Mark McGwire Back in Baseball: It's About Time

Last week, Tony LaRussa announced that Mark McGwire would be hired by the St. Louis Cardinals as the hitting coach for the 2010 season.  (That stomping you hear is the feet of the national press). 

By all accounts, Mark McGwire is a genuinely good person.  To my knowledge, there have been no reports of impropriety, save Jose Canseco’s allegations.  Mark McGwire was an American hero who made a poor decision which enhanced his career and his bank account.  (If you would like to take the high road, now is your chance to stop reading).  Like most of his colleagues at the time, he used steroids.  Period.  Ask yourself this question: how many guys do you know who maintain a positive relationship with their ex-wives and their husbands for the sake of his children?  Now may be a good time to poll the House Government Reform Committee on their family lives.

Then you have the press.  The disbelief they have shown towards McGwire’s reinstatement into baseball is astounding.  As a whole, they believe that McGwire should be banned from baseball.  For an hour or two I looked for any media personality who was pro-McGwire.  I found that in general media outlets there is more of a calling for McGwire out of baseball than Dante Stallworth out of football.  To refresh your memory, Stallworth killed a guy.  The variable: Stallworth spoke to the press afterwards.  Portraying someone as evil because he did not make your job easier is just plain wrong, and that is what the media has done.  The quicker reporters understand that they are not entitled to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the better.

Mark McGwire was subpoenaed by a self-serving Congressional committee to answer athletics-related questions about breaking a rule that did not exist.  Read that back again- SUBPEONAED TO ANSWER ATHLETICS-RELATED QUESTIONS.  Right or wrong, this is sports!  I think we can all agree that sports should be subpoena-less.  When questioned, he followed the advice that any lawyer would give you or me- do not lie under oath (exception: if Dominican, hire translator).  He enjoyed the Fifth Amendment right every citizen of this country enjoys, and the press sent him into exile.

I believe history will ultimately judge two parties as the antagonists in the McGwire saga.  Those parties will be the House Government Reform Committee and the press.  Sadly, the premise that The House Government Reform Committee intentionally abused their authority is just as accepted as the premise that baseball players were using steroids.  The fact that they abused their constituents’ rights for the sake of publicity is simply accepted by the public.  To date, there has been no action taken against any member of the committee.

As far as the press goes, their false sense of entitlement is incredible.  Legally and morally, they are no more entitled to the details of a person’s private life than any other person walking the street.  The problem is that they truly believe that the public DOES have a moral obligation to answer all of their inquiries.  They are privately employed by agenda driven companies, which is fine.  It’s American, like the Fifth Amendment.  However, over time they have set a precedent: talk to us, or be portrayed as we see fit.  We live in an age when players can be fined for not talking to the media, and then fined for what they say to the media.  The press has self-manufactured a very scary monopoly on the privacy of private citizens. 

I have no horse in this race.  I’m not a Cardinals fan or an A’s fan.  I’m an east coast guy.  I just think that this man has been treated unfairly, and depending on how you view Congressional parameters, unlawfully.  I don’t think reporters are bad people.  I think reporters have gotten so wrapped up in getting the story, that they forget their place.  Public perception is a powerful mechanism, and it should be used with only the highest sense of responsibility.