Mark McGwire

Baseball on Brink of Self-Destruction? Be Responsible, Selig

by Josh Dhani on January 26, 2010 · 1 comment

As curiosity strikes baseball faster than CC Sabathia’s fastball or even Cliff Lee’s curveball, you must come to realize baseball is a sport caught in hazed, gloomy clouds. The game is the root of all evil, casting hideous and despicable conceptions on what was America’s Pastime, but now America’s Disgrace.

In a way, the game seems like it’s on the brink of self-destruction when all you hear about are syringes and pills, rather than purity and artistic features.


The beauty of the game capitulated and crippled, allowing uncertainty to implode all the positive hallmarks. To be honest, this is a sad moment, a rampant stage when the game is eclipsed of all the outrageous scandals. Just so there’s no one befuddled, the Steroid Era continues.

Either a player tells on himself, or the mysterious list of 104 players keeps giving away stunning results and overwhelms us all. Why every time a name is linked our jaws drop and eyes shut in disbelief?

Come on, we’re living in the Steroid Era. But worst is, we’re living in a generation when an apathetic commissioner ignored the emergence of steroid buzzes. Right in front of Bud Selig’s eyes, there were signs of performance-enhancing drugs, literally equipped to contaminate the competitive nature in the mid-1990s. But his mindless persona, gave players the authority to juice the game.

In other words, he allowed and urged players to deceit and ruin integrity. Trust me, Mr. Bud is a rogue. He refused to institute a steroid bust, raiding criminals of the game on a regular.

Trust me, Mr. Bud is an idiot. He has done little to mend sorrow. For instance, you’d think he’ll have firmness to address the issues and crack down on insidious sluggers, maybe by enforcing harsh sanctions.

But the first idea that comes to mind, he’s ashamed of all the steroid revelations, a list of shameful announcements and all the scandals to shame the majors. In what was viewed as purity and cleanness, now is gazed as a toxic waste and practice for the one’s admired to strengthen their performance and master an advantage in the hitting department.

What! That’s so terrible. And they should be proud of themselves? Not a chance. It’s a disgrace whenever anyone hoax the game, and being proud of yourself for such ignominy is a sickness, insecurity or even low self-esteem.

If Bud had used his useless noggin before a hellish age ravaged the majors, baseball wouldn’t have egregious steroid crisis. Fine, establishing a policy to avoid performance-enhancing drugs is condoned, but all players won’t be encouraged to give up their fraudulent habits.

If Bud initiated a plan to resolve drugs before turning chaotic, he wouldn’t have to stress over integration or a shameful regime corrupting. He’s an absent-minded baseball commissioner who needs to be responsible, not an irresponsible goon. But, unfortunately, he’s a goon.

Everyone is laughing at Bud, the big clown of the majors and refuses to perform his biggest act. That’s taking accountability for cleaning up a contaminated sport, even though the game is suffering of mortals.

The longer Selig sits and waits, the longer the game is irreparable, which means it’s hard to recover from an era of sleazes and when drug emporiums are inside clubhouses. If he’s not aware, the use of banned substances merely forges worst scenarios and stains the aspects of baseball. Until he takes action, we not even remotely close of pasting the steroid stages.

Meanwhile, Selig is inane and even in denial for believing the game is past the Steroid Era. He is, again, not utilizing his brain properly if he thinks the average player is clean and hasn’t committed hideous crimes. Anyone with a functional brain understands clearly that there are plenty of baseball stars who haven’t been caught. Ah, yeah!

By using common sense, many of them were smart and cleaned out their systems in time of random testing. By using common sense, baseball isn’t clean. And by assuming his sport is clean, Selig is characterized as goof in denial of what has happened to the game.

Until baseball has an accurate test for HGH and steroids, Selig could repossess credibility, but until then, his credibility is diminished. Behind the scenes there are players right now tricking Selig by using HGH and maybe even steroids.

And who exactly knows if the embarrassed man ever gets it. But, apparently, he doesn’t get it. It’s unfair delivering favoritism towards Mark McGwire, when there were those who came clean on national television or were linked to using substances.

For instance, Alex Rodriguez confessed to the world of his PED use, but wasn’t credited for revealing the truth. Instead he was belittled and blasted by Selig, who didn’t have any compassionate reactions when he stared at cameras and into the television releasing a sincere admission and apology to betrayed teammates and fans.

That’s a whole different story for McGwire, the cheater who has been described as paragon, even though his flimsy excuses are mind-boggling and inadvisable. So the explanation and apology is good enough for McGwire, in which he’s awarded and endorsed for poor judgment. It doesn’t make sense, when he used steroids during his playing career and wondrous milestone.

