Mark McGwire Shouldn't Have To Answer Steroids Questions During the World Series

Bob Raissman is the sports media writer for the New York Daily News. Raissman, along with a few other New York media pundits, is one of the writers that have the platform to turn a thought in the local paper into a national storyline.

Let's not let him.

Raissman wrote about the World Series on Friday, focusing on why Fox hasn't talked about Mark McGwire's past steroid use—or Tony LaRussa's involvement—during either of the first two telecasts:

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Maybe [Joe] Buck and [Tim] McCarver plan on mentioning all of this at another time during the Series. Or maybe they think McGwire's past is not relevant to the current proceedings. It's doubtful they were just ducking controversy. Throughout their partnership, Buck and McCarver have talked about steroid use on Fox baseball broadcasts.

And it isn't like other media members are eager to throw McGwire's past in his face, either. Thursday, in a USA Today story, Mike Dodd reported "that not one steroid question was asked in a 30-minute" session McGwire had with reporters before Game 1. Dodd said "everyone knows" McGwire "sidesteps" those questions.

As for the Foxies' tap dance, it wasn't until the cameras focused inside the commissioner's box, where Bud Selig was sitting with Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, that the thought occurred that like Seligula, Buck and McCarver might have been acting in the "best interests of the game."

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If you've never read Raissman before, he does what a lot of "traditional" columnists think passes for quality writing and makes up silly names for sports personalities, like calling Bud Selig "Seligula" because of his emperor-like status. That aside, the fact Raissman took the time to try to make this an issue during the World Series is not only misplaced, it's somewhat irresponsible. 

I'm not trying to be the arbiter of what writers should or shouldn't choose to discuss, but I can't imagine anyone is looking at the St. Louis Cardinals getting to the World Series and thinking, "we need to get more into that old cheater Mark McGwire." To suggest Joe Buck and McCarver should discuss it during play is downright ludicrous. Dodd's story in USA Today and the surprise that nobody asked McGwire about his steroid use are, perhaps, more pertinent given the giant stage he finds himself on as the hitting coach for a World Series ballclub. Having said that, Dodd was referencing a 30-minute media session before Game 1—not a conversation about the Cardinals' approach to hitting during the second inning of Game 1.

The most illogical notion from Raissman is that there's a conspiracy afoot between Major League Baseball and its broadcast partner to keep the steroid conversation out of the World Series in an effort to help boost sagging postseason ratings. That makes no sense at all. In his words:

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Still, if you know going in that the teams are ratings-challenged, the idea is to make sure that you don't lose any viewers after they enter the tent. There are fans who are not interested in hearing the truth or being returned to the steroids era while watching the World Series.

Is it possible Buck and McCarver were advised to make any discussion of McGwire's past a low priority? 

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I don't think for one second that Raissman actually believes a two-minute conversation about McGwire and steroids would impact ratings. Raissman wants us to believe that people might hear a conversation about McGwire during the telecast and, seemingly still fed up with the steroid era, decide to turn off the game and never come back? It's asinine.

More importantly, to intimate that Fox is avoiding the topic on behalf of the league is to suggest that anyone at the league or Fox even thought about it being a noteworthy storyline during the games at all, let alone noteworthy enough it necessitates a cover-up.

Perhaps if someone like Rick Ankiel were still on the Cardinals or if Matt Holliday or Albert Pujols had been suspected of cheating this season, the story might have more relevance. Instead, it's a media writer getting an idea in his head that something should be discussed and then creating an elaborate hypothetical cover-up to justify why he's completely off-base.

So obviously, this is about to become national storyline.

(H/T Pitchers Hit Eighth)