Mark McGwire’s buddy act on ESPN is a poor show by both parties

Watching ESPN’s SportCenter for the first time in a long time, I was surprised to see Mark McGwire holding a mike and laughing it up with a baseball analyst. The emotion and setting reminded me of the farcical summer of 1998.

That year, ESPN’s coverage of the home run chase never hinted that something might be amiss. They were part of the baseball machine drawing monster ratings as Americans checked in to see who hit a home run on Baseball Tonight. Why should they, a news gathering organization and provider of content, question something that was so good for business?

Integrity is one reason. Even after that summer and people started to question baseball players accomplishments as being legitimate, ESPN and their baseball experts stuck to their guns and toed the baseball line: there’s no drug issue in baseball.

Turns out they were wrong. Whether they were wrong intentionally is another issue, but with the Mitchell Report, Game of Shadows and other revelations emerging that many players were cheating (including McGwire), ESPN then turned a different tune.

With that about face, ESPN should just cover McGwire returning to baseball as the hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals and move on. Instead, he’s being buddy-buddy with the analysts like the good old days. There’s a simple reason for this: he wants to get back in the good graces of baseball and possibly end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame. It should also be questioned whether McGwire is even qualified to be a hitting coach. He was known as a home run hitter with a less than mediocre average. His home run strength came from PEDs. It doesn’t appear to be a good fit.

McGwire's brother has even come out and said that Big Mac used PEDs to get bigger according to SI.com.  This would contradict his previous explanation to heal from injury why he cheated the game.

McGwire can chum it up with ESPN as much as he wants, but we know the real Mark McGwire and he’s not that guy on ESPN.

ESPN's conflict of interest

The worldwide leader in sports, ESPN, was not the network that aired Mark McGwire’s first interview. When Mark McGwire came clean (or as clean as he was willing to go) on television, he did so on the MLB Network with Bob Costas.

When Alex Rodriguez admitted to cheating, he was interviewed on ESPN by Peter Gammons. The interview and Gammons were mostly panned by critics since Gammons did not ask probing questions or follow up when necessary.

McGwire and his PR firm, the same firm that represents the reprehensible Bowl Championship Series, learned from A-Rod’s mistakes in admitting PED use. McGwire conducted a full court press with interviews to the AP, multiple newspapers, ESPN (via phone) and concluding with the television interview.

ESPN missed the boat on the steroid era. Their reporters never did any investigative reporting as to how these athletes were achieving these herculean results. Viewers were told countless times that these athletes are not cheating, rather it was an improved nutrition and workout program. The pundits always went back to the line of PEDs “don’t help you hit a fastball.”

No one ever doubted that. If I were to inject beef roids, I wouldn’t suddenly be able to launch moon shots in Yankee Stadium. If you believe that, I might need to confiscate your driver’s license. Where PEDs help baseball players is turning warning track power into home run power. Apparently, Mark McGwire didn’t get that memo by claiming he would have been able too hit all those home runs without the PEDs.

Did ESPN miss the story on purpose? It’s possible. After all, they are both a news gathering organization and partners with many sports when they produce and televise various events. Is it possible to do both and maintain one’s integrity?

It’s doubtful. ESPN’s fortunes were tied to the popularity of baseball. Why put a dark cloud on the sport by reporting that what the public was seeing was a sham? It would ultimately hurt ESPN financially if it was reported that were roids were rampant. Like the ad went, “chicks dig the long ball.” Apparently, everyone dug the long ball and there was no need to find out what caused the long ball.

Same song for Mark McGwire

The baseball writers have spoken. Once again, Mark McGwire was not deemed worthy of enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

McGwire finished with 23.7% of the vote. A player needs 75% to enter the hall. Apparently, the writers are either waiting for McGwire, the recently appointed hitting coach for the Cardinals, to address the issue of his PED usage to change their minds or they are content with excluding him. The writers and I are still waiting for McGwire to address the elephant in the room.

What's interesting to note at looking at the official results, David Segui received one vote. Segui was a main character in the Mitchell Report since he was a client of Kirk Radomski and spread the "good word" of PEDs throughout baseball since he was on several squads. Segui did not hide his usage. He was direct and honest with investigators. That behavior, while wrong to cheat, he is at least trying to make amends. Apparently, only one voter thought that was commendable.

Fallout from Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick's comments to Dan Patrick regarding PED's have drawn some heat.

Now Danica says she was "joking" when she said that using PED's would only be cheating if caught. She also said she would take an undetectable PED if it would allow her to win the Indy 500.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) wasn't buying it calling her comments "totally irresponsible." USADA CEO Travis Tygart said, "In one interview, she undercut what millions of parents try their best to teach their kids everyday in this country, that winners never cheat and cheaters never win."

