McGwire is Still a Liar

After watching the interview with Mark McGwire on MLB network and taking a few days to soak it in, I am even more outraged than before. McGwire’s timing is certainly suspicious, coming just days after finishing 9th in the Hall of Fame balloting with only 23.7% of the votes. Add to that McGwire’s complete refusal that steroids helped him hit home runs, make this entire ‘confession’ contrived and not believable.

The only part of the interview with McGwire I believe is when he admitted to using steroids and that he suffered through many injuries in the mid-90’s. Beyond that, his claim that steroids don’t help you hit home runs is a crock of shit. He is once again, like he did in front of Congress in 2005, conveniently avoiding the issue. Hand-eye coordination allows you to make solid contact with the ball, not hit home runs. McGwire’s unnatural juiced-up arms and legs allowed him to hit the ball into the stratosphere.

The claim that hitting home runs was because of his ability alone is his plea for the Hall of Fame. His prepared, limited admission was 100% geared towards the Hall of Fame voters, because he realized this is his only hope of being inducted. Without a confession, the dark cloud will never clear. If you want to really apologize to the fans, players, and management, take your name off of the Hall of Fame ballot and admit that steroids helped you hit home runs.

For the past week, I have been reading articles and blog entries praising McGwire for finally admitting his steroid use. It is amazing how quickly people forget the past and forgive him for his mistakes. I was delighted to see Peter Gammon’s article from yesterday evening about the McGwire confession. He described McGwire’s character in-depth, but explained that with Mark’s refusal to admit that steroids helped him hit home runs, the book is not closed on his use. Thank you Peter for not just jumping on the bandwagon of McGwire’s redemption.

I am all about forgiveness, but only if there is an honest admission of fault. A partial confession, as in the McGwire case, only makes things worse. If you want to make have a public confessional, don’t do it for selfish reasons, but do it because it is the right thing to do. I hope the admission of steroid use made you feel better, Mark, because it certainly didn’t make me feel any better about you.