Shock: McGwire Admits That He Used Steroids

[Bond]

Five years after famously dodging questions about steroids during a nationally televised Congressional hearing, Mark McGwire admitted on Monday to using them throughout his career.

In a statement released by the St. Louis Cardinals, McGwire said that he began using steroids in the late 1980s and used them “on occasion throughout the 1990s,” including the 1998 season, when McGwire captivated the nation by hitting 70 home runs to break the all-time single season record of 61 held by Roger Maris.

McGwire’s statement comes as he prepares to return to baseball as the hitting coach for the Cardinals, the team he played for when he set the home run record.

“Now that I have become the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals,” McGwire said, “I have the chance to do something that I wish I was able to do five years ago. I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It’s time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize.”

McGwire said that he briefly used steroids in the off-season before the 1990 season and then resumed using them after he was injured in 1993. McGwire retired after an injury-marred 2001 season, in which he played in only 97 games and hit .187.

“I wish I had never touched steroids,” he said in the statement. “It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.”

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said that he was pleased that McGwire had “confronted his use of performance-enhancing substances as a player,” and said that the steroid era had come to an end.

“The use of steroids and amphetamines amongst today’s players has greatly subsided and is virtually non-existent as our testing results have shown,” Selig said. “The so-called “steroid era” — a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances — is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark’s admission today is another step in the right direction.”

Although many anti-doping experts are critical of baseball’s current drug testing program, Selig lauded it as “the toughest and most effective in professional sports” citing only two players testing positive out of more than 3,000 tests in 2009.

Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt also lauded McGwire’s admission in a statement.

“On behalf of the entire Cardinals organization, I believe Mark McGwire today did the right thing by telling the truth and openly acknowledging his past mistakes," DeWitt said. “No one condones what Mark did more than 10 years ago, but we hired him as our hitting coach because we know there are many contributions that Mark can and will make to our team and to this game.”

McGwire is one of dozens of players from the past two decades who have been tied to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Last year it was revealed that Sammy Sosa, who dueled with McGwire for the home run record in 1998, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

“I’m sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids,” McGwire’s statement read. “I had good years when I didn’t take any and I had bad years when I didn’t take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn’t have done it and for that I’m truly sorry.”

McGwire’s statement confirmed what had widely assumed within baseball and what has damaged McGwire’s chances in the last four years of balloting for the Hall of Fame; in none of them, did he come anywhere near the number of votes he needed for induction.

During his career, McGwire admitted using androstenedione, a steroid precursor now banned in baseball and long considered a performance-enhancing drug by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but McGwire was also tied to the use of steroids in Jose Canseco’s 2005 book “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big.” Canseco, the former slugger who played with McGwire in the A’s from 1986 to 1991, said that he introduced McGwire to the substances and injected him.

The book tied several players to the use of steroids and depicted a portrait of baseball in which steroid use was rampant. The allegations from Canseco prompted the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to hold a hearing on the issue in March 2005.

At the hearing McGwire did lasting damage to his image when he said: “I’m not here to talk about the past,” when asked about his steroid use and repeatedly declined to address the issue.

Source: The New York Times

An admission this late is almost like no admission at all.

[TheGame]

Originally Posted by Bond

An admission this late is almost like no admission at all.

Ah, time to stamp an asterisk by his record.

[TheGame]

I hope the MLB uses this oppertunity too drop the baseball season to under 100 games per year, and just simply invalidates all old records indescriminately and applies much more strict rules for the new era.

If they don't do that, then they might as well make the use of these drugs legal.

[Typhoid]

You know what, I still respect him for at least admitting it.
It can't be easy to be a 'famous' sports athlete, and admit you cheated for the best years of your career.
Obviously he's a douche for doing it initially, but at least he manned up.

Unlike Pete Rose, who's never admitted to what he did - as far as I know.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Did this really surprise anyone though?

[The Germanator]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

You know what, I still respect him for at least admitting it.
It can't be easy to be a 'famous' sports athlete, and admit you cheated for the best years of your career.
Obviously he's a douche for doing it initially, but at least he manned up.

Unlike Pete Rose, who's never admitted to what he did - as far as I know.

Pete Rose admitted to gambling on baseball a few years ago.

Rose should be in the hall of fame well before McGwire. Rose didn't directly cheat the game while playing as McGwire did.

Yeah, it's good he finally admitted it, but he could have and should have done it years ago. That was an important summer for baseball, and with a lot of things recently it's all BS. I still have no respect for McGwire or A-Rod or Clemens or Bonds or any of the cheaters. I know people say "blame the era" and "it was just part of the game", but I don't buy that. You knew you were cheating and decided to do it.

[TheGame]

Originally Posted by TheSlyMoogle

Did this really surprise anyone though?

I'm suprised that he admitted it, and directly for his record breaking year. Most athletes lie and make it seem like they didn't do it in their best years so their records still stand.

I'm not suprised that he took performance enhancing drugs though. I wasn't sure if it was steriods or not, but I knew he was on something. Just like Jeter his first years with New York. He blew up so much, that it's obvious he was on something. Of course he claims he didn't do anything those years though.

[Bond]

Well, this means he lied to the Senate during that commission hearing, which is a federal crime I believe.

I wonder if he'll be prosecuted?

[Bond]

Well, apparently McGwire isn't really admitting even that much (from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel):

I don't know if you saw the Mark McGwire interview with Bob Costas on the MLB Network, but baseball "insider" Ken Rosenthal had this analysis of it: "He blew it."

I have to agree.

Totally suspending belief, McGwire reiterated several times to Costas that he considered his steroid use to only help in recovering from injuries, not to enhance performance or boost his strength.

"I was given the gift to hit home runs," said McGwire. "The only reason I took steriods was for health purposes. I got no power benefit. I did not take this for any strength purposes."

Costas, who certainly knows better, gave McGwire several opportunities to backtrack and clarify that stance, but he refused to do so. Thus, as much credit as you want to give him for coming forward with the steroid admission, you take away points for McGwire's insistance that it didn't help him hit more homers.

Asked point-blank by Costas if he could have hit the 70 home runs in 1998 without steroid use, McGwire replied, "Absolutely."

Really? Does McGwire actually believe that? You have to hope that he doesn't actually believe that. You have to hope that this is merely as far as he's willing to go at present with his admission. The guy can't be that stupid.

Laughable.

[gekko]

[Jason1]

I don't know, I have mixed feelings on this one. This should be a surprise to nobody, of course all these guys should not have done what they did. But I have read a few articles that said McGwire ruined baseball.

This I disagree with, if anything he saved baseball in the summer of 1998. Without that year and the record breaking, who knows what would have happened to baseball. That year he brought baseball back on the map, sure Steroids were involved but it dosent change what a magical year that was for baseball.