In a teary-eyed address to Congress, a broken Mark McGwire said he wasn’t there to talk about the past. However, now he’s willing to open up about his years as a steroid user, his tainted home runs, and how he turned to drugs to repair his broken body during the course of a Major League Baseball career where he hit 583 home runs and made 12 All Star teams. He made a public statement today about his use, and he also did a full interview with Bob Costas on MLB TV.
Since he made his tearful interview, I knew he was a steroid user. I also knew that nobody felt as miserable about it as he did, both during that time in front of Congress and afterward, when he became a recluse. “I was ready, willing and prepared to talk about this,” McGwire said. “I wanted to talk about this. I wanted to get this off my chest. … It was killing me. It was absolutely killing my heart. But I had to do what I had to do to protect myself, to protect my family, to protect my friends.” Given that he didn’t get immunity for his testimony, he did the understandable thing by pleading the Fifth, even if it did make him a pariah.
For the record, I like McGwire. He always struck me as a nice guy, and as someone who loved and respected the game of baseball. At no time did he do anything against baseball’s rules, nor did he do anything unusual for that time in baseball. Everyone was on steroids then. Even if they weren’t, they were probably they could get their hands on. I really hope Mac feels better having gotten this off his formerly massive chest, and I wish him well in his new position as hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Image: SI
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