Mark McGwire “comes clean”
Posted Jan 11, 2010 3:57 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was the most open secret in baseball, and now Mark McGwire has made it official; he did use performance enhancing drugs in the 1990’s, including when he broke the all-time home run record in 1998.
McGwire made the admission in a statement to the Associated Press. He says he used steroids off and on for nearly a decade. The admission was prompted by his decision to become a hitting coach with the St. Louis Cardinals.
The former “bash brother” has been passed over for the MLB Hall of Fame twice now and it was unlikely he would ever have been admitted to the exclusive club without coming clean.
Mike Wilner, host of Baseball Today on the FAN 590 in Toronto, tells 660News no one who played in that era will ever escape the stigma or questions about performance enhancing drugs.
But, he says he doesn’t think today’s admission will prompt other users to come forward, even though other players who have admitted to using have escaped massive scrutiny.
Wilner says, “It’s like McGwire, it’s an open secret. It doesn’t need to be admitted. Barry Bonds doesn’t need to say anything to keep his Hall of Fame candidacy alive because many people viewed him as hall worthy. Sammy Sosa may be prompted to come forward because he and McGwire are forever linked by 1998. But, I don’t think it will prompt Bonds to do the same.”
