Mark McGwire: Apology Better Late Than Never

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Disgraced baseball slugger Mark McGwire finally decided to talk about the past Monday, confirming what we've long suspected.  Yes, he did take steroids during his career, which includes the year when he hit 70 home runs to break the single-season mark set by Roger Maris.  No, they were not for recreational use.  He said they were meant to mend the injuries that had been plaguing him.  And yes, McGwire said he should never have used them.  Also, he said he would have hit 583 home runs in his career whether he was on chemicals or not.

McGwire could have said all this back in March 2005 when a congressional panel interrogated him and other Major League Baseball players on alleged steroid use.  But he chose to clam up on the advice of his attorneys, hoping to save his testimony for a court of law.  Well, his day in court never came, but risking contempt of Congress didn't help him much in the Court of Public Opinion.

Now that he's going to work as the St. Louis Cardinals' hitting instructor this coming season, McGwire figured he'd better come clean now or risk getting hounded about it everywhere he goes.  So he's been making the rounds in the sports media--MLB Network, ESPN, USA Today--to unburden himself to a skeptical public and the Hall of Fame voters who snubbed him once again.  As with all the public apologies we've been seeing lately, you can never really tell whether he's being sincere or he deserves an Academy Award.

The other players that have been caught up in what is now known as the Steroid Era--Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds (who broke McGwire's record in 2001 with 73 homers)--have all denied that they juiced up, even though the evidence points otherwise.  But Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte have fessed up.

Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees has also come clean about his use of performance enhancing drugs, but it's been pretty much forgotten since his team won the World Series.

They, like McGwire, stand accused of mucking up some of baseball's most-cherished records with an asterisk because they allegedly wanted an edge.  But we don't care.  We still dig the long ball, and that won't change whether players frequent the weight room or their doctors' offices.