Ex-St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire admits to taking steroids

[Yoda]

Ex-St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire admits to taking steroids while breaking home run record

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2010/01/11/2010-01-11_st_louis_cardinals_slugger_mark_mcgwire.html#ixzz0cL3iEzT5

Mark McGwire, the St. Louis Cardinals slugger whose home run legacy was tainted by performance-enhancing drug allegations, admitted using steroids in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday.

McGwire acknowledged using steroids on and off for nearly a decade and apologized for his illicit drug use.

"I wish I had never touched steroids," McGwire\'s statement to the AP said. "It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era."

At a late October press conference to announce that Tony La Russa would return to St. Louis for at least one more year, the Cardinals coach said that McGwire would return to the team as its hitting coach. Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak and other team officials said McGwire would address the steroid scandal and his return to the game with reporters. But until Monday, McGwire has remained silent.

McGwire, who retired in 2001 with 583 home runs, has kept a low profile since he was identified as a steroid user by former teammate Jose Canseco in "Juiced" and his evasive testimony in March of 2005 before a House committee investigating steroids in baseball. The Daily News reported four days before McGwire\'s now-infamous appearance that a California man named Curtis Wenzlaff provided illegal anabolic steroids to both Canseco and McGwire when they were teammates with the Oakland A\'s.

McGwire may have stonewalled the congressional panel in 2005 because he feared the information could have been used against him in a criminal investigation.

Wenzlaff was arrested during the early 1990s by Michigan-based FBI agents Greg Stejskal and Bill Randall during Operation Equine, a three-year steroid investigation that led to 70 arrests for steroid trafficking. The News reported in 2005 that Stejskal had warned Major League Baseball that it had a steroid problem but the game\'s brass ignored the warning



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2010/01/11/2010-01-11_st_louis_cardinals_slugger_mark_mcgwire.html#ixzz0cL418rSE

[Spacey]

Just read this.

Why deny all this time?

WTF?

[Yoda]

I hope they never vote this guy into the hall...

[Spacey]

I\'d say this admission is going to make the HOF a far fetched dream.

Major League Baseball is a tainted joke.

[Drew_Kingsley]

Coming clean was definitely the responsible thing to do considering he is going to be the Cards\' hitting coach this season. Though, realistically, Big Mac is probably just trying to boost his slim Hall of Fame chances.

The sad thing is that McGwire falls in the A-Rod and Bonds category of guys who could have been Hall of Famers without steroids. If you believe what he said today, McGwire was clean when he hit 49 home runs and drove in 118 runs at age 23 in 1987. Who knows what he would have done au naturel?

[Yoda]

I don\'t buy it... The fact of the matter is that he wouldn\'t give a straight answer during the hearings... I liked the guy when I was growing up, but have no use for him... If he\'s even a consideration for the Hall, then Pete Rose should be allowed to be elligible for the Hall...

[freddiewaht]

and in other news,water is indeed wet..

[Spacey]

and in other news,water is indeed wet..

Bullshit!

I want to see the studies.

[dredmonkey]

and the breakfast still plays small pubs in CT, sorry that was not cool

[Vassillios]

thought he admitted to steroids a while ago? or just assumed

[wildcoyote]

Anyone with eyes and basic knowledge of biology knew the deal back in 1998. I was a 19 year old kid and it was pretty obvious to me what was going on. Yet I was watching SportsCenter every day on the edge of my seat. Did he hit one? Did Sosa?

Fans and media ate this up and ignored the obvious. Selig and MLB knew what was happening but were making too much money to care. It kills me how everyone gets all high and mighty now.  If you watched and cheered, you\'re just as guilty imo.