STL Today - Criticism of McGwire irks Cardinals Hall of Famer Bob Gibson
Criticism of McGwire irks Cardinals Hall of Famer Bob Gibson
Monday, April 6, 2009 - Hall of Fame pitcher and retired Cardinals star Bob Gibson, acknowledges the crowd on opening day of the season as he rides into Busch Stadium on the back of a pickup truck before the start of the game. (Laurie Skrivan/P-D)
BY RICK HUMMEL rhummel@post-dispatch.com 314-340-819602/01/2010
Former Cardinals slugger Jack Clark has called for a lifetime ban of another former Cardinals slugger, Mark McGwire, and other steroid users and abusers.
Former Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog has said he can’t figure out why fans at a Cardinals convention would give McGwire an ovation and yet boo Clark, a one-time hero in St. Louis, for his critical comments.
Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk, Ferguson Jenkins, Goose Gossage and Reggie Jackson also have sounded off against McGwire and others in the “steroid area,” while Hall of Famers Henry Aaron, Robin Yount and Jim Palmer have been more forgiving.
CARDS EXTRAS
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Enough already, says the greatest Cardinals pitcher, Bob Gibson.
“At this stage,” said Gibson by telephone from his home in Omaha, Neb., “we just ought to move on. (McGwire) apologized and that’s it.”
Gibson, a Hall of Famer who won 251 games as a Cardinal and retired in 1975, is employed by the club to do some spring training instructing and some appearances during the season.
But anyone who ever has met him knows he is no house man.
He is aware of the criticism of McGwire claiming that he took steroids only to improve his health. (”They got injured because they were taking steroids,” argued Herzog.) But Gibson said, “I suspect that most of those really good ballplayers that admitted doing them, probably didn’t need them anyway.”
This is not to say that Gibson never would have considering using them.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m just happy they weren’t available (when he played), because if I knew somebody else was doing it and appeared to be getting an edge, I think I have would have been tempted.”
Gibson, one of the game’s fiercest competitors, said, “They tell me I would have been a lot meaner (if he had taken steroids). They tell me that I would have been more tense and intense. I didn’t need that.”
There is a concern in St. Louis, and perhaps elsewhere, that there will be a rift between the Clark-Herzog Cardinals of the 1980s and the Tony La Russa Cardinals of the past couple of decades over McGwire, the club’s single-season home run record-holder and new batting coach.
One Cardinals teammate of Clark’s in the 1980s, said, “Jack said the things that many of us were thinking, although we might have put it differently.”
Gibson said he didn’t see why there should be major problems.
“Those two (Herzog, Clark) aren’t in the Cardinals family,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue with anybody other than between McGwire and them — which it probably should be. I don’t think it’s their place to criticize him the way they did.”
Gibson will be a celebrity coach in spring training at Jupiter, Fla., beginning March 1 and is aware that the furor over McGwire is apt to continue. But he thinks it should be manageable — under certain conditions.
“There’s always going to be somebody asking a whole bunch of questions but I don’t think the fans are that involved with it,” Gibson said. “What gets under their skin is reporters constantly delving into it. If the reporters leave it alone, the fans will leave it alone. That’s just the way I see it.”
THE HALL QUESTION
While McGwire has made little inroads in his four ye
2000
ars on the Hall of Fame ballot, the future candidacies of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and, later, Alex Rodriguez — all of whom have been linked to the steroid era — have folks wondering if the current Hall of Famers would accept any of them if elected.
“That wouldn’t bother me at all,” Gibson said. “There’s guys in the Hall of Fame that have done things and there are things that we didn’t know about, like guys taking drugs. Who knows? Maybe there’s guys who did drugs and they just didn’t get caught. There’s some guys who cheated in some way.
“But I’m not interested in that. If they’re good enough in ability and if you (baseball writers) want them to go in, then vote for them. If you don’t want them to go in, then don’t vote for them.”
Some Hall of Famers, such as Jackson, have said they hope that no players who have been found to have used steroids ever get into the Hall.
“Ballplayers are no different than anybody else,” Gibson said. “Some people it bothers and some it won’t. I’m one that won’t be bothered.”
THE LA RUSSA ANGLE
La Russa, who has taken his hits in the past month or so for his continued insistence he did not know McGwire had been taking steroids in Oakland and St. Louis, largely has kept his counsel.
There long had been iciness between La Russa and Herzog, but that had seemed to be melting at least a bit. At the recent St. Louis Baseball Writers’ dinner, La Russa was quite complimentary to new Hall of Famer Herzog, and Herzog has praised Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. and the Cardinals for their continued success in the last 10 years.
For the past couple of weeks, La Russa has been keeping a mental scorecard of those who are pro-McGwire and anti-McGwire and he said he had found it to be relatively balanced, although noting that McGwire had received much more criticism than others in the “steroids area.”
Fisk was one of La Russa’s favorite players when La Russa managed the Chicago White Sox some 25 years ago and La Russa said, ‘If Carlton and others have those feelings, they’re welcome to their opinions.”
But La Russa said he deemed it interesting many Hall of Famers hadn’t sounded off, perhaps backing up what Gibson had said.
“One of the reasons a lot of guys haven’t been real vocal about the steroids era,” La Russa said, “is that you might hear them say that in their era they were taking amphetamines to boost their energy … that they weren’t choirboys. Everybody was looking for some competitive edge.”
Whatever La Russa’s knowledge was of McGwire’s steroids activity or that of other players he managed, it is apparent his denials are met with more skepticism than that offered up when other managers are concerned.
For example, former Cardinals manager and player Joe Torre is revered, and properly so, for his work in guiding the New York Yankees to four World Series championships and for his more recent division titles in Los Angeles with the Dodgers.
But the fact remains that Torre managed three players — Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte and Rodriguez — who have admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs, and Clemens is suspected of doing the same.
Torre says he didn’t know, and almost all observers appear inclined to believe him. La Russa, however, does not seem to enjoy that sort of benefit of the doubt.
In a way, La Russa has created the monster by summoning McGwire out of an eight-year hibernation. But Gibson said the time for rhetoric is over.
“We’ve beaten it to death,” Gibson said. “Let it be.”
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