Although it’s seen as an asterisk, a tainted McGwire was responsible for saving the game of baseball and broke the home run record in a single season. But now, a remarkable record is tainted and meaningless as Selig is dumb for the self-defense of McGwire. If Selig deeply cared about integrity, he would punish those who violated the rules and treat all players fair whether right or wrong.

If so, Pete Rose would have been reinstated. For six years, he has been ignored and signaled out. He has nicely begged Selig to reinstate him, but the commish quickly responded and shock his head no. Rose apologized for gambling on the game, constantly, when McGwire apologized one time.

There’s something wrong with the picture here.

Baseball is a messy sport. And as long as Bud oversees the league, the majors are faced with doom and malevolent scandals. I’m not allowing impunity to the fraudulent slugger Manny Ramirez, who resides in a neighborhood called Mannywood, but he was suspended 50 games last season for using a female fertility drug.

I’ve watched the league frail before my very eyes, and have never felt so betrayed, hoodwinked or cheated in my life. David Ortiz was a big name, the big slugger who arising when he suddenly was noticed as a big-name star in Boston. But no wonder why he crushed long-balls over the Green Monster.

Yes, indeed, his name unveiled from the list. Trust me he was never a Big Papi. Sammy Sosa’s name revealed deceitfulness, too. A-Rod is forgotten as the next home run king, after his name surfaced from the list.


Oh no, Selig! You have a serious crisis on your hands. What will you do to resolve it? I know nothing. If Bud hasn’t taken any action during a horrendous regime, why would he take action now? His successor, Fay Vincent, would’ve taken an important stance on the steroid issue. I know that for a fact.

There is someone in this country attacking Bud Selig verbally. He is, Jose Canseco, and still is gushing over alleged users. If you need information or details on the Steroid Era, find the man with the most credibility, the man with the most specifics and truth.

Each time he singles out a name formerly it usually are signs of the truth. There’s no one time that Canseco has been deceitful or spoke spiteful of players. Hell, I’ll believe him, before I believe Selig. That’s the truth.

Bud should be ashamed of himself for advocating juicing. If he’s not willing to address issues and punish players of iniquities, they’ll continue to get away with juicing and damaging integrity. If so, doesn’t that make Bud a dope?

Absolutely!

Josh has been writing since January 2009 and founded FootBasket in April 2009. He also owns the websites, Hardcourt Mayhem and Gridiron Mayhem. For a full bio, check out JoshDhani.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshDhani

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+ YouTube 

McGwire Is a Sham After All, but Shows True Remorse

by Josh Dhani on January 12, 2010

I’m sure many of you still remember the congressional hearing at Capitol Hill. Being seen in the public and before congress, he seemed humiliated and hesitant to speak of possible use of steroids. Mark McGwire has been scolded for refusing to confront an issue that has contaminated the beautiful game of baseball, holding a sport hostage thanks to the infamous Steroid Era.

At this point, believing a word coming out of any player’s mouth seems like a sham when it could actually be the truth. But in this case, McGwire is guilty and has ruined his integrity, finally coming clean about coating his system with steroids for nearly a decade. What strikes me the most is this: He waited until a new decade arrived to admit to using performance enhancers.

Why did he wait all this time? We want to believe the Steroid Era has fled the scene of a toxic era, but it turns out baseball is still a sport in limbo. To this day, the mysterious list is lingering, unidentified names remains baffling and baseball is no longer America’s Pastime, but instead the Shamed Game.

His admission on Monday was supposed to transpire back in 2005. The entire country should have known the truth, especially when all citizens admired McGwire’s record-breaking, baseball-saving season of 1998. Sadly, none of the gorgeous swings at nearly every at-bat was pure or done artistically. Instead he needed juice to elevate a streaky performance level, and now must pay the price for such a sin.

The perfect time came at Capitol Hill, a moment he could have told the truth, rather than keep the truth hidden for more than five years. He refused to deliver specifics, telling the congressmen, “I’m not going to talk about the past.” For declining to reveal the truth, much of McGwire’s reputation and credibility has disintegrated. Although he deserves an ample of credit for clearing his name, parts of his admission don’t make sense whatsoever.

There are plenty of confounding holes to solve after hearing McGwire confess, when he finally had the courage to reveal a regrettable secret, and man-up. The bottom line is, he cheated by putting an illegal substance in his body. Even though he has apologized and confessed of iniquity, that doesn’t make him eligible for the Hall of Fame. No tainted slugger belongs in the Hall, no tarnished legacy should earn any delightful achievement for poisoning the wonderful aspects of the game.

Worst is, McGwire fled and lived behind the scenes, shamed of the treachery he left confidential. Why should I vote a guy into the Hall when he clearly ran before he finally succumbed to reality? Why should I vote a guy into the Hall for depriving a sport we once cherished? Doesn’t anyone feel hoodwinked by the everlasting steroid scandals?

