Wednesday, January 13, 2010

You Mean You Didn’t Know

Please tell me you are really not surprised of Mark McGwire's admission of steroid use during the 1998 homerun circus. It certainly was fun to watch I will admit even though I was certain all the while. And there was an asterisk on sixty one.
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  1. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2010 at 5:36 AM

    I feel bad for Mark - not because he took roids and got caught, not because he compromised his integrity, because basebal knew all along and turned a blind eye, because they needed him. Prior to the homerun race, baseball had suffered massively low attendance in the prior few years, due to the 94 strike. Remember there was no World Series.(only time since world war II) So baseball saw what was going on between McGuire and Sosa, turned a blind eye, and watched a nation of baseball fans, return to the game they only a few years earlier swore off. They brought the excitement back. The entire country watched as they raced toward breaking the record, just as they watched Maris and Mantle, just like they watched Di'maggio's hitting streak. No one questioned it at the time, and everyone loved them at the time. We are all guilty in some way or another as we watched, and ignored the signs. My belief is because we wanted too. We needed a reason to return to the game we love, and we needed a reason to watch in wonder. It was fun, it made us feel good it made us feel young. It is our pastime afterall.
    So Mark is the lamb sacrificed for tarnishing the stats, being a bad example to kids. It takes years to build a reputation, and only seconds {or in this case innings) to destroy it. Mark made a foolish error in judgement. For using, not admiting it in the first go round. But can we forgive him, or as I suspect his bigger concern, can we let him in the hall of fame. Heck Michael Vick played football last week, I think I can find it in my heart to forgive Mark for helping me remember why I love baseball. As for the hall of fame, I think he is on line if not behind, next to Pete Rose. Mark will be punished for the crime, and we will watch as we did some twelve year ago in wonder, and this too will remind us, why we love baseball.

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