Dusty, Sheen, Meat Loaf and The Boss

By Hal McCoy | Thursday, February 4, 2010, 06:11 PM

CINCINNATI REDS MANAGER Dusty Baker was a big hit recently at the Wright State University First Pitch baseball dinner and was sincerely impressed with what he saw of the campus, particularly the Nutter Center.

“I always wanted to be BMOC (Big Man on Campus) but I signed a baseball contract when I was 18 and never went to college,” he said. “When I was about to be drafted, things weren’t too settled racially in the south and I said a prayer, ‘Lord, don’t let me get drafted by the Atlanta Braves.” Then came the draft and said Baker, “Wham, bam, I was drafted by the Braves and I said, ‘Lord, you didn’t here me, did you?’”

BAKER LOST his father, Johnny Baker Sr., a couple of months ago and he recalled how tough his dad was on him.

“He coached Little League in Sacramento and he cut me from the team when I was 8 because I threw my glove after I missed a ball,” said Baker. “The next year he cut me because I threw my bat after I struck out. I came back the next year and I quit the team when a guy threatened to hit me and I was scared. My dad wouldn’t let me come back on the team because he said, ‘I don’t want no quitters on my team.’”

DAYTONIAN RON BROOKEY is an Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer and coached Steve Yeager at Meadowdale High School. Brooked asked Baker about Yeager because the two played together for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1970s.

“Boomer?” said Baker. “You mean Boomer? We always called Yeager ‘Boomer.’ He was the best catcher I ever played with, but what I remember is how Boomer could go into the shower holding a cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other and get neither of them wet.”

Yeager is credited with an invention on the catcher’s mask. During a game a bat splintered in front of him and a large piece lodged in Yeager’s throat. This was before catchers began wearing hockey-type helmets. Yeager devised a piece of steel that hung from the chin padding of the mask that covered his throat.

After his baseball career, Yeager became a technical advisor on the movie Major League, which is why the movie is technically correct in all its baseball aspects. And Yeager appeared in a cameo role as a third base coach in the movie that starred Charlie Sheen as pitcher Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn.

ABOUT CHARLIE SHEEN. He was, and maybe still is, a huge fan of the Cincinnati Reds, probably because his actor father Martin Sheen was born in Dayton.

In the early 1990s, I was sitting in my press box seat in Dodger Stadium, head down as I pounded the keys on my laptop because I was near deadline. There was an empty seat next to mine and some guy sat down and began bombarding me with questions about Barry Larkin, Eric Davis and Rob Dibble.

I was busy, so I was terse and cryptic with my answers, never looking up. Finally, the guys says, “Would you like a cup of coffee?” To get rid of him, I said, “Yeah. Black. Two Sweet ‘n’ Lows.” The guy left to fetch the coffee and another guy two seats down leaned over and said, “Do you know who you keep ignoring? That’s Charlie Sheen.”

Well, he should never bother a writer on deadline - but I was more alert and polite when he returned with my coffee.

ANOTHER BRUSH with celebrity came in Philadelphia when singer/writer/actor Meat Loaf sang the National Anthem before a Phillies-Reds game. I loved Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell album. Along about the second inning I was again pounding the keys, head down, when I sensed somebody looking over my shoulder.

I hate that. I hate somebody watching me write. But when I realized it was Meat Loaf we struck up a nice conversation. He knows a lot about baseball. And later, whenever anybody brought up Meat Loaf, I always said, “Oh, yeah, my friend Meat. We’re on first-name basis.”

THEN THERE was the day I was standing at the batting cage during batting practice in New York’s Shea Stadium when a guy next to me said, “Don’t you just love Sean Casey’s all-out swing?”

I looked over and it was The Boss, Bruce Springsteen. For once I was speechless, when I knew I should have said, “We have something in common. I was born in the USA, too.

Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment

Hopefully Cabrera is not another Gonzalez

By Hal McCoy | Monday, February 1, 2010, 05:47 PM

When the Cincinnati Reds signed Miguel Cairo to a minor-league contract last week, I thought to myself, “Omigosh, they’ve signed the wrong Latin infielder to play shortstop. It’s Orlando Cabrera whom they need, not Cairo.”