When he emotionally broke down during an interview with Bob Costas, he spoke out with class and forgiveness; he was sincere about letting down fans, former teammates, and the St. Louis Cardinals. At last, McGwire sat to talk about the past, ostensibly contrite of what unfolded during a record season of 70 home runs. However, I’m not buying into his admission and have no sympathy for McGwire, particularly for insisting that he believes steroid use enhances his performance level.

That’s why steroids are classified as performance-enhancing drugs. So, to say the substances didn’t aid his fraudulent home run total is utterly ridiculous. If he believes he produced off of natural or God-given talent, well, at least he was certain. But he’s naïve to presume that all of his strength was natural.

“It’s very emotional. It’s telling family members, friends, and coaches, you know, it’s former teammates to try to get a hold of, you know, what I’m coming clean and being honest,” McGwire sadly said in a 20-minute interview with the Associated Press. “It’s the first time they’ve ever heard me, you know, talk about this. I hid it from everybody.”

We know you hid it from the world. I tried not to think McGwire was a fraud, but it’s now clear he’s an asterisk. But anyone with the right state of mind knew he was infected after the congressional hearing. For most of his career, he was a con artist and cowardly became a suspicious hypocrite. Like unintelligent people, we embraced the greatest milestone in baseball, an achievement that is now viewed with an asterisk.

If there’s anything legit about McGwire, mind you, we cannot tell because of a long decade of shams. Sure he has all the homers, but a gloomy cloud would always hover over him. He never committed perjury, but he kept a secret hiding and killed perception. The greatest accomplishments of his lifetime are tarnished for good, wrecking the mindsets of those who actually believed at one point. So the gratifying moment has turned into a wicked moment.

The distressing past began to hunt McGwire, and he realized he wasn’t a natural-born slugger. He phoned commissioner Bud Selig, Cardinals general manager Tony La Russa, and the widow of Roger Maris, Pat Maris, to apologize for the disruptions and transgressions.

What bothers me the most is flimsy excuses when someone is caught for sinful actions. McGwire swore that he pleaded for the Fifth Amendment before congress because he wasn’t given immunity, and he was afraid he would have been forced to spent time behind bars. Still, that’s not a good enough excuse to allow McGwire off the hook.

“On the advice of my attorneys, they could not advise me to talk about my past,” he said offensively. “If I did that, and there was a possibility of being prosecuted or summoned to a grand jury, I’m throwing my whole family and close friends and other people that were with me—I’m putting them in jeopardy for some act that I did and I totally regret. I told my attorneys that I would take the hit and protect my family. So I elected to take the hit, and I’ve taken the hit for five years. That was the worst 48 hours of my life on Capitol Hill. I wish I did get immunity; I would have come clean five years ago.”

I’m not so sure if we should buy into that excuse as well. We’ve reached a point when it’s hard to believe anything. Another excuse hard to stomach is McGwire claimed he used steroids to heal from injuries. Then again, maybe he decided to take drugs to care for health. But he still should say it does affect his productivity, adding he’d still have the same total of homers without steroids.

You’d never know. And as far as it goes now, he’s tainted no matter what. He said his steroid use mounted in 1994. If you hadn’t noticed, maybe that answered the question to why his batting average was a .249 lifetime and averaged homers every 14 at-bats.

Here is where it’s confusing: suddenly the percentages rose during a season he dominated. He started to approach a paramount site in the majors, a standard that had a large impact on baseball. In what become the engaging era, McGwire’s average was .277 with a home run deposited every 8.4 at-bats.

So we’ll never know the true colors of Big Mac, right?

Right! In a period when baseball is contaminated with a juicy aftertaste, productive numbers could be a sham for all we know. All those linked to performance-enhancing drugs, such as a secretive McGwire, an obvious Sammy Sosa, a phony Barry Bonds, a lying Roger Clemens, a confused Alex Rodriguez, a naïve Manny Ramirez, and whoever else I left out, don’t earn my vote for casting distasteful features on the game.

As for McGwire, he was the game’s greatest hitter until steroids played a role, after the usage of steroids provided energy and treated health, which led to his sleazy statement.

“There’s not a pill or an injection that’s going to give me, going to give any player the hand-eye coordination to hit a baseball,” he told Costas on the MLB Network.

What happened has long past, but knowing he committed such a crime is agonizing when many admired him.

McGwire was known for the incredible resurgence; now he’s known for breaking down the game, deemed as the newest sleaze in baseball.

Josh has been writing since January 2009 and founded FootBasket in April 2009. He also owns the websites, Hardcourt Mayhem and Gridiron Mayhem. For a full bio, check out JoshDhani.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshDhani

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+ YouTube