Mac admits using steroids...

[sylbry]

Between Mark, Dan, and his steriod using, body-building brother Jay, family conversations around the dinner table must be interesting.

[byergo]

What Maris did doesn't impress me very much at all. He is the luckiest guy in the world to bat in front of Mickey Mantle in his prime. He was intentionally walked zero (0) times in 1961 and got tons of balls to swing at.

Mantle's 54 hr's under far different pitching circumstances is far more impressive and underappreciated.

[STLHAMMER32]

What Maris did doesn't impress me very much at all. He is the luckiest guy in the world to bat in front of Mickey Mantle in his prime. He was intentionally walked zero (0) times in 1961 and got tons of balls to swing at.

Mantle's 54 hr's under far different pitching circumstances is far more impressive and underappreciated.

Not at all? I will give you the fact that Mantle had a great season but even being the least favorite among the two Maris won back-to-back MVP's. Obviously Mantle was the better of the two but how does that make what Maris did in 61 not impressive?

Regardless of who you hit in front off you still have to hit the Hr's and off course he won't be intentionally walked to get to a dangerous switch hitter that you cannot play a matchup game with. Maris hit his Homers off very good pitching he hit 36 of his homers off guys who won at least 10 games during the 1961 season. He faced the pressure of actually breaking the record and being hated by media and rooted against by many fans.

To end this I will quote Mickey himself who said, "what Roger did was the most impressive thing I ever saw on a baseball field"......

[byergo]

OK, I'm a little bit impressed, but the guy got meat pitches all year long.

[STLHAMMER32]

OK, I'm a little bit impressed, but the guy got meat pitches all year long.

meat pitches based on what? Very very little footage is around. He was walked unintentionally 94 times so there were plenty of balls that were not good. Also no one wanted to just give up Hr's and be linked to the records so he saw the best stuff from each pitcher he faced you would assume and he was not hitting them off of terrible pitchers either as a pointed out already.

[3arod13]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns

Agree! But give me a break! Cheating has gone on in baseball for a while now (all different types of cheating).

So if this is cheating and they shouldn't go in the Hall of Fame, then the other ways pitchers cheated and other players, etc., should also count when considered for the Hall of Fame.

Cheating is cheating!

Regards, Tony

[allstarsplus]

This is becoming a media circus now. He admitted to the 'roids and now let's move on. It seems every time another guy talks about PEDs the sports channels and news shows become obsessed with it.

McGwire gave more info and specifics than any other ballplayer that I can remember except Canseco.

Is he being singled out and being made into the Steroid poster boy now?

Based on his college and Rookie production where he was 'roid free, I still feel he was one of the greatest HR hitters in the game if he had never touched steroids, but unfortunately we will never know what his career numbers would have been without PEDs.

A real shame....

[allstarsplus]

Joe Morgan, a Hall of Famer and the board’s vice chairman, feels bad for players who didn’t use performance enhancers.

“Those guys are being penalized twice,” he said. “First, the guys who did steroids had all those great numbers, made all the money, and the guys who didn’t do steroids and just had good years, didn’t make as much money. So they get hurt there. Now at the end of their careers when you have to compare those numbers to the guys who did do steroids, they’re going to get hurt again as far as the Hall of Fame is concerned. So I can’t in my own mind excuse what happened, whatever the reason.”

I would go a step further. Guys like Albert Pujols, Frank Thomas and Adam Dunn and some others that never used steroids are studs of their era but they are penalized 3 times because there will always be some that still may think they may not be clean because after guys like ARod, many of us have learned not to trust any of these guys from the era.

[perezfan]

I neither understand or agree with the argument that McGwire using steroids was only about maintaining his health and putting a halt to his deteriorating body. To say that it didn't help him hit home runs is deceptive and ignorant...

If his health deteriorated in its natural progression (without the aid of steroids), he would have hit dozens fewer home runs. A banged up/ailing body doesn't hit as many home runs as a fully functioning one. If not for the steroids, he would have been on a level playing field with all those who came before him (those who did not have any ability to extend their careers beyond a natural time frame).

If he bowed out when "Father Time" dictated, his career would have been more similar to a Dave Kingman, Boog Powell, Lee May, Frank Howard or Dave Parker (very good players, but none of whom merit HOF consideration).

Longevity is a big reason that many players have earned HOF honors, and this person clearly experienced an unfair advantage. His grandest records and "achievements" were all produced during the late-career time frame in question.

[RJB44]

and someone will still be foolish enough to shell out $800.00 for one of Mac's game used caps!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Oakland-As-MARK-...item5ad5ba13c0