The Chris Moeller Archives

Why I plan to stand and applaud for Mark McGwire

Mark McGwire will make his first public appearance since testifying before Congress this weekend when the St. Louis Cardinals play the last three regular season games in Busch Stadium history. McGwire will be on hand for each game, and will pull the number three off the outfield wall on Friday to mark the remaining games at the venue. I will be in attendance that night.

When McGwire makes his ride around the playing field, returning to the site of his historic exploits, I will stand and applaud in recognition of his extraordinary accomplishments on the diamond and because of the professional demeanor he has demonstrated on and off the field.

Contrary to some media reports, Mark McGwire never attempted to fool us into thinking he was "legitimate." He never sought the spotlight. In fact, he often shunned it. During his 70 home run campaign of 1998, he would routinely attempt to re-direct the media attention to teammates whose exploits may have had more to do with a given night's outcome. Overtly or otherwise, we all demanded that he do everything legally to win. That was his end of a social contract that brought him enormous paychecks in return. He delivered.

Even if he were to be proven to have done everything he's been accused of doing, in terms of performance-enhancing drugs, (and it's worth noting that he hasn't,) he still would not have broken any rules. You may believe, like I do, that Major League Baseball needs to toughen up it's policy on granting players medical clearance to wear body armor while batting, but that doesn't mean Barry Bonds is a cheater because he wears it. Personally, I don't demand asterisks on records accomplished with the aid of amphetamines, rehabilitory narcotics, or reconstructive surgery, and I recognize that the only possible reason McGwire was ever singled out to testify before Congress was because he was the biggest fish in the tank.

He was not an active player when he testified, nor was he a policy-maker on behalf of Major League Baseball. What was he doing there, other than for publicity, if the hearing was about confronting current league policy? He didn't lie, as Rafael Palmeiro did, though I believe that would have been within his moral rights in response to a question that had no right to be asked. He wasn't responsible for the death of Burt Hooten's nephew, as the high school boy's father declared in testimony. That father was responsible for the values of his son, along with, of course, the boy himself. These values harken back to a fairer time, before the word "hero" was replaced with the despicable phrase "role model."

Though I didn't ask more of McGwire than his giving it all on the field, he delivered much more than that. He gave charitably and quietly to causes in which he believed. He earned the respect of both teammates and opponents. In 1961, Roger Maris was booed in New York City when he supplanted Babe Ruth as baseball's single-season home run king. He died in 1985 without receiving his due from the public. When Big Mac supplanted Maris, it wasn't about Big Mac. The slugger didn't point to the heavens and declare himself to be the greatest, as other conquering players have done. Instead, he shared the moment with his teammates and a chief competitor, before granting unto Maris' grown children the spotlight and honor their father had been denied during his life.

As Congress renews its public grandstanding on the steroid issue this week, baseball is in the crosshairs. (Funny how we hear almost nothing about yet another NFL player testing positive for "a banned substance" [Travis Henry.] He gets a modest suspension of four games, and the NFL doesn't disclose the identity of the substance as a matter of policy.) The publicity generated by re-opening the steroid hearings on Capitol Hill will help further distract the public from Congress' two sanctioned wars and its failure to put the development of a protective infrastructure ahead of pork spending. A fully-implemented steroid patrol program would accomplish nothing, anyway, other than spur improvements in the field of positive drug-test avoidance. Expect an expensive disaster something along the lines of the broader "War on Drugs."

Some in the media have attempted to cast a shadow of doubt upon the "legitimacy" of McGwire's feats. What cannot be re-written or re-interpreted are the feelings I experienced, along with other Cardinals and baseball fans, during McGwire's St. Louis reign of 1997 to 2001. Those thrills were very much real, as I can still vividly recall. We gave him the atmosphere, and he did the hard part, rising to nearly each and every occasion. I'm proud to call myself a fan of the player and the person. That's why a fifth inning standing ovation for Mark McGwire will be a lasting memory of my final visit to Busch Stadium.

posted by CM @ 10:21 PM