The McGwire steroids admission is not so much a surprise as a cathartic release for Big Red.  A good person by all counts, he was clearly pained when he didn’t want “to talk about the past” and was living under a self-imposed exile from baseball until good ol’ Tony LaRussa dragged him back to be the hitting coach for the Cardinals this year.

He knew that he’d eventually need to talk about the past, and the surprise is not so much the admission, but the level of detail – Big Mac outlined the years of usage, and his opinion on how successful he was/wasn’t in roided years versus non-roid years.  Here’s the testimony, as well as the beginning of the AP story (Below).

Also note – this definitely affects his Hall of Fame chances, and I think it will paradoxically have a POSITIVE influence on votes.  I realize most BBWAA members are curmudgeonly, white, male & self-righteous, but there was a certain charm possessed by McGwire; it may have been that he saved the game, it may have been his prodigious blasts – I think more than anything, voters were waiting for an admission before really giving him his chance.  We’ll see what happens a year from now.

McGwire apologizes to La Russa, Selig

Associated Press

NEW YORK — 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.

McGwire statement

Text of the statement Mark McGwire issued Monday, admitting he used steroids during his career:

“Now that I have become the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, I have the chance to do something that I wish I was able to do five years ago.

I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It’s time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize. I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the ’90s, including during the 1998 season.

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

During the mid-’90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too.

I’m sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn’t take any and I had bad years when I didn’t take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn’t have done it and for that I’m truly sorry.

Baseball is really different now — it’s been cleaned up. The commissioner and the players’ association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I’m glad they did.

I’m grateful to the Cardinals for bringing me back to baseball. I want to say thank you to Cardinals owner Mr. DeWitt, to my GM, John Mozeliak, and to my manager, Tony La Russa. I can’t wait to put the uniform on again and to be back on the field in front of the great fans in Saint Louis. I’ve always appreciated their support and I intend to earn it again, this time as hitting coach. I’m going to pour myself into this job and do everything I can to help the Cardinals hitters become the best players for years to come.

After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I’ll do that, and then I just want to help my team.”

“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.”