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Mark McGwire slinks back into Major League baseball
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I swear to teach hitting, the whole hitting,
and nothing but hitting (GERALD HERBERT / AP)
Yesterday, one-time home run king Mark McGwire was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as their hitting coach, replacing Hal McCrae, in a possible attempt to step into baseball fan's good graces.
McGwire, a lifetime .263 hitter with 583 homers, fueled at least by Andro, and probably steroids, will now be teaching young men about his approach to hitting.
For stats nerds McGwire's resume is awesome: a lifetime .394 on base percentage, 10-time OBPS percentage of 1.000 or higher, and a home run every 10.612 at bats, the best rate of all-time--Babe Ruth comes in second at a moon shot every 11.76 at bats.
Despite the fact that McGwire struck out quite a bit--he struck out 100 times in ten different seasons--he had a good eye at the plate, was a dedicated athlete, and had an unshakable concentration level. McGwire struck out less than Ryan Howard, yet dwarfed Howard's best seasons with a 65-homer season and his famous 70-homer campaign.
The obvious questions are 1. Can McGwire teach hitting, and 2. Can McGwire endure a season in which he is constantly asked about whether or not he used steroids?
It's impossible to predict the answer to the first question as being a great hitter doesn't necessarily make someone a good hitting coach. Some of the greatest hitters of my lifetime have been fired from their posts as hitting instructors, including Paul Molitor and Rod Carew. And some of the most revered hitting coaches were lousy Major League hitters, such as Walt Hriniak (.253 lifetime in 111 plate appearances) and Charlie Lau (.255 lifetime, 16 homers). The Chicago Cubs recently hired hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, who never rose as high as Triple-A, and the Minnesota Twins' Joe Vavra is considered an excellent hitting coach despite having never sipped a cup of coffee in The Show.
In truth, if players make the Big League level they obviously can hit. It's usually the mental approach to the game that gets tweaked when slumps arise; many of the top batting coaches never pick up a bat during tutoring sessions, instead talking about what pitches to look for in certain situations, and how aggressive to be against certain pitchers. McGwire very well may excel at his new job because he showed in 1998 that he could chase the ghost of Roger Maris without mentally wearing down, while Maris nearly went crazy chasing the Babe. And with men on base, McGwire was one of the best of his generation, driving in 147 runs on only 145 hits in 1999, the best rbi/hit ratio ever.Wit
Will the cloud of steroid allegations hurt McGwire's credibility with young hitters? Doubtful. Baseball, like every other sport or profession, is full of drunk drivers (Cardinal manager Tony LaRussa), philanderers (Mickey Mantle, Pete Rose, etc), tax cheats (Rose, Darryl Strawberry) and drug abusers (Josh Hamilton, '85 Mets). If almost half of Major League hitters were willing to take steroids to improve their hitting, why wouldn't they take instruction from a former steroid user?
Lastly, it might just be that McGwire knows that in order to improve on the 25% he's polling among Hall of Fame voters he can't just repeat his famous line from the congressional hearing on steroid use: "I didn't come here to talk about the past." He needs to bring up the past, all of it, admit to what he did, and only then will fans let him move on. Andy Pettitte admitted to using steroids ("only once"--right!) and most fans have already forgotten and forgiven. More than likely, Pettitte, almost 90 game over .500 in his career, will make the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible. Big Mac can do the same if he just fesses up.
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