By Paul Gotham
The first signs of Spring Training arrived last week when pitchers and catchers took to the fields. It is that time of year when ‘hope springs eternal.’
Play will begin in the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues, and soon enough we will all be outside enjoying peanuts, cracker jacks, and baseball.
The onset of Spring Training in the same week as the Tiger Woods ‘dog and pony show’ proved convenient for one former major leaguer.
Before work began, the St. Louis Cardinals’ new hitting coach, Mark McGwire, found himself trapped by a crew of news reporters. They hounded the former slugger with questions about his past. McGwire smoothly redirected the discussion, referring to how he has ‘moved on’ and that the ‘evolution of his swing’ was the reason for the success he experienced late in his career.
The reporters’ questions eventually shifted to McGwire’s current job, and how the batting instructor plans to help young hitters.
McGwire responded to the inquiries by noting his past and how he “understands all the pressures of the game,” and “how to play through injuries and how to get out of an 0-20.” McGwire put an exclamation point to the response by talking of his own work ethic.
… . The extra period is not a typo. I was trying to come up with something to represent the amount of time I spent considering McGwire’s words.
Playing through injuries?
How to get out of an 0-20?
Work ethic?
You will have to forgive me as I try to get rid of any bathroom stall images.
Mark, aren’t you forgetting something. Current players must provide urine specimens when required. They can’t use your method of recovering from injury.
As for the work ethic and the playing through the 0-20? Refer to the previous statement.
McGwire should send Tiger Woods a note, thanking the golfer for taking away the attention of the media. Reporters put their energies into dissecting the golfer’s half-hearted apology rather than picking apart Big Mac’s words.
Give McGwire credit. He did not try to orchestrate his press conference, but he did get lucky. The media’s attention was focused elsewhere.
His timing could not have been any better. Unless, of course, Brett Favre called a press conference this week to announce his retirement…or is he already retired?
Yeah, timing is everything.
Funny stuff, i think El Hombre(Albert Pujols) can teach him a thing or two about hitting.
The steroid era has just ruined baseball, the thought to be greatest player to ever play the game by some people, Alex Rodriguez, used steroids. The home run king, Barry Bonds, has been linked to balco. This is just terrible for the game i really hope that some of the game’s best today aren’t linked to PED’s it would be very very bad if say someone like Derek Jeter was accused or found guilty of cheating, as he is the ideal baseball player and the all time hits leader for the greatest franchise in all of sports.
He sounds completely oblivious. I have no doubts in his ability to be an effective hitting coach, but to say that he can help them “through injuries” proves that ol’ Mark may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Mark – I am happy you got a chuckle out of the article. I am thinking that Jeter would handle this whole situation better.
Rey – I had to hear this interview more than once and then go and find an article. I am listening and thinking: is he that delusional?