BREAKING NEWS: McGwire Comes Clean About Steriods

We all knew when Mark McGwire accepted the hitting coaches job with the St. Louis Cardinals, he was going to have to address the media.

Well today, through a statement released to the Associated Press, Mark McGwire has admitted to using steroids on and off over a 10-year span during his professional career.

Specifically he states how he did use steriods when he broke the single-season home run record in 1998.

"I wish I had never touched steroids," McGwire said in a statement. "It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era."

ESPN also reports that a person close to McGwire says Mark also used Human Growth Hormone at some point, although it is not clear when or for how long.

McGwire's announcement, coming almost a year after Yankees superstar third basemen Alex Rodriguez was outed as having tested positive in 2003, will hopefully lead to the beginning of the end of the steroid talk.

One of the interesting points of the story is that McGwire has once again chosen to use a written statement to break such a major story (as some may remember, he announced his retirement through a written statement).

Only time will tell how much McGwire's announcement will impact his coaching tenure with the Cardinals, how much bombardment he will face during spring training, and how this will further affect his Hall of Fame vote, which to this point has not been promising for the former slugger.