Danica Patrick said in an interview with USA Today, "It was a bad joke. There is a lot of sensitivity in our culture about (performance-enhancing drugs). With all the baseball stuff, I've followed it and this is a real problem. It's a shame kids think they have to do this to get ahead. It's very dangerous."

The USADA reaction is a typical knee jerk one. However, we can't have it both ways; we're disappointed when the athletes let us in like Danica did and then we're disappointed when players don't own it like Mark McGwire. If anything, the USADA should use this as a learning opportunity and address the issue at hand: she admitted she would cheat if she knew she wouldn't be caught. Therefore, improve testing and impose stricter penalties such as a one and done policy. If the penalties are so great, the chances of people taking the risks to cheat will diminish substantially.

Heyman's Vote on Roiders

Jon Heyman, Hall of Fame (HOF) voter and columnist for SI.com, recently wrote how he would vote for the HOF for several current and former MLB'ers suspected of roiding up and cheating the game.

In his article, he stresses how difficult voting for the HOF is. Do voters simply go by the statistics of a player or by the impact that player had on the team? If one was to go by statistics alone, how does one judge the current crop of players who played during the steroid era? Heyman writes, "These calls won't only be about numbers. There are value judgments to be made about cheating, and possibly about how much the cheating helped particular players."

Heyman admits that some voters will simply eliminate all the cheaters from their ballots while others will take it on a case by case basis. He is the first writer that I have encountered to admit his own culpability in being slow to uncover the widespread use of PED's in baseball. A majority of writers need to own this. It's part of the inherent conflict of interest in being a sportswriter. You need to be "friendly" and close to the players and organizations and do not violate that trust by exposing the sport you cover or writing about it in a negative light. Heyman hypothesizes that some writers might feel tempted to block a majority of these players from the HOF since the writers were slow to cover the truth about their PED use. Voting them into the HOF would be continuing the trend of looking the other way, wink-wink, and implicitly endorsing cheating by using these substances.

Now to analyze Heyman's ballot:

• Mark McGwire: Didn't vote for him because of suspected PED use led to HOF numbers.
• Barry Bonds: Yes, he believes he was a HOF'er before he took any PED's.
• Roger Clemens: Yes, like Bonds, he was a HOF'er before he roided up.
• Sammy Sosa: No, productivity and expanded size suggest PED use.
• Rafael Palmeiro: No, failed drug test (Stanozolol) after protesting innocence before Congress.
• Gary Sheffield: No, ties to BALCO and admitting to intentionally throwing balls away hurt.
• Mike Piazza: Yes, numbers wise he's there, but increasing suspicions raise some doubts, but Heyman needs more proof.
• Ivan Rodriguez: Yes, never been caught even though he shrunk dramatically.
• A-Rod: Yes, Heyman needs more proof of add'l doping even though admitted to PED use.
• Manny Ramirez: Yes, he was great since the start and never got "big"

Interesting takes on these players by Heyman. In some instances he needs more proof (Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez and A-Rod) while others his visual proof was enough (Sammy Sosa). Yet, visual proof of a shrinking Ivan Rodriguez was not enough for him to pass on voting him in the HOF. Of the three players (Palmerio, Ramirez and A-Rod) that failed a drug test in MLB testing, he has two going to the Hall of Fame (any coincidence that both are current players, possibly his reasoning is self-motivated by generating goodwill down the road when he needs a story).

Unfortunately, the rules for election to the HOF do not specify "character" attributes. Aren't you supposed to be rewarded for doing the right thing and not cheating? Is that the proper message you want displayed in Cooperstown?

It's up to the baseball writers to decide.

Mark McGwire is Back in Baseball...Still Not Talking About the Past

On the fourth year anniversary from when Mark McGwire testified before Congress and refused to "talk about the past", he has finally come out from hiding and is once again participating in baseball. Over the winter, he worked as a hitting instructor to four current ball players: Matt Holliday, Bobby Crosby (both of the Oakland A's) and Chris Duncan and Skip Schumaker (both of the St. Louis Cardinals).


In an interview with The New York Times, McGwire refused to talk about the past invoking specific stipulations in order for the interview to occur. "In this instance, McGwire agreed to an interview with the understanding that it would focus on his work as a hitting tutor, and not on other issues. But at one point, McGwire did address the criticism he has received for being linked to performance-enhancing drugs."

In addressing the PED issue and what others can learn from him by tutoring, McGwire said, "I’m such an easygoing guy. I don’t need to sweep away any bitterness. I believe I have so much knowledge to give and help people improve as baseball players."

According to the article McGwire focused on strengthening their minds which McGwire considered "as the batters’ most powerful and least developed muscle". I wonder if this observation came from personal experience that the mind was Big Mac's least developed muscle back in his day. Did he not have the self confidence or the inner strength that he could perform at the highest level without the assistance of PED's?

Matt Holliday doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks about his association with McGwire. "I wouldn’t ever not want to have somebody in my life that could be a good friend or somebody I could really enjoy or learn from based on what other people might think about it,” he said.

