Baseball Musings: Confession, Part II

January 10, 2007

Confession, Part II

Ken Rosenthal suggests Mark McGwire confesses to get into the Hall of Fame:

A confession would end the talk that McGwire is hiding something, forcing voters to view him for what he is -- a product of his era, the Steroid Era, and hardly the only star player suspected of using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
But a confession, if it is indeed warranted, is not coming anytime soon; the risk for McGwire, at a time when federal investigators are still trying to crack the steroids scandal, would be too great.

But there's another reason a confession shouldn't be coming, Pete Rose. Four years ago the problem of a Rose confession was clear. If he admitted to betting on baseball, people who supported him might change their minds, and that's exactly what happened three years ago. So if McGwire comes out and says everything in Canseco's book and the FBI investigation was true, how does that help him? Right now, supporters can offer the, "He used andro, which was legal at the time," argument. What happens if he confesses to using banned substances? Like Rose, I think the supporters disappear.

Update: Just to illustrate the dangers of confessions:

Posted by David Pinto at 10:38 AM | Cheating | TrackBack (0)

Comments

But, you know, maybe he's not "confessing" because he didn't use steroids? (I know, that's not likely, but...)

Posted by: Donald A. Coffin at January 10, 2007 11:45 AM

Maybe, but then he probably wouldn't have answered so lamely at the Congressional hearings.

Posted by: mikeski at January 10, 2007 12:20 PM

Wouldn't that be the ultimate irony? Sharing a locker room for years with others who are using steroids, not using them yourself, outperforming all the cheaters...

and then you get called before congress, in a ridiculous show trial, one in which you weren't even told you were going to be ON trial, but rather that you would be helping to find a way to move baseball forward into the future. And you are ordered to talk about your friends, your co-workers, your teammates.

Because of the way the show trial was set up, held years after he stopped playing baseball, there was nothing he could say or do to prove his innocence. If he had said "I'm not guilty", would McCain have let that slide? No one would have believed him.

If he had said "Yeah, I did it, Roger Clemens did it and Barry Bonds and Pedro and Gonzalez and Walker and... all of your other heros did too", what would that have solved?

His response was perfectly correct. The one sentence sound byte that gets hyped sounds awful, but taken in context, he said the right things. Congress stepped way outside the bounds of propriety and committed the ultimate sin- mixing politics and baseball- and the grandstanding and une-upmanship helped nothing, solved nothing.

Yeah, it's unlikely, but the feeding frenzy that is going on right now is pathetic. The media owes Big Mac an apology, not the other way around.

Posted by: SleepyCA at January 10, 2007 12:31 PM

Yet another sign pointing towards what our parents tell us all along. It's generally much harder and much worse to keep a lie going, rather than to just owning up to it in the first place.

If McGwire went the Matt Lawton route ("I'm sorry, I did it, it was a huge mistake, I regret it, and I look forward to working harder in the future and never doing it again."), and confessed years ago, I'd guess he would be a lot closer to being in the HoF right now (like say 50-60% of the vote).

Posted by: Mike at January 10, 2007 01:48 PM

Why would he have had to name names? He could have acted like he still had a pair and said, "I took/didn't take steroids, but/and I'm not going to throw other people under the proverbial bus."

The old phrase is, "The truth shall set you free." Had he been forthcoming about his own use or non-use, all this nonsense would have been avoided.

At the time of those hearings, I totally believed that McGwire used steroids. But given his reputation as a stand-up guy, I figured that he would tell the truth, and I was ready to believe him, one way or the other.

Unfortunately, he put his own head in the noose by his non-answer and showed he was a coward instead of a stand-up guy.

Posted by: The 26th Man at January 10, 2007 01:49 PM

I have to disagree. There was no right answer for him to give at the hearings. If he said he didn't do it, no one would have believed him, even if it was true. If he had gone the "matt lawton route" he would have recieved widespread scorn and ended up closer to the percentage of votes that Canseco got- IE not enough to keep him on the ballot. STL fans like you and me might respect him more for it, but baseball fans would not.

He'll get in the Hall eventually; probably 5-6 years from now.

Posted by: SleepyCA at January 10, 2007 02:05 PM

At the hearing, McGwire even said that "If I deny it, no one will believe". But people don't seem to remember that...

That congressional hearing was a witch trial. No more, no less.

Posted by: JeremyR at January 10, 2007 04:47 PM

At least McGwire didn't take his shirt off at the congressional hearing. That wouldn't have helped at all. God I love Usher.

Posted by: justin at January 11, 2007 04:20 PM

yeh

usher is SOOOOOOOO hot

thank you david for the hot spot

Posted by: lisa gray at January 12, 2007 09:10 PM

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