McGwire: The Day After

January 12th, 2010 | by Ray Flowers |

As time passes and we all digest the news of Mark McGwire’s admission that he took steroids for about a decade of his career, I thought I would do something I’d like to do more of moving forward.

For those of you who haven’t had the chance to sign up, BaseballGuys is on Twitter where I post away all day (you can sign up at Baseball Guys’ Twitter Page). With the news of McGwire finally coming clean about his drug use, there were a plethora of responses in cyberspace (you can see my video thoughts at McGwire Admits Steroid Use), and I thought it might be beneficial to all of you, even those who have joined my Twitter following, to see what people’s initial reactions were. So here is a random sampling of some of the more interesting Twitter posts on the McGwire news that I came across in the hour after the news broke (Twitter comments are in italics, my responses follow in regular font after ***).

@SI_JonHeyman: if you lie for 10 years, and everyone knows you’re lying, what’s the value of finally telling the truth?
*** I can’t disagree here, though a McGwire apologist might say he didn’t actually lie, he just didn’t answer completely truthfully (he never told Congress, point blank, that he “didn’t” take steroids).

@MattArlauckas: Baseball record books to start using asterisks for players who were clean. It’ll save on ink costs.
*** Only problem with this is that we have no way of knowing who did or didn’t cheat. I can’t disagree with the sentiment though.

@DeBo_XL: Roger Maris should be officially the single season Home Run King. Even though 1998 saved the game of baseball.
*** McGwire admitted he took steroids, and only a brain dead moron wouldn’t postulate, with a high degree of certitude, that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa didn’t too, so I have no problem with this line of thought.

Where do we draw the line? RT @MWEinNC: Do we know Maris wasn’t taking greenies (also barred) ?
*** Touche. Of course, we don’t know who was doing what, when, and therefore this argument quickly becomes the equivalent of chasing Alice down the rabbit hole (that’s an Alice in Wonderland reference).

@IamAlabamaCrazy: Canseco can sit back and say I told ya so.
*** Amazing aint it? Not everything he said has come to light as truth, but you’d have to say that Jose Canseco was hitting at least .500 with his revelations.

@JimmyGlenn711: They should start a Steroid Record Book and just tabulate all the baseball records broken with Steroids.
*** I understand this sentiment, but as I’ve written, there is no way to quantify who was on what when, so this one will remain the realm of the hypothetical discourse.

@mets4ever: when baseball players admit to taking steroids… it’s like part of my childhood gets destroyed a bit.
*** This might be the worst part of this whole flipping mess. Players used to be heroes to kids, but nowadays there are few men that you can point to as someone that your children should really look up to. I touched on this sad fact last season in Death of the Hero?

@NDBRAD: The MLB home run record is still 61 in ’61 by North Dakota’s Roger Maris. Rotten cheaters.
*** Same as the other one above signaling that the “real” single season home run record holder is still Mr. Maris.

In closing, I would like to leave you with some quotes that I took down during McGwire’s interview with Bob Costas yesterday. I have to tell you Mr. McGwire, judging by the response of people on Twitter, it doesn’t sound like you have a shot at ever recapturing your stature as a baseball player worthy of respect and honor, so good luck with that.

“I’m not here doing this for the HOF. I’m doing this for me, to get this off my chest.”

“I would have loved drug testing when I played.”

“I kept this to myself… I’ve never been asked.”
McGwire never told his parents (until Sunday).

“I was not going to lie…I decided I would take the hits.”
On his testimony before Congress.

“There is absolutely no truth to that whatsoever.”
McGwire speaking to Canseco allegation they did ‘roids in stadium locker room.

By Ray Flowers

Tags: Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Roger Marris, Sammy Sosa