Posts tagged MarkMcGwire at FanHouse

Prerequisites:

Mark McGwire Is Here To Talk About The Future

Mark McGwire Is Here To Talk About The Future II Part 1

Make sure to read those before continuing on to part 2 of tonight's Dugout, unless you want it to make even less sense than it does to me.

In part 2: Mark McGwire can now ONLY talk about the past, we get the return of a couple of G1 characters (one of whom is a sweet mode of transportation), and at last the true form of PECOTA is revealed. Leave us some comments, enjoy the lore, and be here for the start of the biggest sci-fi epic of the summer. Which is, uh, almost over.

Part 2, after the jump.

A week away has sent us into the past. Unfortunately, we are not employed by FanHouse to talk about the past. Well, Mark McGwire is ready to talk about the past, so the least we could do is the first true sequel to a pre-FanHouse Dugout from the past where we talked about talking about the future.

Prerequisite reading from 2006:
Mark McGwire Is Here To Talk About The Future

And I don't want to talk about the past, but if you were waiting for the mystical protectorate of baseball's innocence to show up for real and full time, well... you'll be happy enough with the first block of this strip.

Part 1 of tonight's Dugout is after the jump. Part 2 will follow shortly.

Just not anything in the past we care to talk about.

Mark McGwire has basically kept himself out of the limelight ever since leaving baseball in 2001, with his infamous appearance at the Congressional hearings on steroids being the lone exception. Well this coming Monday will be the ten year anniversary of the night that Big Mac hit his 62nd home run of the 1998 season, and broke Roger Maris' longstanding home run record.

So, with that in mind, the man who wasn't here to talk about the past talked about the past with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"That day, Sept. 8," he said, "I had a real calmness about me. It was a very eerie feeling that I didn't ever experience again or hadn't experienced before. I remember driving to the ballpark and, even with all the hoopla going on, it probably was the only day I felt so peaceful. It was a premonition that 'tonight is going to be the night.'

"The whole year was so spiritual, so universal, with so many things that happened," he said. "I don't know if people believe this stuff, but I think that when the stars are aligned right, things happen.

Jose Canseco was born to do reality television shows. His amazing stint on the Surreal Life was proof enough of that. However, a reality show that involves having to pass a polygraph to advance and make more money seems about in his wheelhouse as making a comeback as a relief pitcher.

Yet, David Vassegh of 570 KLAC is reporting that's exactly what he'll be doing sometime over the next two months as a guest on Fox's "Moment of Truth".

Canseco already has taped the episode and according to my source that was in attendance during the taping Canseco was asked if he ever injected Mark McGwire with steroids and if he ever corked his bat amoung other questions that were asked during the taping. The episode of "The Moment of Truth" with Canseco is supposed to air in late September or early October.

Again, Canseco will be asked questions before -- while on a polygraph -- and during the show (I believe I understand this correctly.) He will then answer those same questions on stage. If his answers on stage match the polygraph results, he moves on.

It stinks that we have to get more Jose Canseco in our lives. Lord knows I've been trying to quit. The bright side is that maybe, and I'm pretty skeptical about this, we'll get some truthful answers about what he did or did not do. Or, ideally, he'll keep lying about the first question they ask him, make a fool of himself on national television and win no money.

Via MMP at Deadspin

We've all heard about the SI Cover Jinx. It's slightly less evil and demonic (and real) than the dreaded "Madden Curse". But it turns out that individual athletes are not the only ones affected by the evil powers that inhabit the artificially produced covers of Sports Illustrated.

Who else is affected, you might ask? Let's just say if you are a professional athlete, you do not want to appear in the SI Swimsuit Issue anytime soon with your ladyfriend.

Somebody get Leonard Nimoy on the case, because this is spooky.

Take a quick look at this list, focusing only on the couples featured. A frightening pattern develops.

Quite a few have had what can be described as, depending on your definition, issues.

Now, it would appear that the Swimsuit Couples Jinx takes a little longer to affect those photographed than the normal SI Cover Jinx. But it still gets the job done. Listed on SI's page are a slew of athletes, most of whom have taken a nose dive from grace recently.

Roger Clemens (slightly less popular than Dubya), Mark McGwire (um, yeah), Shaun Alexander (pleading the Bengals for a job), Richard Jefferson (apparent choker), Jason Kidd (downfall of Dallas), Glen Rice (violence), Bill Romanowski (supplements/violence and gay cowboy movies, not that there's anything wrong with the latter), Annika Sorenstam (retired), Ricky Williams (weed), Cobi Jones (soccer), Allan Houston (inherited Chris Webber's knees), Alex Rodriguez (too much to name) ... whew ... and there are more!

Eddie George and Tom Gugliotta come to mind, although most of their downturns were pre-photo shoot, which can only be attributed to some Lostian foreshadowing evil, or something. Really, the only person not affected was Keyshawn Johnson, who, as we all know, is the best dressed man in America.

Football may be America's new passion, but baseball is still the national pastime. Even if it's not democratic in nature most of the time, the sport at least boasts the hypocritical juxtaposition of capitalism (no salary cap) and equality (everyman's sport ... and seriously, we have plenty of room at the stadium). But it would appear that the ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers are trying to let everyone know exactly where they stand, by dividing up the Dodgers' stadium by class status.

