The following summer the job I transferred to the paint crew who covered the walls with interior latex. The money was unbelievable on the paint crew, union wages. When you are painting dorm rooms, it is easy to get lost and hide from townies, the long term, year round painters, and goof-off with some of the other guys. What a great summer, for me as well, the last great summer. Good Money, Great Friends, Brett, Jim and Dave, Diamond Dave whose girlfriend he told us insisted on being a virgin when she married. Dave was certainly was not going be buying any rings for anyone any time soon. When we roundly mocked him he informed us coolly there was another thing she was more than willing to do. Later, our 42nd president (as Dave’s girlfriend did) offered the same definition of what did and did not constitute sex. What a great summer.

I remember my first paycheck; I couldn’t believe it, maybe $400 bucks! And I was going to get another one, just like it, on Friday! I was walking down Maine Street, past the hippie bookstore and saw the Bill James baseball abstract and bought it along another not inexpensive baseball book. The next day I think there were four or five baseball books in the window. They must have thought I was a rich kid and I would jump at the chance to by more of their wares.

The names of the year round paint crew were Hugh and Ollie. Hugh was about 50, husky, good natured, a country boy with Elvis sideburns. Ollie was an old man, in his 60′s about to retire and mad at the world. He is the old man, when you hit the ball in his yard, would race outside to yell at you, and take the ball away, if he could. The summer after graduation I was making slave wages in an entry level job, macaroni and cheese 3 nights a week. One day I decided to go back to the paint crew to see if I could hook on for the summer, to make some badly needed cash. I found Hugh, Ollie had since retired. I never actually asked Hugh if I could catch on for the summer. The vibe was all wrong, the magic was gone. Misty water colored memories…

And it would have been so without even the briefest mention of McGwire.
…With just his card to lead it off.

McGwire’s a lying sack of shit. If he thinks we’re buying the “I just used steroids a little bit…” gag, then I’ve known some ladies who’ve found themselves a “little bit” pregnant. And if he truly believes that he used the ‘roids to “recover from injuries,” and that it hardly affected his performace, (or that we’d believe that), then perhaps it’s time for all of us to start lining up to buy the Golden Gate Bridge.

I sure as hell hope that all this Hall of Fame chatter is less than 100% serious. What Mac truly deserves a is plaque with an asterisk on the cap of his unnaturally swelled head, smack in the middle of the Steroid-era Hall of Juice. It might not be Cooperstown, but fuck it… it’s good enough…

But now, interesting how the two, Canseco and McGwire, have shown their true colors during all of this: McGwire appears the good ol’ big heart. Seems his time in StL made him welcome household name in middleamerica, come on back and teach our kids how to hit, rotflmfao, but might squeak in the Hall if he plays his cards right, bawls a little, you know. But philanthropy aside, Mark’s from SoCal and likely as self-absorbed as a valleyboy can be (yes I have sour grapes about him not signing with Les Expos circa early 80s). Canseco, a human comedy of errors in a way, meanwhile has to validate his proto celebrity status by MMAing himself, like a guywhore would do (sorry mma heads out there, it’s true). Jose embodies that glitzomacho Latino trying to hold a place on the stage, even after his antics have erased any true cred once held. And Parkway Jose held. But he has parlayed his career such that nobody wants to hear what he has seen. Even if he’s the only one not poking out the camera lens with a Pinocchio impression.

As far as I’m concerned Mac and Jose likely first decided to taste juice when they heard of a truly organic freak of nature, a guy whose name starts with B and ends in O (and there’s no way Jackson rocked the roids; he was already balls out at AU, but in soooosuch a good a way ). Back then Kc was all hot to trot a little ready to blow up, young talent like and same division as the A’s. Hmm.

Bottom line: We all put the Mac on the pedestal he slipped from.
We bought the tickets, but he took the ride.

apologies for the tangential nostalgia,
and prolly def typo rambling

but Josh

your blog is effin boss!

a great post about about a guy and referencing him only once, and off-handedly at that.

“i wish i were big.” — josh baskin (tom hanks), in 1988 movie “big”

Valid points, I in no way wanted to trivialize child abuse by comparing it to hitting a baseball on steroids.

I don’t think his tears were disingenuous, I guess some of these athletes have to hide their emotions so much that things like “tears” come out more frequently then an average person. But seriously he still can’t admit that he took those steroids to hit home runs.

Let’s just say that in retrospect Mcgwire comes off as disingenuous when he he made a statement like, “Most of the adults who are doing it are getting away with it.” Even though he didn’t admit to it at the time, how many kids did he influence to take steroids and ruin their health because they saw the accolades he received from hitting all those home runs?

I never liked the whole Mcgwire/Sosa dog and pony show during the summer of ’98. I felt like we were being force fed all of that stuff with a big red-white-blue ribbon wrapped around it. Baseball looked the other way because they were making truck loads of money.

1. I don’t think it’s that odd for him to cry in the interview. He’s been carrying this around for quite some time. I know it’s all of his own making but the last 5-10 years have probably not been too pleasant for the man nor his family. In the face of an unburdening like that, or just the tremendous guilt over it considering the magnitude of what it all meant…I don’t think it’s quite the same as a child trying to get sympathy points. I’m not trying to imply I know what goes on in his head, but it didn’t strike me as disingenuous.

2. I guess you’re implying that Mac is a kind of a hypocrite to condemn those who get away with child abuse while “getting away” with doing steroids. I’m not sure you can ever compare things like that. We all lie. We are all hiding something. Some just bigger, more important, more horrific, or more public than others.

Some guys get away with child abuse. If I recall correctly, Josh knew one of them pretty well. McGwire got away with roiding. That’s pretty bad, but not anywhere close to the same park.

I’ve done some pretty shady stuff myself. Just yesterday I probably averaged 10-12 MPH over the posted speed limit on my way home from work. I got away with it too. And, I’ll do it again.

I don’t think that disqualifies me from saying that child abusers are complete pieces of shit.

What I find interesting in that S.I. interview is that he had this quote about people who abuse children:

“And most of the adults who are doing it get away with it. It just breaks my heart.”

Now I don’t want to compare the horrors of child abuse with using steroids to hit home runs. Child abuse is horrific and he should be commended for donating money to fight for the cause to end it. But seriously, how do you stand there with a strait face and vehemently lie about your steroid use and at the same time chastise someone who is getting away with something.

On Sept. 16, at the press conference to announce his new deal, McGwire said he was establishing a foundation to dispense $1 million a year for at least the next three years to help abused and neglected children. When a reporter asked a question about his concern for abused children, something strange happened to McGwire. His stomach felt like a deep, dark well, all his words tucked in a bucket at the bottom. No matter how hard he tried, he could not bring that bucket up. He thought about all the kids in the world — kids the same age as Matthew — who have had the blessing of childhood ripped away from them. His mouth opened, but all he could do was cry. The cameras kept rolling, and 33 seconds passed before he could speak again.

LoL with the cowardly Lion photo. I don’t get McGwire at all with his crying and that half-assed admission. He couldn’t even admit that he did the Steroids to hit more home runs. “I took it because of an injury??” Give me a break.

Your Mcgwire quote is exactly why people don’t like the guy. He spent how many years lying to people and playing the public as fools and now we have to feel sorry for him?

Seriously, I was on the fence about a HOF vote but now I wouldn’t vote for any of the steroid players from that era.