Well, they rectified that little misdeed Monday when they signed the 36-year-old Cabrera to a one-year, $2.02 million deal.

And how did that happen when they said they already were over budget? Easy, they traded outfielder Willy Taveras and his $4 million contract to the Oakland A’s, along with the versatile Adam Rosales.

I’m sure the Reds had to include Rosales in the deal to make the A’s take Taveras. I would have taken two broken bats and a used rosin bag for Taveras, just to get rid of him and his $4 million contract.

THE TWO BIGGEST mistakes the Reds have made since they signed pitcher Eric Milton were the signings of outfielder Corey Patterson, followed up by the signing of Taveras. Both were bigger failures than the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

It is amazing the A’s took Taveras. Aren’t the A’s the original Moneyball team, the team that places so much value on on-base percentage? It was bad enough that Taveras hit only .240 last season, but even sadder was his on-base average as a leadoff hitter, .275. And his slugging average was .285.

I mean, I know the A’s don’t rely that much on scouts any more - it’s not the Moneyball way - but didn’t somebody tell them, “Hey, this guy can’t play?” The Reds must be laughing under their armpits.

During spring training last year, Taveras said he thought he could steal 100 bases last season. Man, he barely reached base 100 times and he walked only 18 times all year. Adam Dunn stole that many bases and he is 6-7 and 275 pounds.

WHILE MANY are excited about the acquisition of Cabrera, mostly that excitement comes from fans believing, “Well, the Reds finally are trying to do something, trying to fill the shortstop hole.”

I’ll reserve judgment on that one for now. I’m still thinking about shortstop Alex Gonzalez. When the Reds signed Gonzalez to a four-year, $14.5 million contract everybody was giddy. Even former Reds shortstop Dave Concepcion said, “Alex Gonzalez will make everybody forget about me.”

Yeah, right. How’d that one pan out?

Everybody pointed back to 2004 when A.G. played 159 games and hit 23 homers and drove in 79 runs for the Florida Marlins. And they said his defense was solid gold.

In his 3 1/2 years with the Reds, Alex played only 290 of the 576 games in which he could have played. He missed the entire 2008 season. When the Reds traded him to Boston last season he was hitting .210. And his defense was leakier than a milk carton with a hole in the bottom.

So color me skeptical right now about Cabrera, who is 36 (Colombian age). He combined to play 160 games last year for Oakland the Minnesota and hit .284 with a .316 on-base average, nine homers and 77 RBIs. His career average over 13 1/2 seasons in .275.

Nice numbers? Yes. But I still think back on the Alex Gonzalez deal and shudder. At least the Reds didn’t give Cabrera four years. It’s only one year, with a $4 million mutual option for 2011. And he seems to be a stopgap until somebody in the organization steps up and says, “Hey, I can play shortstop,” somebody like Paul Janish or Todd Frazier or other prospects in the organization.

And what did the Reds get for Taveras and Rosales. Really, it’s who cares. They got Aaron Miles and a player to be identified later. Miles hit .185 in 74 games for the Cubs last year.

Doesn’t matter. The big thing is that the Reds rid themselves of a heavy liability in Taveras - both financially and in talent. It was the old addition by subtraction trade.

THE AARON BOONE event Saturday at the Dayton Marriott, put on by the Dayton Heart Institute, was a rousing success. Nearly 450 people showed up to hear Aaron and me talk baseball.

One of the most asked question I get everywhere is: “Is Dave in Ask Hal a real person?” I always lead my Ask Hal column in the Sunday Dayton Daily News with a question from Dave of Miamisburg/Centerville/Beavercreek. Some believe he is my alter ego and I make up his questions.

Not true. Those who attended the Aaron Boone function saw him, but didn’t know it. Dave stood up and asked a question during the question-and-answer period. I could have ‘outed’ him right then. But I didn’t. He likes his dirty little secret.

