Return of the Mac

I'm very pleased with myself on the title and, as such, I'm concerned that I've already peaked in this entry. Considering my introductory post garnered four comments -- and ignoring the fact that they were all wise remarks -- I would say the pressure is on now to not disappoint.

Yesterday was a strange day in news. Two fairly predictable, yet fairly significant, events occurred. First, Sarah Palin signed a multi-year contract with Fox News to serve as a contributor. I didn't see that one coming. We all knew Sarah couldn't stay out of the spotlight for long -- if she ever really left. I guess Fox is planning on going rogue in attempting to get some opinions that range beyond the viewpoints of their usual stable of conservative commentators... or not. I think most will agree that it was just a matter of time before she ended up with Fox.

The second noteworthy item was that St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids during his career. Once again, you can knock me over with a feather over that revelation. However, I sincerely never thought he actually did steroids, but I'm not shocked to hear that he did. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I wanted to believe that the only questionable thing he took during his career was androstenedione.

Maybe the Palin story isn't that big of a deal -- at least, compared to McGwire. Mark McGwire coming out is obviously the bigger story for no other reason than it is several years in the making. The country has only really known Sarah Palin existed for about a year and a half -- plus, there is no controversy. All she did was get a job. Good for her. Either way, I would like to thank both of them for providing me with a couple of decent stories to talk about for my first substantive blog entry (2nd post overall).

Anyway, we'll get back to Palin on another day when she inevitably says something that raises eyebrows.

Concerning McGwire, I'm a little torn on how to feel over his admission of having taken steroids. I still remember where I was (over my neighbor's house playing FIFA '98 on his computer) when I watched his line drive sail over the left field fence at old Busch Stadium. It was a pretty cool moment. The whole chase between McGwire and Sammy Sosa going after Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in one season was fun to watch and it certainly was essential in bringing a lot of fans back to the sport after the damaging strike of 1994. Everyone knows this. And if you didn't, now you do.

While I guess I should be happy that McGwire finally has come clean about his past, this admission, just like all the others, is most damaging to the fans. More than any other player, Mark McGwire's admission is the biggest gut shot to many people's memory of a great moment in the sport. By the time that Barry Bonds was breaking McGwire's record, everyone assumed that he (Bonds) was on the juice, so the fans' perception of what they were witnessing was already pretty tainted. In 1998, very few people, if any, were thinking about steroids with McGwire and we could all enjoy the ride for what it was at the time. Now, all of that has changed. It is sad.

It is also unfortunate that MLB needs to be rocked year after year with a new player emerging who is either admitting to have used steroids in the past or has been caught through some past test and the results leaked to the media. It is unfair to cast that shadow of doubt over the past players with the possibility that, at any point, some new former user will surface. At this point, nothing can be done about it. These types of stories don’t just ruin the public opinion of the specific player in question. It tarnishes the image of even the clean players, as their accomplishments will be thought less of since doubt hangs over everything. Baseball brought this on itself with the Mitchell Report, but I'll save my opinion of MLB's handling of the steroid saga for another post.