Why I despise most fans and journalists

From here The St. Louis Cardinals’ new hire of former home run king/admitted steroid abuser Mark McGwire as hitting coach sends a message to all baseball and young people of “CHEAT, DO DRUGS, COVER UP WHEN CONGRESS INVESTIGATES,” former White House drug policy spokesman Bob Weiner said today. Weiner continued, “What will he tell batters? Grab the drugs? And from here Worst of all, however, McGwire was a baseball thief. At the very moment his 341-foot home run landed behind the outfield fence, he robbed Roger Maris of the most important record in professional sports. He robbed the Maris family of future income from 61-related merchandising and events. He robbed the Hall of Fame—which swooped up McGwire memorabilia as if it were free Twinkies—of its credibility, he robbed those fans who spent hundreds of dollars for a ticket in order to witness history and he robbed thousands upon thousands of kids of a seemingly genuine role model. If the baseball record book is the sport’s Holy Bible, then McGwire is a 3-year old armed with a permanent marker. The damage is not merely done—it is un-erasable. (Of course, along the same analogous measures, Barry Bonds is a 3-year-old with a permanent marker, a torch and a vat of gasoline.) And now, because Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa (whose steroid-loaded A’s teams of the 1980s and early-‘90s went down as an embarrassment to the sport) has a soft spot for a former player who shed 70 pounds as soon as he retired, McGwire is back in the baseball fold; back to teach today’s ballplayers how to (egad) succeed the same way he did; back to offer wisdom. Journalists, fans and the talking heads on the radio live in this idealistic world where baseball players are pure, innocent, and play the game the way they envision it should be played. Mark McGwire was a great hitter. He was hired to teach hitters how to hit because of his ability to hit. This makes sense. If the Cardinals had hired McGwire to talk to players about staying away from steroids, I’d be a bit concerned. They didn’t hire him for that purpose. I respect the Cardinals more for hiring McGwire. It’s nice to see one of these blacklisted players gain entrance back into baseball where they should be able to work. (h/t to shyster and btf)