[Recovering_Democrat]

Mark McGwire did his best every day, and knew when it was time to move on. Class Act.

[rb22982]

big mac was the main reason I kept up with baseball for as long as I did. I wish him well, and hope he is enjoying his privacy.

[Cable225]

I'm not a baseball fan, but I am a Mark McGwire fan, having followed him from his start with the A's. I've always looked at Big Mac as a classy guy in a game dominated by no-class performers.

During his run at 62, the liberal media (yes they dominate the sportswriters too) found all kinds of space to write about his supposed steroid use, performance enhancers, or anything else they could come up with to tarnish him. Call me anything you like, but I always felt it was because Mac was white. During that whole run, you never heard a bad word about Sosa. Not that Sammy's not a good guy, it just seemed strange that McGwire was being villified and Sammy was being made a hero. It just made me root for Mac all the more. I often wonder what would have been the reaction of these writers when he started getting close to 755 (which he would have). I can imagine them digging around his old grammar school to see if he ever cheated on a spelling test.

And now, you see it happening again. Can anyone tell me how a career malcontent and punk like Barry Bonds has morphed into one of the icons of the game? And does anyone think McGwire would be getting the same treatment?

[Dales]

There is myth making, and then there are those who did it right and thereby made the myth possible, believable, and worthy of being promoted.

McGwire is a man, not a mountain. He was churlish at times. He wasn't always natural.

But damn it, he did it right, as right as rain, as right as anyone could be expected to.

Watching him take batting practice was absolutely an amazing thing to do. Baseballs made a ping off his bat, as if hit by an aluminum driver.

But the best thing in the world, he learned class when it wasn't always easy for him, he maintained dignity when he could have easily gone the other way, he was strong when it would have been easy to be weak.

I feel like we are living in a golden age of baseball right now, labor problems notwithstanding. And I think that McGwire was a key component in it.

[Timmy]

Asked if McGwire would ever return to play baseball, Weinberg laughs and calls Schlogl over to help. Schlogl's arms are overflowing with freshly laundered home whites as Weinberg says, "Kurt, what has a better chance of happening -- Mark McGwire coming back to play baseball, or Abe Lincoln coming back to be president?"

Schlogl lays a crisp shirt on the side of a shopping cart and says, without hesitation, "Abe."

I'd have to disagree with them on this point. But they probably don't realize that Abe, who won the Presidency in 1860 and 1864, is prevented by term limits from running again.

[RetiredArmy]

He did it right with performance enhancing drugs did he not? Whether legal or not, they were performance enhancing. Kind of tarnishes some of what he accomplished. Ruth's boozing did not enhance his performances. They probably held him back. Regardless, I enjoyed watching Mark play. He quit because he felt he was not earning the money he was getting. I think he walked away from about $30 million which he could have sat on the bench or continued to hit .187 to earn. Class to walk away. Very very very very few would do that. Kind of like the young man from the Arizona Cardinals who went to the Army and turned down $21 mil.

[L.N. Smithee]

Weinberg is standing outside La Russa's office in the Cardinals' clubhouse, and by habit he points and nods toward the far left corner of the clubhouse as he talks about McGwire. He says, "After Mark retired, he told me he knew he could still hit 30 or 35 homers a season."

He's right. But IMHO, McGwire knows that in order to crank out the homers, he'd have to become a DH, and could scarcely contribute more than bleacher blasts. In short, McGwire decided he didn't want to de-value his career by apeing Jose Canseco and Dave Kingman.

[Teacher317]

Am I not turtle-y enough for the Turtle Club? Turtle, turtle!

[rabidralph]

You have to ignore the legend in order to escape it. Let someone else be the ink blot.

And that's why we have Bill Clinton.

[Redleg Duke]

A white man, doing his best and loving and caring for his family...something the liberals cannot allow in public view.

The problem with pro sports is that there are too many Daryle Strawberries and too few Mark McGuires.

[Heartland01]

Mark was the Best I ever saw of my peers. I was lucky to see him play in college, the minors and at both major league stops.
The stress of being 'The Bambino' of our generation was too much to bear. I think the main reason he left was the same reason former Teammate on the A's - Scott Brosius left - He wanted to put the real 'Family' ahead of these money grubbing players and owners. With the strike looming he went out not only as Class but thumbed his nose at the players union and owners. Jocketty wants a McGwire Day? Why? So he can charge the Blue Collar guys like myself $40/per.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Mark McGwire did his best every day, and knew when it was time to move on. Class Act.

I agree. Would it make you feel better if you saw him peddling every product under the sun on TV all the time? I wouldn't like it. McGwire did it right like John Elway did: he retired and went off into the sunset. He realized his 15 minutes of fame were over, he accepted it gracefully, and moved on. (John Elway did a few endorsements and appearances, but he could have done a whole lot more. I'm glad he didn't go crazy with the fame and endorsements, he did it graciously and moved on quickly.)