Hack Wilson generally was deemed sober enough to hit home runs for the Cubs, though there were days when the vote was split.
Babe Ruth’s substance of choice was corn mash, the essential ingredient in bourbon. Ruth kept a sample handy in a monogrammed flask, and even shared it with the press.
I haven’t seen Mark McGwire passing out androstenedione to the folks festooned with media tags.
Hey, you, the writer from Chicago. Here, take a couple of pills. You could use a little more lean muscle mass.
How many more home runs might Ruth or Wilson or Jimmie Foxx have hit had they used “andro,” the perfectly legal substance McGwire uses to be stronger? Or how many more if they just had stopped using the stuff they did?
Wilson would sit for an hour before a game in a tub of ice, just to get to get the feeling back in his tongue.
Of all the ways there are to abuse an athletic body, Ruth was there first. He ended up looking like the capital letter “Q.”
I say that if McGwire or Sammy Sosa think hitting home runs is hard, they ought to try doing it with Ruth’s body.
How ironic that McGwire should be defending himself for trying to be healthier.
Anyone trying to figure out how many Andro Homers hit by McGwire this year should also figure how many Corn Mash homers were not hit by Ruth. How many balls went unhit by the bleary-eyed Wilson.
Or how many That’s-Mickey-Mantle-On-Deck homers came off pitches by expansion arms to Roger Maris.
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Every generation has its peculiarities. We never will know these answers any more than we will know how many home runs can be attributed directly to McGwire’s testosterone-producing supplement.
But I think we all can agree that without andro there would be less from McGwire than there will be.
Wilson was contrite about his boozing, but not enough to keep from dying of it. In the Cubs’ clubhouse, a recollection of Wilson’s is mounted on the wall, just next to Sosa’s locker, in fact.
In it Wilson details how drink had kept him from being the ballplayer he could have been, how it diminished his skill and ran him out of the game early.
More than a half-century and many chemical advancements later, McGwire’s lesson is much more deceptive.
In the short time since the story first came out about McGwire and andro, these things have happened: The Cardinals have said they have no problem with it. Baseball has said it will look into it, but McGwire can use it. And McGwire has said, more or less, “See, I told you nothing was wrong.”
And the manufacturers of the stuff can not keep up with new orders.
Whether he has meant to or not, McGwire has become a tout for something that may be dangerous, never mind the taint it would put on his terrific achievement.
McGwire will break Maris’ record. Baseball needs him–or Sosa too–to break Maris’ record. Everyone wants McGwire to break the record. I’m not certain anyone blames McGwire for trying to get every legal edge he can.
But if the Olympics and the NFL and the NCAA find enough wrong with this stuff to ban it, then maybe McGwire should not be allowing himself to represent the opposite view.
Every home run McGwire hits further authenticates the stuff.
McGwire ought to swear off the stuff right now, publicly. He should do it for his own integrity and to send the proper tone of caution to anyone looking for shortcuts.
Neither Ruth nor Wilson ever could be recommended as life models, though they could hit home runs no matter what they put into their bodies.
The chief difference between them and McGwire is . . . well, maybe there really isn’t any.