I Deplore This Steroid Use For Deeply Personal Reasons

Mark McGwire surprises no one by admitting that he used steroids en route to smashing home runs and records (Inshallah!).  Does anyone care?  I do, for personal reasons.

Although it is a burden I like to think I have mostly overcome, a grim reality of my daily life is that no one - not shop clerks, not drug stores, not reservation desks, no one - can spell "Maguire" the way I like it on their first try.  Everybody want to see a "c" in there somewhere; some people hold out for "K" or even a "Q".

However!  There was a brief shining season when I became a HUGE Tom Cruise fan.  Not only did he show us the money, but back in 1996 he showed us how to spell "Jerry Maguire".  Oh, for a little while I was walking on sunshine.  Then in 1998 Mark McGwire found the juice, hit 70 home runs, and it all turned to ashes.

I've tried to move on, but his steroid use really hurt me and I don't want to see him back in the news.  Full Disclosure.

Comments

[Thomas Collins]

Always better to have the name of an adult beverage. Rarely misspelled.

[Slartibartfast]

I'm wondering how Tom continues to post in such volume, day after day, even injured.

[Jack is Back!]

He should also remove his name from consideration in HoF voting. He never got more than 25% and now will be lucky to get as many as David Segui. I can't believe they are going to let him even coach hitting, much less stay involved in MLB. I have pulled my kid out of little league and have him playing soccer in the spring. Until MLB owners and union address this in an unequivocal way baseball is not high on my list of spectator or participant sports.

[Pofarmer]

I feel the same way about this as I do about steroids in the NFL, NHL, Soccer, Kentucky Derby whatever-who cares?

[matt]

McGwire lives nearby and used to frequent the restaurant my daughter worked at. Lousy tipper and very rude, both he and his wife. Not very well liked in these parts for a myriad of reasons.

[Rocco]

In 1987, my oldest was 7 years old and I was making an effort to make the game fun for me him. We started collecting Topps baseball cards and McGwire was his favorite player because it was the hottest card that year. He wants to burn them today!

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Now now, babe Ruth used performance enhancers too.

Largely hot dogs, whiskey, and fast women.

[MikeO]

Mr. Collins,

I'd bet that Alec Guinness probably saw all kinds of spelling variations on his name.

[Thomas Collins]

You're probably right, MikeO. By the way, when I was growing up, a neighbor two houses down was named Johnny Daniels. Tom Collins and Jack Daniels throwing sand at each other and crashing their toy trucks into each other. It's totally true; I couldn't make that up.

[jimmyk]

My last name is similar to a common Muslim name. Twenty years ago people rarely misspelled it. Nowadays it seems that more often than not people write down the Muslim (not that there's anything wrong with that) spelling and I have to correct them. Sign of the times.

[Darth Venomous]

Have no idea why, but that brings to mind Achmed the Dead Terrorist.

"How do you spell your name?"

"A...C...phhegm..."

:-)

[Frau Plattdeutsch]

My last name by marriage is easily mistaken for the more numerous high German form which means I have to warn in Germany as well as here in America that it is spelled with two d's and not two t's. Of course, I'm not a nationally recognized and adored blogger so my burden is minimal.

[daddy]

I had partial Season Tickets to the Oakland A's for 86, 87, 88, 89.

So I watched Big Mac's Rookie year and 2 more from up close, usually from just behind the visiting dugout. It was obvious simply comparing the lanky kid I saw in 87 to the bulked up St Louis Slugger with Pop-Eye arms 10 years later, that the guy doing the lying about steroids wasn't Mac's Bash Brother Jose' Canseco, who took plenty of heat for being honest BTW, but was Mark McGwire himself.

[Rick Ballard]

Meanwhile, in matters of lesser concern:

Carbon Trading Fraud "in Belgium up to 90 of the whole market volume was caused by fraudulent activities"

Well, that matches the overall level of fraud in Climate Scientology so I suppose it should be no surprise.

In One Short Month, MBA Now Sees 2010 Morgtage Originations Plummeting By Even More

Obviously the Mortgage Banking Association needs to hire a few Climate Scientologists to produce some positive Global Housing Models showing a nice hockey stick trend.

More Bad News From The BLS: Job Openings At 2.4 Million, 50% Decline From December 2007

Gosh, I sure hope the President hurries up with those 3 million jobs he promised. He seems to be running a little slow.

[JM Hanes]

Rick:

You can add a December highlight from QBlog to that list:

Mere days before the U.N.'s Climate Change Conference convenes in Copenhagen, news of major fraud in Denmark's CO2 quota register -- the largest of such exchanges in the world -- surfaces in the press.

Bill Clinton (though surely at the Goracle's "behest") doesn't get nearly enough credit for the corruption we know as carbon exchange. The U.S. nearly brought the final Kyoto conference to screeching halt with its insistence on the inclusion of a carbon credit scheme. It took some trimming to get the thing through, but as with all things Democratic, a foot in the door is all you need.

[BobS]

I guess it's only fitting I blogged this morning before school about the McGwire interview. LUN. For me, McGwire is much more of a sympathetic figure. McGwire battled several very painful ijuries throughout his career and it's conpletely plausible he turned to steroids just to play. While he admitted to use in the early part of his career, I believe McGwire's story to a large extent. Plus to his credit and unlike Barrry Bonds and Roger Clemens he has refused to throw people under the bus to satisfy the perverse interests of the media.

[srp]

Since a) the pitchers were using steroids too and b) all the old-time greats like Willie Mays routinely and openly took speed before games I'm not inclined to be too tough on the players who used these drugs more effectively.

[matt]

McGwire and Canseco used to shoot up in adjacent stalls when they were both kids with the A's. I got no sympathy.

back in the day, the drug use was confined to a few bad apples, and then went viral as others saw the results and saw they could get away with it.

[Donald]

I honestly don't see the problem with professional athletes using whatever tools are available to them to increase and enhance their performance.