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When I think of a particular season to remember in Major League Baseball, my mind goes back to that magical Summer of 1998. Sammy vs. Big Mac. Alot of people tend to forget that Griffey, Jr. was in that mix until late summer when he got hurt. That year 8 players hit more than 50 home runs, the most of any other. Where were you when McGwire hit 62?
Ever since that year there has been nothing but frustation. Did Mark McGwire take performance enhancing drugs that enabled him to hit all of those homers. How about Sammy Sosa? They pleaded the fifth during those congressional hearings.

Mark McGwire's suspicion of taking drugs started during the 1996 season when he hit 52 homeruns. The next season was the precursor to '98 when he hit 58 and Griffey was right behind him with 56. It was then that the admitted to the press that he took a supplement called 'Andro' that he was purchasing over the counter at his local GNC store.
Then 70. Then came 65 in 1999. He played in 186 games over the next two seasons and hit a total of 61, right about at his pace.
Mark McGwire was a victim of circumstance. We can look at it in several ways. There are the nay sayers that say he cheated. There are those that just could'nt believe that he was able to hit that many homeruns. We were there. He swung for the fence every time he got up to bat. In those 4 seasons that I mentioned, he was still able to keep his batting average right around .300. That's not typical for an all out power slugger.
I remember the Bash Brothers McGwire from the Oakland A's. The World Series. The dominating, Oakland team of the late 80's to early 90's. People forget that he was hurt in '93 and '94. He slumped in 1991, when he hit 22 homeruns the lowest of his career when played the whole season. He must not have been juicing them years.
The Mitchell Report is nothing but a big 400 pound page of waste. Two dudes facing federal prison time ratting on people. Senator Mitchell claims that about 8% of Major Leaguers over the past 15 years used steroids. Does he know easy it is to get them in Mexico. The biggest part of players play winter ball there and in South America.
Mark McGwire should be in the Hall of Fame because he is one the most prolific power hitters that ever played. He hit some of the longest homeruns ever hit. Making him an example of the juiceball era is plain old wrong. Major League Baseball needs to get on with itself, be happy with its testing and stop blaming its problems on the players, you know the ones that put the people in the seats.

Learn more about this author, Chad Morgan.
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