Bravo Baseball Writers!!!!!

For clarification: McGwire did openly use andro, which was not banned by MLB at the time (though it was banned by other sports). Most steroids, however, were banned even though MLB did nothing about it.

The McGwire case was a strange one. Everyone who paid attention knew he was doing andro, which was, for some reason, "legal." He, along with Sosa to a slightly loser extent, has pretty much credited with "saving" baseball in one of its moribund periods. Then, he gives a bad performance before congress and everyone hates him. Seems a bit hypocritical.

Andro was legal because, at the time, it was not a controlled substance. Baseball banned only steroids that were controlled substances. Andro was subsequently added to the controlled substances list in 2004. Andro was banned by the IOC and the NFL at the time but not MLB or the NBA.

McGwire testified before Congress about his use of banned steroids (he never denied using andro; there was even a Sports Illustrated article about it in 1998 while McGwire was chasing the home run record). McGwire did recently admit to using illegal steroids when he played.

I'm not sure it is hypocritical that people cheered for Sosa and McGwire and now hate them. The average fan knew little about steroid use in 1998- it was exciting to see these seemingly once-in-a-lifetime players come around. When it turned out they were cheating at the time, people soured on them. Maybe more people should have realized they were using steroids at the time, but that is more an issue of ignorance than hypocrisy.

Wendell Gee wrote:

In some ways, Warren Spahn's 363 wins is the most amazing. Especially in his era.

Including

Age 40-44 (75-63, 3.44)

Warren Spahn, 1961 (age 40)... 21-13

Warren Spahn, 1963 (age 42)... 23-7

kickin it in el azizia wrote:

I'm not sure it is hypocritical that people cheered for Sosa and McGwire and now hate them. The average fan knew little about steroid use in 1998- it was exciting to see these seemingly once-in-a-lifetime players come around. When it turned out they were cheating at the time, people soured on them. Maybe more people should have realized they were using steroids at the time, but that is more an issue of ignorance than hypocrisy.

It may have been ignorance for the fans, but I think owners and managers were just as complicit. They were happy to ride the coattails of McGwire and Sosa when they filled the stands but have never admitted any responsibility for failing to institute testing or enforcing any penalties.

I'm not condoning McGwire and others, but the reputations of players are being trashed while owners and managers are not held accountable.

I definitely do agree that owners and MLB in general should be held accountable. There is no question they at least should have known that steroids were an issue and did essentially nothing about it.