Dear Almanackers,
Here’s another interesting piece from the New York Times, this time concerning the stage-management of mea culpas. The apologist here is Mark McGwire, but it’s an issue that play on the minds of footy administrators in 2010, I’m sure!
Rob Clarkson
Actually it doesn’t matter how well it was “managed” and spin doctored. It doesn’t change the fact that McGwire was on steriods when he broke the record for home runs in a season in 1998. Since Barry Bonds, who broke McGwire’s record three years later, was also on performance enhancing drugs as far as I am concerned Roger Maris’ 1961 record still stands.
I used to be a huge fan of McGwire’s because he played in the last Oakland A’s World Series winning team and he was a fabulous batter. (I have been a fan of the A’s since I travelled to the US in October 1973 which was in the middle of the A’s hat trick of World Series Championships)
There is a lot of hypocracy and hype written about sportspeople’s use of recreational drugs, but when it comes to performance enhancing drugs, particularly in sports like Cricket and Baseball which place so much emphasis on comparable individual records, use of these drugs is unforgiveable!