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The Media and McGwire

by Matt Smith

As you will probably know, former ESPN writer Peter Gammons is now a part of the MLB Network and has begun writing columns for MLB.com.  Gammons is deservedly recognised as one of the best baseball writers around and his addition to the MLB website is great news for those of us not quite willing to shell out more baseball-related money for an ESPN Insider subscription.  Mind you, MLB.com should give some thought as to how they highlight the writing of Gammons and other columnists (such as Hal Bodley) because currently their offerings are difficult to find unless they are a headline article.

Anyway, the reason I mention Gammons is that upon reading his latest column about Mark McGwire’s return to the MLB fold as a hitting instructor for the Cardinals, I was left with one unanswered question.  Gammons contends that McGwire’s presence at Spring Training is going to be a major disruption for the Cardinals and that it could even overshadow the sport as a whole.  As he puts it:

“Instead of looking forward to the first glimpses of Tim Lincecum, Zack Greinke, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, the opening shot of the 2010 season is going to be McGwire in his Cardinals uniform with the other coaches or in the batting cages or watching pitchers take batting practice”.

My question is: if that turns out to be true, who is driving this story? 

Okay, McGwire’s confession has not exactly dampened the fires, but is Gammons correct when he states: “Clearly the baseball public is different than the public that adores other sports, most of whom don’t care to know. The baseball public still hasn’t let go of The Steroid Era, and won’t until it comes to grip with it”?  I’m not one of those who simply shrugs his shoulders at the use of drugs in sports and I’m glad that MLB does now have a drug-testing programme in place.  As much as anything, every drug-related story only gives Brits another reason to ridicule the sport and that’s the last thing we need.  However, I have come to terms with ‘The Steroid Era’ and I think most other baseball fans have too.

If reporters are crowding around McGwire and TV shows are talking about him rather than Lincecum and the rest, they are certainly not doing it as a service to me.  McGwire has now admitted to what we all knew already and, personally, I’m minded to think that it did have some effect on his home run-hitting totals.  I’ve no idea how much effect his steroid use had and neither has anyone else, nor are they ever likely to, but that’s just something we have to live with and no more quotes from McGwire or overblown news stories are going to change that.  It’s not a great situation, but we can’t do anything about it now.  Most of the facts we’ll ever have about it are now out there and it’s up to each individual baseball fan to consider them and make up their own minds on McGwire and his legacy.

If there is a media firestorm over McGwire that overshadows everyone and everything else, that’s only because the reporters want it to.  They might dress it up and claim that they are doing it on our behalf, but they are not, at least as far as I’m concerned. Maybe you disagree?

And if the reporters try to claim that they are upholding values and calling McGwire to account, all I’ll say is that it’s a shame for us all that not enough of them were brave enough to do this twelve years or more ago.

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3 comments

Megan January 26, 2010 - 5:03 pm

Brilliant. Well-said.

I was not into the game during the steroid era – in fact, that was one of the reasons I avoided sports for so long -they’re all ‘roided-up cheaters, so why bother? At least, that was my mindset before I started to pay attention to the game and it’s nuances.

I sincerely hope that the news of 2010 for the Cards is their playing and players, not their batting coach. The players have no control over who is hired within the organization, and don’t deserve to suffer the backlash for it. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out…

Reply
Matt Smith January 26, 2010 - 8:38 pm

Hi Megan. I think it’s too much of a ready-made story for the media to avoid it, but we can make a choice to ignore them!

Reply
Steve January 27, 2010 - 11:23 am

I don’t blame the media entirely. McGwire taking on a coaching role is a big story. Imagine if Ben Johnson became a high-profile sprinting coach?

I think questions need to be asked over his appointment – did the Cardinals really think it was a good idea? Surely they would have known they were inviting a media firestorm, and risking a massive distraction to their players, not just in Spring Training, but throughout the season. Is he that good a coach for it to be worth taking the risk?

As for it taking the focus off the Lincecums and Greinkes of this world – I doubt they will be complaining. I’m sure they will welcome a little peace. And in this media-saturated world I’m sure we’ll still get our pre-season fix of them.

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