Permalink | Comments (26) | Post your comment

Talking Reds with Baker, Phillips, Miller

By Hal McCoy | Thursday, January 28, 2010, 03:09 PM

Some notes, utterings, opinions and absurdities obtained while talking this week with Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker, Reds assistant general manager Bob Miller and Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips:

Baker was in Dayton this week as guest speak at Rob Cooper’s Wright State University First Pitch baseball dinner and said he hopes the Reds and outfielder Jonny Gomes can get together for 2010.

When asked about left field, Baker listed names like Chris Dickerson, Chris Heisey, Laynce Nix and Wladimir Balentien. Then he added, “And there is a chance we might bring back somebody we had last year.”

That could only mean Gomes and when asked pointedly, he said, “I told Jonny at the end of last season that he had to make the best of what he accomplished last season, that now was the chance to prove it wasn’t a fluke and to show people he is back and can do it again.”

Unfortunately, the Reds didn’t offer Gomes a contract and he is now a free agent, but Baker talked positively about wanting him to re-up with the Reds and implied it was Gomes’ choice.

Gomes said the Chicago Cubs were interested in him, but that very day the Cubs signed Xavier Nady, probably closing the door on Gomes’ thumbs.

When Assistant GM Miller was asked about left field, he said, “Right now, it is a tryout. We have Heisey and Nix is returning and we hope that all that talent we see in Dickerson comes out and he can be healthy. Balentien is only 25 and has shown in the minors that he can hit. And we also have Todd Frazier and Juan Francisco to consider.

Sounds like lots of name, but no TOP candidates.

AND HOW ABOUT Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman?

Said Miller, “Don’t expect him at Class A Dayton. This kid has major-league stuff right now and he is going to camp to make our team. Of course, he has no big-league experience, speaks no English and has never been to our country. “He is working right now in Arizona with (new pitching coach) Bryan Price. I know one thing, our players are not going to want to step into the batter’s box against him this spring when we have live batting practice. He throws in the high 90s and touches 100.” (And he is, uh, a tad wild.)

And Baker? “I don’t know much about him and I’ve never seen him, except on tape. They tell me the young man picks up things quickly and works hard. He’s big at 6-4 and 220 with long arms, very intimidating.

“But we have to be careful not to rush him,” Baker added. “You have to be patient. Everybody wants it to happen right now, as do I. But sometimes it doesn’t work that way. And it will take him a while to fit in, athletically and socially with his team and with the community when he speaks no English and hasn’t been to this country.”

HOW ABOUT SHORTSTOP? Said Miller, “We’re working every day to improve the team. We haven’t really given Paul Janish a chance. And we have Chris Valaika and Zack Cozart for the future. Janish and Valaika and Cozart are our long-term answers and we’re still looking to solve the short-term question.”

BRANDON PHILLIPS, solid from a winter-long weight program, says he looks for big things from himself. While he never publicizes his personal goals, he said, “I’m going to have an even better year this year.”

The Reds hope Phillips has a year like 2007 when he hit .288 with 30 homer, 94 RBIs and 32 stolen bases. He hit .276 last season with 20 homers, 98 RBIs and 25 stolen bases.

And of the team, Phillips said, “We’re going to win more games than we lose.” While fans of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox would laugh out loud at that modest goal, well, when you’ve endured nine straight losing seasons, maybe the first baby step IS to finish above .500.

Fans hope for much more.

MILLER TALKED about the Reds starting pitching when asked about Chapman and said, “We have Bronson Arroyo, Aaron Harang, Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, Edinson Volquez, Mike Leake and Travis Wood.” Well, they won’t have Volquez until mid-season after Tommy John surgery. And whatever happened to Micah Owings?

Permalink | Comments (15) | Post your comment

Gomes ready, willing and able

By Hal McCoy | Monday, January 25, 2010, 10:26 PM

A telephone is never far from the reach of Jonny Gomes, be he at his Scottsdale, Ariz., home or be he working out at the North Scottsdale Athletes Performance Institute, where many major leaguers tone their muscles and retain their cardio-vascular capacities during the winter.

In fact, the way Gomes answered quickly and with hope in his voice when I called him this week, he must have thought I was somebody calling from the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox. It sounded as if he was ready to say, “Yeah, I’ll sign. Which team is this?”

Gomes, 29, remains a free agent after the Cincinnati Reds didn’t offer him a contract this winter, even as they remain devoid of a left fielder.

They are talking about Chris Dickerson and rookie Chris Heisey. Is either the answer? Well, Dickerson will be 28 in April and owns 128 major-league games on his resume, most of them undistinguished and much of his career interrupted by injuries.

And Heisey will be a 24-year-old rookie who has played only a half a season at Class AAA, where he hit .279 in 63 games and 245 at-bats. He is a 17th-round draft pick (505th pick overall).

MEANWHILE, GOMES sits and waits after he hit 20 home runs for the Reds last year in only 281 at-bats - 40 home runs over a full season, if he played every day.

Some will say, and have said, I’m prejudiced and biased in Gomes’ favor. And they’d be right. I am very biased to overacheivers, to guys who come from nowhere and hard times (Gomes once lived in his car because he couldn’t afford anything else). I am biased for guys who dirty their uniforms with all-out hustle, never trotting when they can sprint.

I’m biased toward guys who always smile, no matter how dire things are, who never complain when things don’t go their way. I’m biased toward guys who don’t think they know it all and are willing to listen to voices of experience, the way Gomes sought out Scott Rolen to talk baseball the day Rolen reported to the Reds.

IF YOU WANT a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on Gomes’ defense, you won’t get it. He isn’t Gold Glove material, but his glove isn’t made out of iron, either, and he won’t embarrass himself in left field.

Think about it. How many defensive dandies have the Reds had in left field over the years? Adam Dunn? Dmitri Young? Michael Tucker? Greg Vaughn? Chris Stynes? Ruben Sierra? Believe it or not, those were the starting left fielders on Opening Day since 1997 and most of those guys looked as if they used iron skillets instead of baseball gloves.

If anybody worked harder last year than Gomes, I never saw it. They called him Rocky because nearly every day, early in the afternoon before night games, he could be seen running hard up and down the stadium steps - up, down, up, down, up down. I perspired just watching him.

And while he is a super-nice person, if there ever was a fight in the press box and I needed help, who was I going to call? Not Ghostbusters. I’d want Gomes - not standing by my side, but standing in front of me.

GOMES WOULD love to return to the Reds.

“I had fun there and I thought I did well,” he said. “The numbers don’t lie. I got along well with (general manager) Walt Jocketty and (manager) Dusty Baker and the players. And I think everybody like me, too. I had some good times and some good relationships.”

Gomes said he has had a nibble from the Chicago Cubs - and wouldn’t he be fearsome pumping balls out of Wrigley Field. The Reds shouldn’t want to see that.

“We’re just kind of seeing how the market is,” Gomes said. “Just making the rounds.”

There was a report that the Reds are interested in bringing him back, but Gomes said, “I haven’t heard from them since they told me in December that they were not tendering me (offering a contract). The Reds have some holes to fill and I’d sure like to fill one of them.”

And Gomes has another mouth to feed. On November 4, his wife gave birth to a daughter, Zoe Paris Gomes. Her daddy needs a job.

Permalink | Comments (42) | Post your comment

Give me the quaint old spring ball parks

By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 03:19 PM

THE NEW state-of-the-art spring training stadiums mushrooming in Florida and Arizona are nifty, miniaturized versions of their big daddy major-league stadiums with their fancy grandstands, private boxes and big-league prices for hot dogs and beer.

Before they all die, permit me to take you back to the days when spring training was situated in small minor league parks that were quaint and sometimes decrepit and, well, fun places to be.

THE HOUSTON ASTROS used to train in Cocoa Beach, Fla., in a small, dilapidated park of crumbling concrete painted a putrid yellow. The players stayed in old military barracks. During one exhibition game, right in the middle of an inning, Cincinnati Reds center fielder Cesar Cedeno came running full-bore, non-stop from center field to the dugout. We all thought, “Well, maybe he has to go to the bathroom.”

Not so. Cedeno refused to return to the field. Why? “I saw a big snake out there and I am afraid of snakes and I’m not going back out there,” he said. And he didn’t.

Back in the days of The Big Red Machine, the Reds trained in Al Lopez Field in Tampa, where now stands the massive stadium housing the Tampa Bay Bucs. It was a small, dumpy place covered by a corrugated sheet metal roof that thumped loudly when foul balls bounced off it.

The press box was so bad most of us didn’t sit in it. Crowds were small back then and the left field bleachers down the third base line were usually empty. Four beat writers would sit on the wooden seats, take off our shirts, slather on suntan lotion and “work” out there.

Spring training was so casual that sometimes I would sit on the bullpen bench in front of those bleachers, where the relief pitchers sat. And I’d grab a glove between innings and play catch with the left fielder to warm him up. Once, with George Foster in left field, I grabbed a baseball and autographed it for him. After I threw it to him, he looked at my signature, turned and threw the ball far over the left field wall.

AN OLD PLACE in Sarasota was, uh, different. It was called Payne Park in downtown Sarasota and it is now a tennis facility on U.S. 301. The Boston Red Sox trained there and Ted Williams used the place.

The press box was so rickety and so close to 301 that when trucks rumbled by the press box swayed and rocked and those of us who didn’t get seasick thought certain the box would one day tumble onto 301 and we’d be crushed by a Peterbilt.

And old McKechnie Field in Bradenton wasn’t much better. They’ve done a marvelous refurbishing there, but not the press box. It is a meteorlogical miracle. It can be 80 degrees on the field, but up in the pressbox it will be freezing. And it remains that way to this day. Writers who don’t bring jackets or sweaters are shivering by the fourth inning. And they end up typing with numb fingers. How can this be? The windows are open and there is no air conditioning.

OLD CLEARWATER STADIUM in Clearwater was nearly a carbon copy of Al Lopez Field in Tampa, but it was located in a shady neighborhood. After one night game, broadcaster Chris Welsh was walking down a dark street toward his car (the parking lot was small) and he was mugged, robbed of his wallet and watch (at least that’s what he said and he sticks to that story).

But it was fun going to Clearwater because the outfield walls were covered with advertisements, as are most spring training parks. One had a beautiful ad for Hooters and a full length photo of one of the beautiful Hooters waitresses in her white shirt and short orange pants. The girl was Philadelphia catcher Darren Daulton’s wife, and as he looked toward the pitcher, there was his wife staring at him from the center field wall.

Winter Haven hasn’t changed much, either, even after a recent facelift. They always forget the press box, which is invaded every day by large black bugs the size of a finger-nail, crawling all over your laptop and notebooks. Once they captured a large black snake slithering under our feet.

And the visitor’s clubhouse is about the size of a walk-in closet. After players spread their equipment bags in front of their lockers, there is zero floor space in which to walk.

THE KANSAS CITY Royals tried an interesting experiment in central Florida. They not only built a stadium near an I-4 exit, the built an amusement park right next to it and called the entire complex Baseball City. As the Royals played, the ferris wheel turned and there were shouts from carnies on the midway. Nice concept. Never worked. First the amusement park folded, then the Royals moved to Arizona and Baseball City is no more - now an apartment complex.

NOW VERO BEACH was something else. It was home to the Los Angeles Dodgers forever. It was an old military base turned into vacation resort. It has a golf course, tennis courts, military housing remodeled into comfortable apartments for the players, a dining room for executives and the media that was upscale with a chef, a bar, white table cloths and real silverware. All free.

The stadium itself was as quaint as it gets. The seats had no roof and the dugouts had no roof. There were no outfield fences, just high banks of built up grassy knolls in the outfield. The press box was small and roofless and most of us sat on a grassy knoll down the right field line near the foul pole, hoping nobody hit one up the knoll so we’d have to scramble out of the way of the right fielder chasing the ball, spikes flashing.

I miss those places, where you not only could smell the hot dogs being grilled under the press boxes, but feel the heat from the grills, where you could sit in the stands and mix with the fans, where you could sit in the bullpen and mix with the players.

The new facilities are gorgeous, but it doesn’t feel like spring training any more.

Permalink | Comments (27) | Post your comment

Baseball talk, Portsmouth style

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, January 17, 2010, 09:18 PM

ONE NEVER KNOWS where or when one will hear a piece of baseball trivia one never knew, let alone sit at the same table with the subject.

That was the case last Wednesday when I attended the annual Portsmouth Murals Baseball Dinner, an affair attended by 250 people, many of them former major-league players and umpires, all from a small area around Portsmouth, Oh., and Ashland, Ky., an affair at which Gene Bennett is king.

Bennett is from nearby Wheelersburg, Oh., and at this dinner he is king, receiving a standing ovation every time he bats an eye, as befitting a scout who has worked for the Cincinnati Reds for more than half a century, a scout who signed Paul O’Neill, Chris Sabo and Barry Larkin, among many others.

SOMEBODY AT MY table asked me, “Do you know who is the only man in baseball history to hit an inside-the-park home run in his first major-league at-bat?”

I admitted I didn’t and the questioner pointed across the table to Johnnie LeMaster and said, “That man.”

I knew LeMaster when he played in the late 1970’s and the 1980’s, mostly for the San Francisco Giants, but I didn’t know he was the answer to a trivia question.

LeMaster is from Portsmouth and I’ve gotten to know him even better over the past three years during my visits to the dinner.

And he dropped another one on me.

“I was Mark McGwire’s roommate when he was a rookie with the Oakland A’s,” said LeMaster. “I can tell you right now that he wasn’t doing steroids then.”

That was evident by McGwire’s rookie photos - a skinny kid with skinny arms dangling from his uniform sleeves, not the guy he later became with thigh-sized arms and redwood legs.

“Without steroids, McGwire hit 49 home runs (1987) his rookie year,” said LeMaster. “And he didn’t even play in April. The A’s had this kid named Rob Nelson they wanted to play first base and he played for a month. Then they traded him to San Diego and McGwire took over.”

What hit me is the fact McGwire hit 49 home runs without steroids but evidently wasn’t happy with that and obviously decided to use steroids to build his body into Jolly Green Giant proportions.

THE SPEAKER this year was major-league umpire Charlie Reliford, from across the Ohio River in Ashland. If the guy quits umpiring, he can do stand-up comedy.

When the crowd gave him a rousing round of applause when he was introduced, he said, “That’s not the way you normally greet umpires. Greet me the way you always do umpires.”

The crowd booed lustily and he said, “Now I feel better.”

He said umpiring is the only job he knows where you have to be perfect your first day on the job, “Then get better.” And he added, “Umpiring is like a toilet. Nobody notices you until you aren’t functioning.”

Former Reds pitcher Don Gullett, from nearby Lynn, Ky., attends the dinner and Reliford said, “You all think Gullett is such a nice guy. I remember a day he was pitching and he sauntered up to me and said, ‘Hey, Charlie. Flip home plate over and read the directions because you ain’t getting ‘em right.’”

Former Reds third base coach Jim Lett, now a coach with the Washington Nationals, is from nearby Nitro, W.Va., and Reliford said Lett walked by while the umpire was sweeping off home plate and said, ‘Hey, Charlie. You’ll make somebody a nice wife some day.” To which Reliford replied, ‘Very funny. Now go into the dugout and tell your hitters that the batter’s box is now part of the strike zone.”

REMEMBER THE DAY Reds pitcher Tom Browning left Wrigley Field and sat atop a brownstone apartment across the street, in full view of everybody in Wrigley?

“I was umpiring the plate that day,” said Reliford. “Reds catcher Joe Oliver said, ‘Check out what’s across the street on the roof.’” Reliford said he told Oliver, “You can’t see a girl this far away.” Said Oliver, “No, no. Tom Browning is sitting up there in his uniform.”

Browning did it to win a $300 bet from teammate Tim Belcher, which helped pay the $500 fine manager Davey Johnson slapped on him.

FORMER PITTSBURGH PIRATES star (and Texas Rangers) Al Oliver is from Portsmouth and recounted the day he signed his first contract.

“I took my first check to Fred Brown Oldsmobile in Portsmouth and bought a new Olds Cutlass right off the showroom floor,” said Oliver. “Then I drove it 300 miles around the streets of Portsmouth, which is hard to do in Portsmouth.”

Oliver later became the first major-leaguer to have 200 hits and 100 RBIs in both leagues (Pittsburgh, Texas).

As usual, during a cold, snowy winter night, the Portsmouth Murals Dinner is what any baseball fan would want. And if you haven’t seen the indescribable murals painted on the Ohio River flood walls in downtown Portsmouth, it is more than worth your time.

“

Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment

McGwire didn’t come clean; he’s dirty

By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 11:20 AM

So Mark McGwire, and others, call his confession of steroids and HGH use “coming clean.”

Sorry, Mark. It isn’t coming clean. You’ll never be clean. You’ll always be dirty. Anybody who has used steroids or HGH to gain an unfair advantage over other major-league baseball players will always be Pigpens.

McGwire was using when he hit those 70 home runs in one season and was using for what he said was 10 years to hit all those monstrous home runs. He said he began using to speed up the recovery process for injuries. What? He was injured for 10 years?

He also tried to back down a bit by saying that no matter how many steroids and HGH products he swallowed or slathered into and onto his body, “You have to have eye-to-hand coordination to hit a baseball.”

That’s true. But he already had great eye-to-hand coordination to hit the ball. He didn’t need supplements for that. The advantage is not in eye-to-hand coordination, the advantage is in body mass and strength. His argument is ludicrous.

CONFESSION TIME. I was guilty during McGwire’s home run era of being in awe, too, never thinking about what he did to become Paul Bunyan in a baseball suit.

When the Cincinnati Reds were in St. Louis, I would leave the press box during batting practice and go sit in the upper deck in old Busch Stadium when McGwire took BP.

I’d sit about halfway up in the upper deck and McGwire would drop ball after ball into the area, some landing far above me in the upper depths of the upper deck. It was a marvelous show.

And all artificial.

WHAT ALSO is artificial about his confession (it was more like a confirmation for what everybody already knew) is the timing. It came out right after the Hall of Fame vote was announced, and for the third straight year he drew less than 23 percent of the vote. He needs 75.

And secondly, it comes just before spring training and McGwire’s start as batting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. Now he can duck questions about his past more easily and try to be Mr. Nice Guy (which he is, by the way) and pad his vote count in the coming elections.

This smacks a lot in the same way as the way Pete Rose operated - deny, deny, deny. Rose set the record (he loves setting records) by holding out for 15 years before admitting he bet on baseball. McGwire became a recluse for five years before he buckled and ‘fessed up.

But he still isn’t trying for a “clean” slate. He denies that he and former Bash Brothers teammate Jose Canseco injected each other with steroids while in a toilet stall in the Oakland A’s clubhouse.

Canseco reported that in his book, “Juiced,” and McGwire says it never happened. So much of what is in Canseco’s book has proved true that you don’t doubt this part of it, either. And Canseco said he and McGwire should have a lie detector contest to see who is telling the truth.

This doesn’t change much. As my old buddy Joe Morgan said, the juicers put up bigger numbers and made more money than the non-juicers and when it comes time to consider numbers for the Hall of Fame the juicers have the better numbers. Is that fair?

I’m sticking to what McGwire said (or didn’t say) at the congressional hearings when he said, “I’m not here to talk about the past.” And now that he wants to talk about it, most of us don’t want to hear about what we already knew. We don’t want to talk about the past, either.

McGwire is one of those guys finally saying hello when it is time to say good-bye.

Permalink | Comments (72) | Post your comment