'Big Mac' is no 'Mick'

So Mark McGwire has admitted to taking steroids — no surprise there. Anyone with eyeballs and an ounce of common sense saw the changes steroid use had on Mark McGwire's physique and the subsequent rise in his power numbers. No, the only surprise I took from McGwire's admission, apart from my disbelief he finally fessed up, was that he believed he would have hit as many home runs and broke the same records WITHOUT using them.

Huh?

That is correct, McGwire maintains his steroid use did not grossly inflate his production the same way they did his physique. In his words, he only took them when he began getting injured, after all, there is a therapeutic value in prescribed steroids. Oh yeah, let's just forget that their use has also been banned by Major League Baseball. So, his numbers were no affected by his use of steroids? If used solely for their recuperative properties, would steroids not speed up the healing process and get a player back on the field sooner and get them more at-bats? Would they not be vital in getting a player into enough games to amass 70 home runs?

Let's step back a few generations, to where a 19-year-old kid named Mickey Mantle first donned the Yankee pinstripes in 1951. No, he didn't belt 49 homers his rookie season like McGwire did, but he did manage to step into a drain cover during Game 2 of the World Series while chasing a fly ball, tearing up his right knee. It's been reported he never played another game pain-free.

Gee, I wonder what steroids might have done for a young Mickey Mantle. Would he have been able to play at 100 percent of his potential for 150 or so games per year? Perhaps "The Mick" would have hit more than 536 homers and had more than 10 seasons of batting over .300 if his knees had been able to recuperate quicker. Maybe he would not have felt the need to self-medicate with alcohol, before eventually announcing his retirement at the age of 36.

That's right, 36. Isn't that around the same age we're supposed to believe baseball players just begin developing their Herculean forms? To say that steroid use did not figure into the numbers put up by the likes of McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds turns a blind eye on the very issue that has given the game of baseball its blackest eye ever.

At least maybe a well-designed cocktail of steroids might help it heal quicker.

Craig Purcell is sports editor for Tri-County Newspapers. Contact him at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com.