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Mark McGwire To Become Cardinal's Hitting Coach

Mark McGwire, the former Cardinals slugger, will replace Hal McRae, who has been fired as hitting coach, a source told ESPN.

McGwire's father-in-law, Robert Slemer of suburban Glen Carbon, Ill., told The Associated Press he was unaware of any talks and added, "It's news to me."

La Russa managed McGwire on both the Athletics and Cardinals. McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998 to break Roger Maris' 37-year-old record, a mark since topped by Barry Bonds, and retired after the 2001 season.

McGwire has largely been out of the public eye since then.

Source: ESPN

He's not there to talk about the past but to make a positive influence on the Cardinals....ahem.

Oh you guys....

The man has never been admitted to taking any banned substances and he has never been convicted.

We're innocent until proven guilty in this country, right?

Think what you want about him...but suspicion should not prevent this man (or any man) from getting a job in the sport that he has given his blood, sweat, and tears to.

I'm happy for him and the Cardinals.

He admitted to taking Andro, which a PED

Which was legal at the time he took it....


I said he never admitted to taking any banned substances...which remains true.

I'm not going to incriminate someone for taking something legal...

I'm pro steroids...Way to go Mac...

You are serious Ty?

Hell yeah dude...I just don't get the whole ''performing enhancing'' shit...If you stay up all night partying and drinking, and then drink a 6 pack of Red Bull before the game, isn't that performance enhancing..? Fuck it man, its their life, and roids don't make THAT much of a difference...I just don't think the arguments against are cohesive...You want to ban steroids, but when baseball was about to die, and there were strikes and shit, nobody cared that guys were busting the seams off the ball...Too damn iffy for me...There's no concrete proof that guys back in the old days weren't juicing too...

I think the arguments now days rest most along the lines that if you allow everyone to take PED's...then a lot of athletes will...and because of the advancements in medicine and technology that we have, a lot of otherwise clean players would need to start doping just to keep up....and it would create a whole sport full of people that need to take steroids to play on an even field with the rest of the people taking steroids and that would just promote a horribly unhealthy atmosphere of athletes.

It's not that taking steroids damages the game...but it would damage everyone playing the game, for the enjoyment of those watching it. And that's not to say athletes don't already ruin their bodies by playing sports...but this would promote clinically unhealthy practices for everyone involved....whereas the alternative is just to ban it and hope that our athletes can live past 50.

And let us not be naive, athletes die for a various number of reasons...and "field of expertise" if I had one would be professional wrestling from back in the day. Back when they didn't have substance testings...the guys weren't dying from steroids so much as they were from the massive amounts of drugs they were taking (cocaine, uppers, downers, alcohol abuse, painkillers). So I'm in favor of the mass testing for all of the damaging substances to keep our athletes clean. It's not for the integrity of the game that I want this (because as was mentioned, who knows if the game was ever clean...and how could you prove it was?), but because of the health of the athletes.

Drew wrote:who knows if the game was ever clean...and how could you prove it was?)

Could not have said it better myself Mang...Baseball, they say its America's pastime, but definitely has a VERY ugly history, and those ''purists'' do good to come off their high horse...A lot of this shit that is now ''banned'' was hot to trot back in the day...I tell you, I can't remember what they called it, back a couple decade or so ago, everyone was taking something, I want to say speed..? But at any rate, whatever it was could fall into the category of a performance enhancement...

The day when I can take a shot in the ass and go take Lincecum yard, I'll go against steroids...Until then...Whatever...