I have head-full of other Mark McGwire thoughts driving me insane this morning, but those will come later. At the moment let’s address a sentiment I’ve heard over and over since yesterday afternoon, and that’s that now McGwire has offered up his mea culpa, it’s time for Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens to do likewise. Interesting thought, but if you think that’s going to happen any time soon, you’re dreaming.
Let’s dispense with Bonds and Clemens quickly: they can’t and won’t for legal reasons. Barry Bonds is still being prosecuted -- however slowly that prosecution is going -- for perjury related to this denial before a grand jury of knowingly taking steroids. Due to the non-cooperation of a key witness and the fact that the feds have had a huge portion of their evidence against him tossed out, he has an excellent chance of skating on the charge. Why on Earth would he do anything at this point to screw that up? If Bonds ever talks -- and it’s not a given that he has the slightest desire to do so -- it will come years from now.
Same goes for Clemens. He’s embroiled in approximately eleventy-seven variations of the same civil lawsuit against Brian McNamee, each of which depends upon him either proving that he didn’t take steroids or defending charges that he did. Add to that the fact that the feds still purport to be investigating him for perjury in connection with his Congressional testimony and he has every reason to either stay quiet about this or to keep claiming that he’s as pure as the driven snow. If Clemens ever admits to using PEDs it will be under pain of torture or, given that he seems to be something of a delusional whack-job, from the top of a clock tower while holding a sniper’s rifle or something.
Sammy Sosa is a more interesting case. He has no legal reason preventing him from coming clean. As I’ve said before, his congressional testimony bordered on brilliant in terms of how he was able to mislead without technically lying (and the only reason he was able to do this is because Congress refused to ask even the most basic of followup questions). Still, there’s nothing really compelling him to admit to anything now either. His one foray into the public spotlight recently resulted in something close to a p.r. disaster, turning him into more of a joke than a figure poised for some kind of redemption. He’s not a candidate for any coaching jobs or any other official position with baseball. McGwire is the canary in the coal mine for Hall of Fame juicers, so whether Sammy Sosa ever makes it to Cooperstown is more dependent upon what happens with McGwire than himself, so there’s no reason to come clean in the interests of lobbying.
Still, he’s Sosa and Sosa is kind of weird, so I could see him holding some Canseco-esque press conference that no one clamored for and offering up details of his life that no one truly wants. It might be fun actually.
Mark McGwire came clean and apologized for one reason and one reason only: he wants back in the game of baseball, and given his particularly troubling Congressional testimony in 2005, baseball won’t accept him -- and frankly, he couldn’t perform his job -- unless he said something about it.
Bonds, Clemens and Sosa don’t have that sort of thing staring them in the face, so don’t hold your breath waiting for them to say anything about anything any time soon.