Baseball
I don’t understand why everybody is saying that Mark McGwire came off badly during the Congressional hearings, while all the other baseball players came off okay.
It’s all based on the idea that Sammy Sosa and company said that they never used Steroids, while Mark McGwire evaded the question while cynically evoking a higher purpose on how this line of questioning won’t get us anywhere: if a player admits using steroids, they’ll be attacked — if a player doesn’t say he used steroids he won’t be believed, and where’s this all going anyway?
The idea is that it is now obvious that Mark McGwire used steroids, and his silence speaks voumes — he can’t speak on the matter without avoiding perjuring himself. (He can lie to the press before taking the stand, but he can’t lie under oath.)
But I’m thinking (granted, I didn’t bother to watch any of the proceedings, and only heard about some of the events because they were in the way of more pertinent matters) he came across well enough. After all, imagine if it came out — indisputably — that Sammy Sosa jacked up on Steroids. Then, I ask again: who comes out the bigger jackass — McGwire or Sosa?
I think the answer is obvious. So why’s everyone harping on McGwire here? He did the only decent thing a steroid-using baseball player could do!