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ESPN Reports What Everyone Knows: Mark McGwire Is Living in Half-Truths

Jan 22, 2010, 8:45 PM UTC

â†µSo let's get this straight: Mark McGwire admitted to taking steroids and human growth hormone, but swore to reporters that it was only to get healthy and not to increase his performance. McGwire was steadfast in his belief that his own God-given ability is what made those balls fly over so many fences. All the power numbers had nothing to do with steroids, per Big Mac's confession. â†µ

â†µâ†µWell, his own brother disagreed with that. And Jose Canseco, the former teammate who previously stated he injected McGwire, disagreed with that as well. Now, his former (alleged) drug pusher, Curtis Wenzlaff, told ESPN’s T.J. Quinn that he disagrees too. â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥T.J. Quinn: “Would it help you hit a baseball?”â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥Curt Wenzlaff: “Will it help you hit a baseball? Let me put it to you this way. If Paris Hilton was to take that array, she could run over Dick Butkus.”â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥TJ: “Mark McGwire, last week when he finally admitted that he did use steroids, said he used a little bit for health reasons, to keep himself healthy. What did you think when he said that?”â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥CW: “I chuckled. Let me put it this way. If excelling and kicking ass on the field is the end result I guess that’s a healthy, good feeling. But for health, there are other things you can take for health that are anabolic, but it wouldn’t be that type of combination.”â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥TJ: “What was his goal to take an array like this?”â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥CW: “As anybody -- bigger, faster, stronger.”â†µâ†µTo be fair, Butkus is 68 years old, so Paris Hilton might be able to knock him down with a strong sneeze at this point. Back to the issue of McGwire and the half-truths he’s been spewing, it seems that he actually believes that he took the drugs to stay (and get) healthy and not for any reason that would enhance his performance. Of course, he’s eluding the fact that staying on the field is part and parcel to performance, so taking a drug to keep you on the field is, by that description, performance-enhancing. What doesn’t jibe is that all these people around him – granted a convicted drug dealer and both a brother and a former teammate trying to sell books – say McGwire knowingly took drugs to help his performance. So why not come out and admit that? You’ve already admitted to taking the drugs, so why not just come out and tell the whole truth? â†µ

â†µThere's no other explanation than he thinks he is telling the truth. Nobody is inside his head, but to come as clean as he has and not go the step further, when all this circumstantial evidence is piling up around him, makes him a better liar than we know, or in complete denial with his past.â†µ

â†µâ†µBut half-truths are all around us. Just ask A-Rod, who told half-truths during both his confessionals. Or ask John Edwards, who is stuck in a mess a lot stickier than McGwire right now. The whole truth and nothing but the truth, Mac – so help you, it’s the only way to not have to talk about he past anymore. â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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