Missed this from late last week, but Robin Yount has become the latest in a long line of Hall of Famers to weigh in on the Mark McGwire steroids stuff. When asked what he thought of Carlton Fisk and Rich Gossage and everyone taking shots at McGwire, he had this to say:
“A number of guys have that attitude. I would like to know what they would’ve done if they were in that same boat. I’ll be very honest, in the fact that there was no testing and if there were benefits from it, it would have been very difficult. Without testing in place, you would’ve almost been forced to do it to keep up . . . It wouldn’t have been an easy decision. Or maybe it would’ve been an easy decision, for that matter. You just would’ve had to do it to keep up. I’m glad that I didn’t have to make that call because it would have been a very difficult decision to decide whether to do it or not.”
When it comes to a person’s acts, there is such a thing as right and wrong. But when it comes to a person’s motivations, there is very rarely such a clear dichotomy. The people who have come out strong against McGwire and his brethren in the steroid brotherhood are completely right to go after the acts, but they’re either completely misguided when it comes to the motivations or else they don’t see the difference.
