I feel bad for Mark McGwire. I honestly do. Mark McGwire does not owe us an apology. He should not have to go through what he is going through right now. The only person McGwire owes an apology to is Jose Canseco, in fact, the entire sporting media needs to apologize to Canseco, who was right all along. (it was earth)On the other hand, Congress owes us an apology for wasting time and money holding hearings on steroids in baseball. A trip down the aisle of a local GNC would have been more productive towards discovering what modern training is about. It was shameful to see members of the sporting media bash players like McGwire and Rafael Palmiero for failing to divulge steroid use during Congressional hearings, forgeting, or ignorant of the fact, that many of their own media forebearers were victims of 1950s Red-hunting. Still waiting for a major media outlet, say a Sports Illustrated, an ESPN or a New York Times, do to an investigative piece on steroid use in the NFL or to at least opine strongly on the issue.
Which is not to say that I am against steroid use. I think the media has painted too simplistic a picture of "juicing." Many products that were sold in over-the-counter in stores like GNC as recently as the late 90s are now banned in pro sports. Hell, the Extreme Ripped Force I guzzled senior year, which helped me touch rim for the only period in my life, is now off the market because of the ephedrine it contained.
We all knew McGwire was supplementing his workouts with more than prayers and vitamins as he chased Maris' record. To demand that athletes play clean is to pretend that there is a idea of what clean is. Anything legal or FDA approved should be allowed, as Andro and HGH were.
On a somewhat related note, Mike Vacarro of the NY Post wrote a few weeks back that McGwire merits Hall of Fame inclusion. To me, it's a joke. McGwire was a one-dimensional player, Canseco was better.
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