Bud Selig is “delighted” at McGwire’s return; the feds? Not so much

Bud Selig’s comments following the announcement of Mark McGwire’s return:

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, a fan of Mark McGwire’s when the latter broke the major-league home run record and thereafter, too, said Monday he “was delighted that Mark’s coming back to the game,” as the Cardinals’ new hitting coach.

Speaking by telephone from his office in Milwaukee, Selig said, “I give (manager) Tony La Russa a lot of credit and (chairman) Bill DeWitt a lot of credit for making this happen. I was -- and am -- very supportive of their decision. I wish everybody well. When Mark was there, I had a lot of affection and admiration for him . . . I have no misgivings about this at all. Mark McGwire is a very, very fine man and the Cardinals are to be applauded.”

So everyone’s happy? Not so much. Here’s retired FBI agent Greg Stekskal, who investigated McGwire:

Monday, Stejskal questioned the return to the game of a player who refused to acknowledge involvement with steroids.

“It’s basically rewarding a guy who hasn’t stood up and taken a stand against this stuff,” Stejskal said. “There’s been no mea culpa, and instead he became a recluse. It reminds me of a passage from Proverbs: ‘The wicked flee where no man pursueth.’”

As I said yesterday, I’m somewhere in the middle. Certainly not as effusive as Selig is -- it’s gonna be awkward for a while and we can’t pretend that what happened didn’t happen -- but I certainly don’t believe that McGwire was “wicked” or needs to wear a scarlet “S” on his cloak.

Who’s really right? I’m not sure, but like I’ve always said: if you find yourself disagreeing with both Bud Selig and a federal agent who spent taxpayer dollars investigating the personal drug use of professional athletes, you’re probably doing pretty well in life.