PEDs Say the Funniest Things

In an interview with the Athletic, admitted PEDs’ user Mark McGwire says he could have won the single-season homerun record without benefit of steroids:  “Absolutely.  I just know myself.  I just know.”  The question is, McGwire knows what?  Squat, I’d say.

Consider that all the players who’ve hit more than 61 homers in a season—McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa—are either admitted or suspected Peds’ cheats.  Now consider Jimmy Foxx and Hank Greenberg, who both hit 58 homeruns in a season.  Does McGwire really think he could hit better if clean of steroids than those two, or Giancarlo Stanton, who clubbed 59 last year?

Babe Ruth hit 60 homeruns in 1927.  I’d argue that stands as the all-time record for two reasons.  First, Roger Maris hit his 61 in a 162-game season (1961), and, second, those other 60-plus guys are cheats pure and simple.  Maris should be acknowledged as the record holder in a 162-game format, and everyone else shown the door.  (I’d also argue that all single-season records should be divided into 154- and 162-game categories.  Any player from a 162-game season who broke a record in 154 games or less would be acknowledged as the all-time record holder.  But I’ll save that argument for another day.)

McGwire, who was nothing if not fragile in his playing days, contends in the interview, “The only reason I took steroids was for health purposes.”  And let’s say they worked, keeping him off the DL, sometimes.  Would a “clean” McGwire been able to stay healthy long enough to hit 62-plus homers in a season?  As it was, McGwire went on the DL ten times in his sixteen-year career. 

It’s entirely possible, then, that a “clean” McGwire would’ve had a considerably shorter, injury-plagued career than the “juiced” McGwire.  All things considered, that might not have been a bad thing.