Big Mac, Big Liar

Usually, the topic of my blog revolves around pitching. Unfortunately, the baseball world was rocked, yet again, with another one of it's "Golden Boys" admitting to steroid use. If any of you were near a television yesterday, you most likely saw the breaking news that Mark McGwire has admitted to taking steroids for nearly his entire career. For most people in baseball, this really comes as no surprise. As a former player, and now as a coach, I felt it was important to talk about this topic.

For all of you up and coming players, let me first start off by saying steroids are illegal. If YOU get caught with steroids, legal action will be brought against you. I stress YOU, because you are not a Major League Baseball player with the revenue stream and corporation (MLB) behind you to keep you out of jail. Secondly, keep an eye on all of the players that have been named on the list of players that failed the steroid test, over the next 10 years. You will all see the fallout of what steroids will do to these players bodies. Search recent pictures of Sammy Sosa on the internet, and you will see a once dark skinned man, who now looks like Casper the Ghost. His new skin pigmentation, I'm convinced, is due to a side effect caused by steroid use called Vitiligo. The "Steroid Era" has been a hot topic since the beginning of the decade, and right now, we are in the eye of the storm. More players will come forward and admit to steroid use, tainting the image of Major League Baseball further.

Although it seems as if everyone who has ever thrown a baseball professionally, has used steroids, this is not the case. I know plenty of guys who I played with personally, that did not take steroids. Unfortunately, the climate being what it is in baseball, many players in baseball are assumed to have taken steroids. As a former player, and now a coach, I have to warn all of you who play. You WILL have the decision of whether or not to take steroids, come across your desk at some point in your playing career. I CANNOT STRESS THE FACT THAT YOU DON'T DO IT, ENOUGH! It came to me when I was coming off surgery my senior year in college. I had worked my whole life to play professional baseball, and coming off surgery, I needed to come out and have a great 5th year in college. I decided not to juice up. It was more important to me, to be able to look back at my career, when I'm talking with my children and grandchildren later in life, and say that I did it right. I earned my playing career through hours and hours of hard work. I knew that, if I had taken steroids, I would wonder forever, whether or not my ability to pitch was due to steroids, or if it was actually my doing. Those were the determining factors. It gives me great pride to say that I earned every single accomplishment of my career because of hard work, not some synthetic drug. If you decide to go down the road less traveled and work your rear end off, it will be one of the most satisfying accomplishments of your lifetime.