Bobby Crosby echoed what the other players' and McGwire felt throughout the experience. "You can definitely tell he loves teaching, and he loves baseball.”

Crosby's quote aside, reading the article, one could feel the passion burning in McGwire while he talked about the game; it jumped off the page. This is why his current situation is so sad. His exile is self-imposed. If he wants to get to the Hall of Fame, get into coaching, he needs to own up to what he did and talk about the past. Only then will the public be able to move on as will Big Mac.

The Problem with MLB

Over the 4th of July weekend, MLB unveiled Stars & Stripes caps for all 30 MLB teams as part of a "Welcome Back Veterans" program created by New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon. Though the Stars & Stripes program is not relevant to the Toronto Blue Jays, fortunately for Blue Jay fan, they were not left out of the program (their cap had the Canadian flag).

According to the AP, Wilpon hopes to raise $100 million. MLB will donate a portion of the cap sales (retailing at $34.99 each) to the program. The majority of the revenue not going to the vets will go to MLB, Mr. Wilpon himself and the other MLB owners. This is another classic example of MLB trying to do the "right" thing, but once again, coming up short. MLB's recent stances regarding uniforms, PED's and "staged moments" indicate that there needs to be a change at the top, specifically Bud Selig.

Regarding uni's, in March 2007 MLB instructed Craig Biggio to remove a cancer pin he had worn on his hat during spring training games for the previous 20 years. Biggio was the national spokesman for the Sunshine Kids foundation. Baseball card photos are usually taken during spring training and during his involvement with the cancer stricken kids, he knew how important it was for them to see the pin on his baseball card. However, baseball didn't give a damn about kids with cancer. MLB sent a fax to the Astros advising management for him to remove the pin. The umpires working the next spring training game were advised that he was not allowed to take the field with the pin.

MLB didn't support Biggio's charitable work for cancer and forced him to remove a pin during meaningless exhibition games. One year later, MLB is dictating to all players that they need to wear a Stars & Stripes cap and appear as if they support the veterans whether they personally do or not. Most educated fans see this for what is: a publicity stunt and another way for MLB to milk the fans of their money by making them purchase yet another "special" cap. Using recent history as a guide, MLB does not support children with cancer, but whole heartily supports the veterans. A bit of a hypocritical stance for MLB, but that's how they roll under current leadership.

If only MLB was as vigilant with PED's as they were with uniform violations, perhaps MLB will not be questioned by Congress every six months. It is nice to know that their response time was about the same for uniform and PED violations: 20 years after the initial violation! After 20 years of wearing the pin, MLB decides to "crack down" which is approximately the same amount of time it took for a steroid testing program to be implemented after the drugs first started appearing in the sport. Excellent work, MLB - way to be enforcing uniform violations rather than players using illegal drugs - that's keeping your eye on the ball.

The reason why MLB was not out in front on both issues comes down to the same issue: money. When Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire brought baseball back from the brink, ownership and the Commissioner were not at all going to ruin a good thing. Attendance, ratings and interest were all up. That was not the time to "do the right thing" and set the right example for the kids who looked up to these juiced up ballers. Going as far to incorporate benefits of the Roid Era into marketing campaigns ("Chicks Dig the Long Ball") is proof that the people in the home office knew what was selling and they were going to ride it to the bank.

Uniforms too were changing about every three years for every non historical team (Devil Rays to Rays, different logos, etc.). MLB and ownership trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the public by constantly parading new merchandise for the fans. A fan of the New York Yankees is not going to buy a new Yankee lid each year, but a fan of the Brewers might buy the new uniform lid, retro lid and/or the Sunday home lid to mix it up with his old lid. Ownership will say that they have to change uniforms every 3 to 5 years in order to compete with the traditional powers because of the economic inequalities. Merchandise revenue is just another source of revenue that would allow a small market team to compete with a traditional, big market club.

The other issue with this Stars & Stripes event is it has the same feel as other "staged events" recently held by MLB. Usually these events occur at historical moments such as Barry Bonds passing Hank Aaron or at the All-Star Game, where an icon from the sport will be brought out and the current stars of today will race out to slap five with the "old school" player. This took place at the 1999 All-Star Game when Ted Williams rode out of center field on a golf cart and was then greeted by the current all stars at the pitcher's mound. The fans appreciate the spontaneous historical moments, like when Aaron passed Ruth and the two fans ran out on the field to congratulate him. These forced celebrations have the sincerity and feel of a forced smile at a disgruntled family reunion. Stop banging us over the head and making the public feel like they are witnessing something "special" or "historic". They (and time) will make that determination.

Personally I haven't seen too many people rolling in their team's Stars & Stripes lid so I think Mr. Wilpon will have to revise his goal of $100 million downward. Either that or hope fans have buyers remorse when MLB busts out the S&S lids on Sep. 11th.