Mark McGwire to be new hitting coach for the Cardinals

No, really.

This is where I ought to make a few jokes about McGwire offering young prospects advice on the best way to cram themselves and a buddy into a bathroom stall with hypodermic needles … but feh. I think what this really proves — as if we didn’t already know it — is that baseball has never really considered itself to have a “steroids problem.” It’s had a public relations problem, which is different. If Major League Baseball really considered the use of steroids to undermine the integrity of the game (which it assures us it does!) then Mark McGwire and his unconvincing “I don’t want to talk about the past” act would face a lifetime of palling around with Pete Rose at independent league ballparks and autograph sessions at seedy casinos, instead of regaining employment at the sport’s highest levels.

Simple as that.

A-Rod admits steroid use. It just wasn’t his fault.

NYT:

Alex Rodriguez admitted in an interview with ESPN on Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs for several seasons at the beginning of this decade, but he said he has not used the substances since then.

“When I arrived at Texas in 2001 I felt an enormous amount of pressure to perform, and perform at a high level every day,” Rodriguez told Peter Gammons. “I was young. I was stupid. I was naïve. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time. I did take a banned substance, and for that I am very sorry and deeply regretful.”

“I am guilty of being negligent, naïve, not asking all the right questions,” Rodriguez, the Yankees’ third baseman, said.

Well, it seems like that last paragraph is a lie in triplicate. By his own admission, Rodriguez took banned substances to get a performance edge. That’s not negligence; that’s intentional action. He kept his use of such substances under wraps — lying to CBS in 2007 about it — which suggests adult cunning instead of naivete. And he didn’t “ask all the right questions” because he — again, by his own admission — had the answers he wanted.

I’m not an A-Rod hater. But he’s trying to have it both ways, getting credit for honestly confronting the accusations while weaseling out of responsibility for his actions. It’s kind of pathetic to watch.