I used to LOVE baseball. My dad and I would watch game after game talking about what the pitcher would throw next, guessing location all that stuff. I grew up a big Cardinals fan. I loved Whitey-ball and the Oz. I always kept up with the minor leagues since I lived in a Texas League city and went to many ball games there. One guy caught my attention, Mark McGwire. Damn he could hit the ball. This was back in the mid-80's when he was still in the minors. When he got called up to the A's I started following them -they had this Canseco guy who could mash too. I guess McGwire to me was as Mantle was to my dad. I watched as many games on TV as I could. We even took trips to the closest big-league parks once a summer to catch a game when the A's were in town. I was married in May of 1995 (yes right after THE strike) the very next day my wife and I drove to Kansas City (from Fairfield Bay, AR) to go to a Kansas City Royals vs Oakland A's baseball game. I got to see Big Mac plant one in the fountain.

Then McGwire was traded to the Cards. I knew it was I sign. He was supposed to be there. Then he really started mashing. I was loving it, all these people jumping on the Big Mac bandwagon and I was making room for them. I have the day he hit 60, 61, and 62 all on tape, with the newspaper wrapped around it. I have another tape that has #70 on it. It was good to be a Baseball fan then. I was oblivious to the whole 'roids thing. I bought in to the Mac isn't on roids he just works out a lot and is more dedicated to working out than most of the other players line.

I had a plaque of McGwire that commemorates his two seasons Calling him the Home Run King. I was upset when Bonds hit 71.

Then came the Congressional Hearings. I watched my baseball hero. I watched him turn from superman to super-dolt. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. His "lack of a denial" confirmed everything that I didn't want to believe.

I was fooled, lied to, misled, and I wanted to believe it. And to top it off, I feel robbed, because I can't share the good stories with my son about my baseball hero like my dad did with me. I know the Mick wasn't a saint. He drank like a fish and partied like a monster but he didn't cheat the game of Baseball like McGwire and Sosa and Bonds and so many others have done and are doing.

I want to know from them if they think it was worth it. To know that they are responsible for the destruction of the best thing about baseball - the hand me down stories of one generation's heros to the next.

Thanks Big Mac, Bonds, Sosa et al. You are the reasons why I am teaching my son all about football.