St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire waves to the St. Louis fans as he circles Busch Stadium from a convertible during opening day ceremonies in St. Louis, Missouri, April 9, 2001. McGwire admitted to using steroids on Monday.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Like so many others, John Mercurio wished he had not fallen for it.
But as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa put on that memorable show during the summer of 1998, the lifelong Cardinals fan refused to believed the whispers that ‘Big Mac’ was juicing.
“I got caught up in it like everybody else,” said Mercurio, a manager at the St. Louis Sports Zone restaurant in Shrewsbury. “But everybody makes mistakes. I think he is going to get a second chance. I think the Cardinals fans will embrace him for the most part because he was a real popular Cardinal.”
McGwire admitted Monday that he used steroids during his record-breaking home run season of 1998, confirming what most Cardinals fans figured was true for some time.
“Just the size of him, the bulk of his arms, the acne on his face, all that stuff,” said longtime season-ticket holder Patty Wood. “I just kept hoping in the back of my mind that he wasn’t doing it but every time it came up, you just kind of figured he was. It was hard not to look at him and see that stuff.”
The Cardinals slugger stayed silent for nearly five years following an embarrassing day on Capitol Hill in which he uttered the famous line, “I’m not here to talk about the past.” But he finally came clean on Monday, likely only because of his decision to return to baseball as the Cardinals new hitting coach.
During an interview with Bob Costas on the MLB Network, McGwire admitted to using steroids but denied that they helped him hit any of his 583 career home runs. According to McGwire, his God-given talent and hand-eye coordination would have allowed him to have the same results even if he didn’t do steroids.
Some fans watching McGwire’s interview couldn’t help but disagree.
“He would have still hit some home runs, I mean he hit like 48 or 49 his rookie year,” said Jeff Faust. “But no way would he have hit 70. He was obviously a born hitter and I have no doubt that he would have hit some home runs, but he wouldn’t have hit as many as he did. Maybe he would have touched 60 once, maybe. But I think those extra 10, 15, 20 home runs per year were all helped.”
Some fans, like Wood, said that we will never know if the steroids helped him or not.
“I was always of the hope that he wasn’t doing steroids and that he did have the God-given talent, the ‘put the ball on the bat and take a good swing theory,” Wood said. “But we will never know. We will never know if it helped him hit the home runs or if it was all God-given talent. I really do hope that he had the talent anyway but I don’t think that we will ever know.”
But while some fans were surprised that McGwire downplayed the idea of steroids helping him hit more home runs, nobody seems too surprised that ‘Big Mac’ finally came clean.
“I wasn’t surprised that it happened, I kind of thought that he was doing them,” Mercurio said. “I just wish that he would have saved himself a lot of grief and admitted it a long time ago.
“The one thing that did bother me was the night he broke the home run record, he went up and hugged the Maris family. He was kind of lying to them then and I am a huge Roger Maris fan. But, that’s in the past.”
And while McGwire’s steroid use wasn’t much of a surprise, many Cardinals fans interviewed by Globe-Democrat.com were saddened to officially hear that what happened in 1998 may not have been natural.
“I’m glad that he’s finally come clean amid the circumstances, at least he has that cat off his back,” said Zach Foerstel. “But steroids have definitely tainted the game of baseball. McGwire’s admission takes away from the magic of the 1998 season. It puts his whole career into question now.
“Obviously steroids don’t affect the skill of actually hitting a 90-mile per hour baseball and it’s very unfortunate that he felt that he needed to inject drugs to make fans consider him one of the greats. It’s kind of like the Pete Rosa saga. Am I glad that he’s come clean? Of course, because he admitted to something that the whole baseball nation already knew.”
Globe-Democrat.com sportswriter B.J. Rains can be reached at bjrains@globe-democrat.com.
Comments
The_Ol_Goaler (anonymous) says...
The one question that keeps coming to my mind is... how many PITCHERS were "juicing" at the same time as McGwire? A faster pitch can be hit further than a slower pitch; see the bomb Mac hit off Randy Johnson at the Kingdome for an example of "pitch speed vs. bat speed" (and I'm NOT accusing the Big Unit of using anything but his God-given talent).
Mac thinks he used PEDs to recover from injury... maybe they did, and maybe they hastened the final "breakdown" of his body. Mac will continue to be the whipping boy among some sportswriters, because Hell hath no fury like a sportswriter piqued!
January 12, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
obamain2012 (anonymous) says...
touché The_Ol_Goaler!!!!
January 12, 2010 at 10:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slideskipslide (anonymous) says...
rains must be the most disappointed, since he continues to spew BS.
January 13, 2010 at 10:23 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )