Steroid Nation

Big Mac confirms Big Stack: Mark McGwire admits to anabolic steroid use

Apparently trying to avoid a multitude of controversy, The new Cardinal batting coach -- former slugger Mark McGwire -- has released a statement to the press admitting his anabolic PED use.  All is forgiven, welcome home to mother St Louis Mark McGwire.

Mark McGwire finally came clean Monday, admitting he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998.

McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade.`I wish I had never touched steroids,'' McGwire said in a statement.

``It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.''

McGwire also used human growth hormone, a person close to McGwire said, speaking on condition of anonymity because McGwire didn't include that detail in his statement.

McGwire's decision to admit using steroids was prompted by his decision to become hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, his final big league team. Tony La Russa, McGwire's manager in Oakland and St. Louis, has been among McGwire's biggest supporters and thinks returning to the field can restore the former slugger's reputation.

``I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come,'' McGwire said. ``It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected.'' He became the second major baseball star in less than a year to admit using illegal steroids, following the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez last February.

American loves a reformed (fill in the blank).  For example Elliott Spitzer is working his way up the business world again, and Martha Stewart is decorating with renewed aplomb.

Perhaps Bernie Madoff could come completely clean about cheating his clients out of billions of dollars then be allowed to serve as SEC commissioner.

While it is true McGwire deserves a commendation for admitting past steroid sins, it is also true that his baseball statistics are simply a fraud.  Any Big Mac career total of offensive stats are frankly a sham.

If a scientist who cheated on cancer research admits that his research was actually fraudulent, would those publications continue to  be allowed as a reference?  (now that depends on his standing and power in the scientific community)

McGwire cheated his sport (and not talking of the merits of PEDs here) and thus should probably be banned as a participant in the sport in the future.  He is a cheat, and now an admitted one.  That may seen harsh, but if baseball has integrity, then cheaters should not  be trusted to participate in any future MLB activities.

Any allowance of an admitted steroid cheat like McGwire means MLB tells us that rules, and that integrity are simply not valued in their world. 

Sports fraud laws should be enacted to punish the cheaters; otherwise a fan should believe nothing about the athletes on the field other that they will destroy the rules as the PED fraud fest continues on.

Sorry, Mark McGwire, but you used steroids to cheat your fellow athletes, an action not all of the MLB conspired in.  You cannot wish away the facts, but you can continue to bask in the stats you put up by cheating.

Will Michael Vick be dogged about steroids dealer association?

The Smoking Gun presents documents detailing alleged questioning Michael Vick underwent concerning a relationship with a known steroids dealer. 

A Drug Enforcement Administration informant told agents that Michael Vick once spoke about steroids and human growth hormone with a dealer, telling the man that he "liked his product," The Smoking Gun has learned. When questioned about the informant's claim, the football star told federal investigators that the conversation never happened and stated that he "never used steroids or any type of human growth hormones," according to an investigative memo released in response to a TSG Freedom of Information Act request.

First, why allow a player who apparently was pathetically cruel to dependent animals on the NFL field?  Forget the steroid charges for a moment.  Reminds us of how irritated we were listening to Brent Musburger extol the convicted felon father of Alabama running back Michael Ingram during the national championship game.  Apparently human interest stories extend to felonious and antisocial behaviors of athletes these days.  'Win one for the Gangster'.

The document, a copy of which you'll find below, recounts an October 2007 interview with Vick that was attended by federal prosecutors, FBI agents, and Department of Agriculture investigators (the Vick debriefing was one of several conducted after the athlete pleaded guilty to federal dog fighting charges). Along with being questioned about killing dogs and whether other NFL players were involved in dog fighting, Vick was questioned about information provided by the DEA source. A federal prosecutor asked Vick about a December 2006 Atlanta Falcons team party during which the alleged conversation about steroids occurred. "Vick was reportedly overheard telling" the dealer (whose name was redacted from the memo) that he "liked his product," according to the Memorandum of Interview prepared by a case agent with the Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General.

It would not be  surprising that an athlete who abuses animals would also abuse the rules of sportsmanship.  If you forget what Vick as convicted of by the feds here is a review:

Other memos released as part of the TSG FOIA request recount interviews with confidential witnesses who helped agents build a federal case against the athlete. One source recalled selling Vick three pit bulls and "1/2 ounce of marijuana (weed)." A second witness told of seeing Vick and two cronies "shooting dogs and killing them with a shovel," and "breaking a dog's back and neck by slamming the dog to the ground until it was dead." The witness, whose name was redacted from the May 2007 interview report, added that Vick and his pals appeared to get an "adenaline high" from killing the animals.