The Truth About Mac

I needed a few days to get my thoughts together on Mark McGwire finally admitting that he did steroids. Not that it was a shock, but sometimes having something confirmed kills that .00001% of you that hoped for a different outcome. That it was "just" the andro that was found in his locker in 1998 that he fully admitted to using (an over-the-counter product at the time that has since been banned).

Is this different than the other guys who have been caught/accused/admitted to PEDs? I think it's more harmful, for one simple reason: the 1998 Home Run Race. It should not be dismissed or taken lightly how important that race for 61 between McGwire and fellow roid-er Sammy Sosa was. Don't forget these important facts:

- MLB was just 3 years removed from the devastating Strike of '94-95 that canceled the '94 World Series and turned millions of baseball fans off for good.
- The country was trying to deal with the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal (sidenote: how quaint does that controversy seem now?). The public needed a diversion from non-stop coverage, and Mac and Sosa provided that.
- This was a NATIONAL headline day after day for weeks on end in the summer of '98. This was not relegated to the sports section, this was front page of the paper, lead story on the evening news.

So where do we go from here? We, as baseball fans, have been forgiving to those who came clean about their steroid use. I think McGwire will be treated the same way, and that's fine. I also believe that there is no way he gets into the Hall of Fame now. My wish is that he was more forthcoming earlier, and that he didn't say that PEDs didn't help him hit home runs. Yes it did, Mark. You used it to stay healthy, at the very least. And you took a part of Americana with you.