we discussed Mark McGwire and whether or not he’ll ever make it into, or even belongs in baseball’s Hall Of Fame.  The phone calls, the emails were split to an almost 50/50 division.

I wake up today and low and behold, Jay McGwire, a professional bodybuilder and Mark’s estranged brother, makes the announcement that, “"Shortly after I won the Contra Costa Bodybuilding Championships in May of 1994, Mark took the plunge. I accompanied him to Sacramento where we met with my supplier and trainer, who explained to him how the different drugs would work on his body and answered a myriad of questions from Mark. Given Mark’s curiosity and lack of knowledge about steroids I saw from Mark, I would be shocked if Mark did something like what Jose Canseco claimed happened back in the early years....He (Mark) began to use, but in low dosages so he wouldn’t lift his way out of baseball. Deca-Durabolin helped with his joint problems and recovery, while growth hormone helped his strength, making him leaner in the process. I became the first person to inject him, like most first-timers he couldn’t plunge in the needle himself. Later a girlfriend injected him."
                                                    
Now, let me say this; Jay McGwire is hocking a new “tall all” book to publishers. THE McGWIRE FAMILY SECRET; The Truth About Steroids, The Slugger and Ultimate Redemption.  Jay claims that he’s coming forward now because, “"Mark is a man I think most would like to forgive because his reason wasn’t nefarious—it was for survival. My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love. I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom—which is the only way to live."  This story would be a lot more believable had a possible dollar amount not be equated to it.

I’ve always been an advocate of the “so what” minority.  “Andro”, a steroid, wasn’t illegal at the time and certainly wasn’t banned by Major League Baseball.  It was illegal to possess without a doctors prescription but you could buy it over the counter or have it shipped to you directly from if you easily wanted to get your hands on the stuff. I’ve been told by more than one person in baseball that the bigger crime was the rampant use of amphetamines than the use of steroids.
Let’s be honest here, we’re pointing the finger at the “steroids era”, the late 80’s and the decade of the 90’s.  My friends, I’m here to tell you that steroids were around long before then.  The 70’s is truly when steroids actually became popular within the bodybuilding world and it’s the logical jump that some bodybuilders, who were working out in some of the same gyms as these athletes, were sharing their magic needles with those in the realm of baseball, football and to a certain extent, basketball players.

I’m not condoning what these athletes did.  Not in any way shape or form, but what I am doing is taking a realistic look at the entirety of the sport.  Sportswriters want to pick and choose who should or shouldn’t get into the hall of fame.  They want to make statements with their ballots.  They want to suddenly have a social conscience as if they didn’t know what was going on at the time.  I live and work in this world and I hear the whispers, those who knew, and those who saw something but didn’t want to be the one to rat out a player so they could stay in that player’s or team’s good graces.  We all know something that’s gone on behind the scenes that we haven’t publicized simply because we felt it wasn’t our place.  But once it’s out there, we’re quick to pile on and wag our suddenly conscience-filled fingers at them as we say, “How could you”?

Mark McGwire will remain the whipping boy, along with Barry Bonds, for the steroids era.  I now ask you, who else that played statistically great in that era would you induct into baseball’s most coveted hall?  We’ve heard of second basemen, pitchers, shortstops, nearly everyone at a particular position taking something.  I’m sure your eyebrows are raised whenever you hear the stats of a guy that did some remarkable things in the 90’s.  You’re probably wondering, “Did he…..”?

McGwire retired after 2001.  Maybe he saw the social impact that steroids were about to have and decided to get out with some of his dignity in tact.  Maybe his body was finally failing him.  Maybe he wanted his family to come first or maybe he had just had enough of the game that seemed to be so dirty with enhancers that he simply couldn’t keep up any longer.
Whatever the reason, he gave us the thrill of a lifetime in 1998, the record-breaking season in which he and Sosa captured our minds and renewed the spirit of baseball and sportsmanship.  I remember almost crying as I watched that laser shot over the left field wall at old Busch Stadium and a kidlike McGwire round the bases jumping and clapping his hands.  I honestly don’t feel robbed of anything at this point in my life.  I think back when my grandpa would tell me about Dizzy Dean and the Vaseline ball or Ty Cobb sharpening his spikes so shortstops and second basemen didn’t want to tag him out for fear of being cut wide open when Cobb was stretching a single into a double or the cocaine being passed around from the “We Are Family” era in Pittsburgh or the Neikro’s doctoring baseballs with thumbtacks and emery boards.

The old adage is, unfortunately, “It’s not cheating if you don’t get caught”.  It’s a joke in clubhouses, it’s the romance of the game to old timers but it’s suddenly the scourge of the earth to us.  Why are we better?  As long as there are scientists and those who need an edge, there’s going to be cheating of some kind.  Again, I’m not condoning it, I merely understand it.  If everyone who took an upper, who used too much pine tar, who snorted cocaine, took steroids, put a tack in their glove, Vasolined up a baseball would please stand up and be recognized, I think we’d really thin the heard in Cooperstown . 

Cheating is cheating no matter on what level you make it.  If baseball hasn’t eliminated his records and thrown him out of the game, then judge him as you would everyone else.

For more on this story, you can read the rest of the quotes from Jay McGwire by CLICKING HERE