Mark McGwire - an enigma

It is not really worth griping about at this point - I just wonder why there are people feeling sorry for Mark McGwire, who has apparently joined the St. Louis Cardinals staff as their new hitting coach.

There seems to be more apologists coming out - five years after he stiffed the congress - it was pretty clear he was evasive in his statements about his PED use, "I'm not here to talk about the past."

McGwire most likely used - ask his brother [not Dan, the NFL bust, but Jay McGwire.

What about Curtis Wenslaff?

So McGwire wasn't in the Mitchell Report - that story was other can of worms involving different sets of players.

So McGwire wasn't in the 103 names who failed some kind of testing back in 2003 - Big Mac had stepped out on Major League Baseball long before there was testing.

Some experts on the sabremetrics side don't believe in the PEDs - find any performance enhancement from the use of drugs as sort of a myth.

Maybe it makes more sense for the statheads to be skeptical - they need numbers and they haven't figured out a formula whether PEDs really help you hit 15, 20 or 25 more home runs a season.

However, the point here is McGwire still comes any mainstream baseball fans as sympathetic - still reverential figure apparently persecuted unfairly by the man.

The hypocrisy shouldn't be stunning, but I guess McGwire is the new Pete Rose - when he should have more things in common with Barry Bonds, who is generally referred to as a scumbag and is persona non-grata to most Major League Baseball fans.

To hear people on the Internets commenting on how McGwire is unfairly bashed - that he got only 25 percent of the Hall of Fame vote is a joke because he made his bed.

He has lived a comfortable life, playing golf and generally no one is clamoring for him to be lynched - unlike Bonds or anyone whom we [as MLB fans] might lampoon, mock and/or deride.

Yeah, maybe McGwire will be the most scrutinized hitting coach in the Major Leagues in 2010 - though I bet not one fan challenges him or one media member asks him the questions we all really want to know.

I'm not here to talk about the past.

I'm not here to talk about the past.

I'm not here to talk about the past.

We'll understand and empathize with his plight and will watch this man wander behind the batting cage, try to do his work with Cardinals hitters and the past won't even matter - if he survives through the season, maybe the 25 percent will start creeping up and one day he'll get to the magical mark of 75 percent.

And the beat just goes on.