T.J. Simers relays a reader email in today's L.A. Times, whereby a fifth grade teacher named Russell Wise scored tickets to last Wednesday's Dodger game for seats which he called "the closest I have ever been to Major League action". These seats, however, would not allow him the privilege of getting any autographs from the Los Angeles players, due to a new rule that the club put into effect this year.

Hide the beer and cheeseburgers! Sidney Ponson could be coming to your town!

The Cardinals will lend former pitcher Sidney Ponson a place and a mound to throw for scouts Thursday at lunchtime.

Ponson, who made 13 starts for the Cardinals in 2006, is said to have slimmed down to 245 pounds and cranked up his fastball to 91 mph.

Because he'll be on their spring-training campus, the Cardinals will have scouts in attendance, and they are interested is seeing what he has. "Just keep an open mind," manager Tony La Russa said.

If anybody knows how to keep an open mind, it's Tony LaRussa. I mean, his mind is so open he doesn't think Mark McGwire was on steroids while he played for him.

As for why anybody would want to sign Sir Sidney, even if he does have that fastball "cranked up" (poor choice of words, don't you think?) to 91 MPH, I have no idea. Even when he was "good" he kind of sucked, and now the last few seasons he's really sucked. Since 2005 Ponson has spent time with the Orioles, Yankees, Cardinals, and Twins, racking up 17 wins and 26 losses to go along with an ERA of 6.31.

I can't think of any team whose pitching staff would be better off with Ponson as a part of it. Though I imagine if he were to land anywhere, it would be in St. Louis, because no team appreciates drunk driving like the St. Louis Cardinals.

Yesterday Matt Watson told us all that Tony LaRussa wanted the Cardinals to consider signing Barry Bonds for this season. I wasn't exactly surprised by the news, because given LaRussa's past, he's not exactly scared by the prospect of steroids or other performance enhancing drugs.

After all, this is the man that oversaw the dawn of the steroid era while managing both Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire in Oakland, while the two were just discovering their fondness for needles. He's also currently the manager of a team that has five players named in The Mitchell Report, and already signed Juan Gonzalez to a minor-league deal earlier this month.

So how does LaRussa cope with the enhanced scrutiny he's come under thanks to our country's new found obsession with steroids? Easy. It's called denial, and Tony's deep in it.

From an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bryan Burwell:

As we continued to talk, we moved on to McGwire and his tainted legacy. La Russa compared McGwire's work ethic to that of another man caught in the steroids swirl, Clemens. In spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, La Russa maintained that both of them deserve a pass. "There's a certain amount of credit that should be given to a guy who's worked hours and hours to get stronger and bigger," he said.

I reminded him that the whole point of using many performance-enhancing drugs is to increase the ability to work and train harder. "So working hard doesn't give you an alibi that you didn't use drugs," I told him.

"Well, that's what you believe and you're probably right according to testimony, but that's not what I believe," La Russa said. "I watched Mark McGwire work."

One would imagine that with all of the current fervor over Roger Clemens, the Mitchell Report, and steroid usage in baseball in general, that Mark McGwire would want nothing to do with anything involving Spring Training. Tony La Russa thinks differently, and has invited Big Mac to the Cards' camp to be a special hitting instructor:

La Russa said he had asked retired Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire again this year to join the team in spring training as a guest instructor. McGwire hasn't answered. He also hasn't arrived. Chances are excellent, though, that McGwire will be in camp for at least a few days at the end of this month, about the time the Grapefruit League schedule begins.

"The only difference right now is that he's (usually) said, 'No,' already," La Russa said. "He hasn't said no yet. He hasn't said yes, either."

With the Michell Report painting La Russa as one of the biggest enablers of steroids in baseball and McGwire's extreme desire to stay out of the spotlight and NOT talk about his steroid usage during his career, is there any way that this little experiment would end well for either of them? The second Big Mac shows up, Cardinals' will cease to be about the Cardinals and immediately be all about McGwire and La Russa. I don't think that's what McGwire wants, though I'm not so sure about La Russa.

Even though Andy Pettitte won't be appearing with Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee in front of a congressional committee on Wednesday morning, it doesn't mean his voice won't be heard.

Obviously the committee wouldn't let Pettitte out of testifying if they weren't already satisfied with what he said in his affidavit, and apparently those early indications that Pettitte's testimony won't be very supportive of Rocket's case are completely on the money.

For instance, Pettite says he knows Clemens took HGH way back in 1999.

Roger Clemens told Yankees teammate Andy Pettitte nearly 10 years ago that he used human growth hormone, Pettitte said in a sworn affidavit to Congress, The Associated Press learned Tuesday.

Pettitte disclosed the conversation to the congressional committee holding Wednesday's hearing on drug use in baseball, a person familiar with the affidavit said. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the document had not been made public.

Also in the affidavit are Pettitte's claims that Clemens backtracked on his admission when the topic came up again in 2005 just before Mark McGwire forgot about the past, Rafael Palmiero pointed that finger, and Sammy Sosa forgot how to speak English.

According to Pettitte, Clemens said that Andy misunderstood the conversation and that it was Roger's wife who had been taking HGH. (Point: McNamee.)

I'm not exactly excited by the fact that baseball has become the center of our government's attention, but with the way things have been happening in this case already, Wednesday's proceedings might be the best television we've seen since the writer's strike went into effect.