Breaking News: Mark McGwire Comes Clean and Admits He Was Dirty

In news that should shock absolutely no one who follows Major League Baseball, former slugger Mark McGwire admitted that he took steroids on and off for almost a decade and was a PED user when he hit 70 home runs during the famous 1998 home run chase.

In a statement released to the AP on Monday afternoon, Big Mac said the following:

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

* "I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected."

* "I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any, and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids, and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry."

Years after he told Congress, "I'm not here to talk about the past" in testimony on steroids in baseball, McGwire apparently has decided it is time to talk about it, especially since he will be coming back to baseball as the Cardinals' hitting instructor.

Big Mac's former manager in Oakland and St. Louis, Tony La Russa, has even indicated that he wants to try McGwire as a pinch hitter late in the season. I'm sure that TLR, who has always turned a blind eye to steroid use all around him, is thinking that he can extend McGwire's Hall of Fame voting by activating him once again.

The thought apparently is to give it another five-plus years to die down and perhaps voters will be more sympathetic by that time.

But you know what? He cheated, so he doesn't deserve to ever be in the HOF. End of story. Do I commend him for coming forward? Hell no—it's a public relations move only. If he was interested in coming clean, he had plenty of opportunities to do so much earlier.

The man is simply a fraud, as we all knew. While this confirms the obvious, McGwire has little to lose given his pathetic showing in HOF voting. Why not garner a little sympathy and hope that everyone says what a good boy he is for telling the truth?

The flaw in that argument is, of course, that McGwire is a liar. Anyway, I am so tired of hearing and reading about steroids that this is not really big news to me. I'm getting almost numb to this stuff, and nothing short of Greg Maddux admitting he used PEDs will shock me at this point. 

So how long before Mac's partner in crime during the infamous 1998 home run chase, Sammy Sosa, comes forward and admits to what we already suspect? I say it won't happen until he sees the results of his first two HOF vote totals.

For when you have nothing to lose, it's much easier to come clean. But Big Mac can take a thousand showers of truth, and he will still be dirty to me, come to think of it.