Saturday, August 07, 1999
McGwire's biggest hit: Axing andro
BY TIM SULLIVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Three cheers for Mark McGwire: one for home run No.500, two for ditching the androstenedione.
Big Mac's power never was predicated on the chemistry experiments to which he subjected himself, and now he has proved it. Four months after kicking the andro habit, McGwire's swing shows no harmful side effects. He remains baseball's leading slugger and he has removed the asterisk of steroid suspicion. He has become a role model your children can emulate safely.
While McGwire was obliterating Roger Maris' home run record last season, some of those searching for the source of his strength settled on andro. The dietary supplement is banned by the NFL, the NCAA and the International Olympic Committee because it is seen as performance-enhancing and potentially health-endangering. A study at Iowa State University suggests andro raises the risk of heart disease, pancreatic cancer and breast enlargement.
But because baseball has been slow to form an official medical opinion, McGwire used the stuff last season with relative impunity. Because he also happened to hit 70 home runs, andro sales skyrocketed. High school players eager for an edge or desperate for a shortcut started ingesting andro based on McGwire's mighty example.
Broad shoulders notwithstanding, this was more of a burden than Big Mac was willing to bear.
“I thought long and hard about it, and I don't like the way it was portrayed, like I was the endorser of the product, which I wasn't,” McGwire said. “I don't like how it's portrayed that young kids take it because of me. I always discouraged children from taking it.”
His power is his own
He might have said something sooner, but declaring himself clean at the start of the season would have created additional pressures. If McGwire's numbers had tailed off post-andro, it would have tainted his record and tested his resolve. He would have had to wonder whether the capsules deserved more credit than he had claimed previously.
Now, his deeds are beyond doubt. McGwire's second homer Thursday night — No.501 — was his 44th of the season and the longest struck at Busch Stadium this year.
“This showed that andro is irrelevant,” he said Thursday.
McGwire might fall short of another 70-homer season — though we rule out nothing — but he continues to make traditional notions of baseball limits seem laughable.
“I'm starting to think there might be players who reach 500 homers and 3,000 hits who never become Hall of Famers,” Mike Schmidt said last month at the All-Star Game. “I'm going to be 70 years old and be in that pitiful 500-home run club when there's 30 guys in the 800-home run club.”
Among the reasons for baseball's sustained power surge are smaller ballparks, shrinking strike zones, better conditioning, expansion and evolution. McGwire, however, is self-explanatory. His biceps suggest the business end of a sledgehammer. His swing is breathtaking.
Once, during a visit to a Titleist testing facility, McGwire hit some golf balls that were measured at 200 mph. By comparison, Tiger Woods' best bolts usually run about 188 mph.
He'll leave a pure legacy
McGwire didn't need andro to be awesome. He used it, he said, not as a source of testosterone but, “to help me through my workouts.” When Houston slugger Jeff Bagwell tried andro, he saw his stats decline.
“I guess in my andro bottle, they forgot to include the little pamphlet telling me how to hit home runs,” Bagwell told the St.Louis Post-Dispatch. “And that's the point. Hand-eye coordination is something you can't get from a bottle.”
McGwire realized he could make it on his own and recognized his responsibility to those who follow him. He abandoned androstenedione out of his concern for children. He has never hit a home run more heroic.
Enquirer columnist Tim Sullivan welcomes your e-mail at tsullivan@enquirer.com.
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