More Silliness from McGwire: Please Go Back to Not Talking

Mark McGwire is a strange man, continuing to do himself harm by opening his mouth in the safest chair available for a baseball player in exile, across from Bob Costas.  

On and on he went, blathering about people still talking about the home run in his first at-bat in little league, the titanic blasts in high school, and legion ball. He went on to claim that he has no doubt he could have beaten all the home run records without steroids and illegal supplements. I wanted to reach through the TV screen and grab McGwire's lips so he would stop.  

If he could have broken all the records without steroids, was he using them recreationally?  For fun?   

McGwire says he didn't use steroids for the strength—he did it for his health. 

Well, really. 

People retire from baseball because they can't recover from injuries. That's why their statistics end where they do. 

It's like the REM song "Everybody Hurts."  He didn't heal well, so he injected himself and that got him well. He felt good again. That's what these hormones do.  If Ernie Banks could have played like a 30-year-old until he was 50, Mr. Cub would have hit 900 home runs.  

Someone needs to get McGwire to stop talking about the past and get him to quit rationalizing about why he chose to inject himself through the majority of his career.  With every word, his apology became less meaningful and sincere.  

He claims to have wanted to come clean since 2005, but no one would grant him immunity. Consequences are why people lie in the first place. If not for that, there is no disincentive for telling the truth.  

McGwire's incessant ranting painted him as a guy who believes he's the victim in this whole affair. "People still talk about me..." sounds like the boozy hero in Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days."  He did apologize throughout, but clearly still doesn't understand that cheating is cheating.   

God bless ESPN's John Kruk and the borderline anger he showed during the discussion on SportsCenter.

Kruk did it right. 

He worked hard and played hard, but when it was time to hang it up he took off his jersey in the middle of the game, and left with a career .300 average. McGwire stuck needles in his body and injected fix-it juice. He now talks about how magically healing gave him no advantage. 

The ends justify the means seems to be the mantra for today's society. Whether it’s cheating to get recruits, juicing to heal, or financing homes for the indigent, Americans have completely abandoned the idea that honor is a worthwhile pursuit. 

Success is measured in dollars, not the ability to sleep at night or the pride you see in your child's eyes when he or she sees you gladly accept a negative because right is right. And then we demand forgiveness and a financial or moral bailout.  

Wrong is wrong. Be a man, and pay the piper. If you cheat, you pay. That shouldn’t be a profane concept. 

I wrote earlier today about John Calipari and the potential for inequity at Kentucky given the tax levied by the NCAA upon his two previous universities, and his overwhelming recruiting success.

The Kentucky fans stood in line to call me a conspiracy theorist. I will buy any UK fan a sandwich if they reply by saying, "I don't care about cheating. I want wins."  At least that would be honest and show a brain willing to take a look at the steaming pile of evidence that doesn’t require a smoking gun to draw an inference of guilt—at least through oversight.  

Craving immediate wins, yet claiming the moral high ground is pathetic and delusional.  McGwire should have embraced his stupidity and shortsightedness. Saying it didn't make him hit better makes McGwire look like the oaf that he is.  Maybe that is his penance.