The St. Louis Cardinals have announced that Mark McGwire will be their hitting coach next season, replacing Hal McRae.
Mark McGwire is back in baseball, reunited with Tony La Russa as the St. Louis Cardinals’ hitting coach. McGwire was not at the news conference at Busch Stadium, but La Russa and general manager John Mozeliak said there will be no effort to shield McGwire from questions about steroids. The team anticipated a telephone news conference with McGwire.
“By no means is he trying to hide, and by no means are we trying to hide him,” Mozeliak said.
He didn’t even show up for his own press conference…
It seems like odd timing for McGwire to finally return from oblivion.
The last time we heard from McGwire was during the 2005 congressional hearings regarding PEDS in baseball. At that time McGwire said he wasn’t there to talk about the past. Pretty shady testimony if you ask me.
The Cardinals have always been one of baseball’s more classy organizations, so why would they bring back McGwire now?
If McGwire did not use PEDS, why didn’t he admit it at the congressional hearings in 2005?
Instead he danced around the question and faded into darkness for four years without so much as a peep.
In the late 1970′s Charles Finley owned the Oakland A’s. Finley knew he had no chance of re-signing a bunch of his stars, so he traded them away for cash. Bowie Kuhn, who was the baseball commissioner at the time, voided the trades. He claimed that the trades “were not in the best interest of baseball”.
That’s exactly what commissioner Bud Selig needs to do now.
He needs to tell the Cardinals that hiring McGwire as a coach, is not in the best interest of a game that is still suffering from the the stigma and aftereffects of the steroid scandal which isn’t even completely dead yet.
Bud Selig allowed McGwire to chase and beat Roger Maris’s record, knowing fully well about the rampant steroids use. Selig is the last guy who would act in baseballs best interest. He in fact was the chief architect of its demise.
Umm, too bad the only people who get outraged at the steroid “scandal” are members of the mainstream media and fans who’ve let themselves be influenced by these outraged MSM members. A few years down the line we’ll all look back and realize what a ruse was pulled by the MSM regarding this PED stuff. It’s not a big deal, let the man have his job without crying about it.
I totally agree. If these PED’s were available inthe 30′s or 50′s, we wouldn’t even be having these conversations. Why is it so bad that athletes take vitamins and PEDs to optimize performance? Should we ban micro fracture and Tommy John surgeries as well, because it unfairly allows pitchers to continue their careers and Sandy Koufax and Dizzy Dean didn’t have those choices?
You guys are kidding, right? The FDA has labeled these items as illegal substances, not the “main stream media.” Comparing “PEDS” to Tommy John surgery is like comparing apples to bananas. Tommy John surgery,medically repairs a part of a person’s body that has been damaged. It is not illegal, or banned by the FDA, unlike “PEDS.”
I guess you guys would have no problems if a player lit up a joint after legging out a single?
gregga, I’m not talking about steroids which are illegal. If anyone breaks any laws than they should be punished. But regarding legal PED’s or drugs that were legal at time like Andro which McGwire took, it’s really not a big deal to me. PED’s are more rampant in football and hockey but it’s not a big deal there. It should be the same way in baseball.
Personally, I think Big Mac should be allowed. Why not?
Even you said:
The last time we heard from McGwire was during the 2005 congressional hearings regarding PEDS in baseball. At that time McGwire said he wasn’t there to talk about the past. Pretty shady testimony if you ask me.
Did he do something? Most likely, sure. But it was never ‘proven’ and to prevent a guy from working for a team he loves and in a game he loves cause of ‘shady testimony’ seems a bit harsh.
And to take this one step further–What about all the ballplayers who played during Prohibition. I’m sure they had their share of drinks while alcohol WAS illegal. Should they have been banned?
It’s a good article, Gregga. Gives us something to think about
HELP ME UNDERSTAND HOW BASEBALL ISN’T DAMAGED BY ALLOWING PROVEN DIRTY PLAYERS TO ACTUALLY PLAY AFTER SITTING OUT 50G; BUT WILL BE BY ALLOWING A SO-CALLED DIRTY PLAYER TO COACH AFTER SITTING OUT 4 YRS? NONSENSICAL OUTRAGE!
If you want to hear what opinion makers in the media are saying about McGwire’s return to baseball, then check out this video by Newsy.com: http://bit.ly/Al8zE