Baseball’s Worst Kept Secret: Mark McGwire Comes Clean

Finally the truth came clean as retired baseball player Mark McGwire admitted he used steroids in 1998 when he broke baseball’s home run record.

"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.”

"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.”

Last February Alex Rodriguez was the first baseball player to admit he used illegal steroids, making McGwire the second one to go public.  The ex Cardinals player has been brought on as the hitting coach of the St. Louis team.

"I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 offseason and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again,” McGwire said. “I used them on occasion throughout the ’90s, including during the 1998 season.”

"During the mid-’90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years,” McGwire said in the statement. "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.”

Mark McGwire is one of many baseball players tempted to use illegal drugs to get in better shape. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and David Ortiz have all denied the use of it but controversy still surrounds the issue.

In 1998 McGwire finished the season with 70 home runs, four ahead of Sosa’s 66, breaking the Roger Maris’ single-season home run record, which then was broken three seasons later by Barry Bonds.

During a testimony on 2005, McGwire declined to answer questions under oath. “Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem. If a player answers ‘No,’ he simply will not be believed; if he answers ‘Yes,’ he risks public scorn and endless government investigations…. My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family, and myself. I will say, however, that it remains a fact in this country that a man, any man, should be regarded as innocent unless proven guilty."             

“I’m not here to talk about the past. I’m here to be positive about this subject”, he said.

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