On the one hand, he’s obviously a smart guy who is a good journalist. On the other, like you said, his ego is out of control.

Fuck Jeff Pearlman, I love McGwire.

As we all now know McGwire was a fraud. His amazing feat wasn’t nearly so amazing. His courage and strength were mirages. His greatness, well, very artificial.

Doesn’t Pearlman know that McGwire has never admitted to using steroids nor has been convicted of such a thing? Now yes he has stated that he used an anabolic steroid but that was legal at the time under U.S. law and for use in MLB.

Did McGwire takes steroids, most likely yes but shouldn’t he be innocent until proven guilty?

after the strike i really wasnt following baseball, but all the steroid fun really helping bring me back in to the fold.

i was at shea when mcgwire hit his 50th HR of his 70 hr season. it was awesome. i couldnt give a crap what he was taking. if he was on roids, well that just means he was willing to sacrifice his long term health for my entertainment. i applaud him for it. moreover, jeff pearlman sounds like a total jagov. did steroids help mcqwire and sosa deal with the insane media hype and pressure during the record chase?

yeah, i’ll still read perlman’s stuff and give him the benefit of the doubt because he is such a good writer, but im really sick of all this ant steroid nonsense. players jeopardizing their livelihoods and careers just to be awesomer at baseball. that is the definition of team player.

that PED users shouldn’t be unconditionally demonized, and get annoyed all the self-righteousness from people who might have done the same thing in those situations, but I get equally annoyed by the “I can’t see why anyone would have a problem with steroids” angle. When that latter group takes the stand that anyone who disapproves of players who took steroids is an idiot, it comes off as equally pompous and arrogant. I think it’s a murky enough issue that while steroid takers might not be the villains that some would have you think, it’s not illegitimate for people to have a problem with them.

on one level I have no problem with guys doing steroids, or at least no more problem than with guys who throw spitters or cork their bats. I’m fervently pro-legalization of drugs on a national, political level, and I think it’d be pretty inconsistent of me to demonize these guys who were doing things that I don’t think should be illegal.

On the other hand, as a baseball fan and a student of the history of the game, it does bother me that we’re never going to know the proper way to contextualize the numbers that were put up during the 90’s and 00’s (and even today – anyone who thinks steroids will ever be completely gone from baseball is more naive than a school-girl). I’m not even concerned with things like how 73* effects Maris or Ruth – I look at the past two decades as the polar opposite of the dead ball era, where a lot of numbers need to be taken with a huge grain of salt (and things like juiced balls, smaller parks, expansion, increased bullpen usage, lighter bats, etc. contributed to that just as much if not way more than steroids). My problem is actually how we compare the players who played in this era against one another. This isn’t like the dead ball era, where all of the pitchers had the same advantages – hypothetically speaking, if Ken Griffey Jr. never used steroids, how does he compare to Barry Bonds? Is Griffey’s career that much more impressive b/c he did it clean in an era where juicers were prevalent, or did the steroids really just not have much of an impact. And, of course, in the back of everybody’s mind will forever be the question of whether Griffey used ’roids (replace Griffey with Maddux and Bonds with Clemens if you prefer).

So anyway, that’s my problem with this era. But, I always like Big Mac and I’m glad he’s getting a second chance in the game. I hope he makes it to Cooperstown someday, b/c taking my kids to a hall of fame without one of the best players of my youth would be almost as dumb as my dad taking me to a hall of fame that didn’t have the all-time hits leader. Wait…never mind.

I’ve hated him ever since he ripped on our mutual alma mater (Delaware) for being “racist” for not playing an in-state rival (historicall black Del. St.) in football, ignoring the fact that they play each other every year in every other sport & that the game he thought proved the racism (against D-II Westchester) was on the schedule every year b/c it was the UD’s president’s alma mater. Once the president retired, Del. St. got added to the schedule. Oh, and UD has destroyed Del St. both times they’ve played.