The Controversy Surrounding Mark McGwire’s Admission
Saturday, August 13th, 2011While most sports fans believed that Mark McGwire used steroids during his playing days, those suspicions were confirmed when the former Cardinals first baseman recently admitted to his illicit use of the performance enhancing drugs.
What may have been more interesting is the fact that McGwire claims to have used these drugs not simply as a means of getting ahead. McGwire says he took steroids because he believed that they would help him heal from injuries more quickly.
This seems very believable when you look at the career path that McGwire followed. Through 1989, his playing time had been seriously hampered due to injury, and many felt that he would otherwise be the best home run hitter in baseball if not for his injury issues.
What followed in the years to come was exactly what one would expect. He was healthier through the majority of the remainder of his career, and his offensive production was exceptional.
Everything came together in 1998, a year in which McGwire set baseball history. Having broken a seemingly unbreakable record held by Roger Maris, the St. Louis Cardinal hit an astounding 70 home runs during the course of the year.
It was a matter of a few seasons before people realized that there had to be some means of artificial help creating seasons once thought to be impossible for older players like McGwire, Barry Bonds, and many others. There had to be steroids involved.
In retrospect, it should have been obvious that McGwire and others were using illegal substances. There was no other way to explain the unprecedented jumps in production, and the baseball world should have been keen to this.
McGwire violated the trust of the baseball world and cheated his way to a record. Despite this all, he deserves a bit of respect for having the courage to come out with a secret that hundreds of players from that era still likely hold.
Enjoy more of this author’s work about the http://woodenstool.org.
