Left field

McGwire the latest in line for smooth rehabilitation

America knows how to ‘do hype’ and the Stateside public lap up a good scandal but when it comes to cheating by use of performance enhancing drugs, the appetite for mass media coverage seems to vanish.

At the end of 2009, there wasn’t a website or newspaper in the States, whether celebrity gossip, high-brow politics or sports-obsessed that wasn’t delivering real-time updates on the infidelities of a golfer. America couldn’t get enough of the Tiger Woods story which, in the end, consisted of little more significant than a sorry list of rather mundane affairs.

When it comes to drug use, however, the response is far more restrained. Just a day after Mark McGwire, after years of avoiding questions, finally confessed to using steroids, including during 1998 when he broke the single season home-run record, already America was ‘moving on’.

The tone was set by Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig who within hours of McGwire’s ‘confession’ interview was welcoming the news. “I am pleased Mark McGwire has confronted his use of performance enhancing substances as a player … this statement of contrition I believe will make Mark’s re-entry to the game much smoother and easier,” he said.

McGwire’s confession is timed with his return to the game as hitting coach with his old team the St. Louis Cardinals. The New York Times is already sure that there won’t really be any problem with a confessed drugs cheat playing a role in the game next season.

“People consistently overestimate the impact of fallout from a steroid confession. The image of howling fans and nosy reporters has little basis in reality. It might happen in a bad movie or television drama, but it does not happen in real life,” wrote Tyler Kepner and he is right. At least when it comes to American sport.

Kepner notes that America’s drug cheats are often forgiven and reintegrated into baseball with remarkable ease.

UPDATE: Does Big Mac belong in the Hall of Fame?

In a statement sent to various news outlets on Monday Mark McGwire finally admitted what many had already suspected.

“I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize,” McGwire said in the release.  “I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.”

McGwire said his decision to talk about his steroid use was prompted by his new position as St. Louis’ hitting coach.

McGwire said he feels he has an obligation to talk about this part of his career and answer questions.

Not what McGwire has apologized and is willing to talk about his transgressions, does this change his HOF chances or does this solidify his place as nothing more than a cheat who has no place in Cooperstown?

Original post: Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson. That’s it, the complete list of players who are in the Baseball Hall of Fame (HOF) that have more career home runs than Mark McGwire, after he again fell short in this, his fourth year of eligibility. McGwire received only 23.7 percent of the vote, well shy of the 75 percent needed for Hall entry.

Mike Schmidt makes the case for reinstating Pete Rose

Twenty years ago this week, Pete Rose received the harshest of all of baseball’s penalties: a lifetime ban for betting on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds, the team that brought him fame as a player and infamy as a manager.

In return for his admission, MLB wouldn’t embarrass Rose by exposing its evidence against him.

Rose protested his innocence for years, but eventually admitted to gambling on baseball games in his 2004 autobiography, “My Prison Without Bars“.

Former Philadelphia Phillies slugger and Hall of Fame inductee, Mike Schmidt wrote an opinion piece recently saying his former team mate is having to sell his autograph to make ends meet while steroid cheats are raking in millions of dollars.

“Pete bet on his team to win and has been banished for life. (Others) bet that they would get bigger, stronger and have an advantage over everyone and that they wouldn’t get caught. Which is worse? Does the penalty fit the crime?”

Fixing baseball’s embarrassing problem

“The cat – mmrrrooowwwrr – is out of the bag!” – Seinfeld’s Cosmo Kramer upon the realization that his first name had finally been revealed.

Alex Rodriguez (click link for video), Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are among the players linked to performance enhancing drugs. The cat, is most definitely out of the bag.

When MLB players agreed to participate in a 2003 test survey to see if baseball did indeed have a PED problem, the players were assured that the results would be kept confidential. However, after the results were seized by federal agents during the BALCO investigation, some of the names that tested positive have been outed.

The question now, is what to do? Instead of a new name being leaked every few months followed by the inevitable, ensuing debate on what needs to be done to fix the problem, it’s time for baseball to deal with this once and for all.

How about this for a solution — after the conclusion of the 2009 World Series, Major League Baseball needs to hold a one-week grace period. Any player who has ever taken a banned substance during their professional career is allowed to come forward, admit to their foolish behavior and all will be forgiven. The ‘guilty’ will not have their records erased, or even asterisked. Their past indiscretions will not affect Hall of Fame eligibility. Their status will not be questioned by the media after this date. One week of hell for the player and then it’s over.

Too easy, you say. Why would any player admit to this when they’ve been able to skate by so far?

Here’s the catch. At the end of this grace period any player found using PED’s in the future, or if a positive test from the past surfaces, that is it. LIFE TIME BAN! No exceptions, no reprieves. You lose all rights as a ball player. The offending person is banned from ever playing, coaching or even being the team’s mascot.

The Lasting Hangover of Baseball’s Steroid Era

Today’s report by the New York Times revealed David Ortiz to be the latest in an ever-growing list of Major League Baseball players guilty of using illegal performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Ortiz’s name is now included on what has become an overhyped and mysterious list of names that tested positive back in 2003, before mandatory testing was put into place.

It was confirmed that Ortiz’s 2003 Boston Red Sox teammate Manny Ramirez is also present on the list, confirming lingering suspicion surrounding him ever since Ramirez was suspended 50 games this season for using an estrogen-based drug that acts as a masking agent for PEDs.

The testing in 2003 was agreed to by the MLB Player’s Union in order to determine if mandatory testing (and thus punishments) would be incorporated the following year. Players were aware this testing would occur and were under the impression that the results would remain confidential. Years have passed, but some of the 100 names continue to leak to the media. Many have argued that each leak prevents the sport from healing and that all names on the list should be released once and for all, even despite the confidentiality given to the results.