Thank You Fergie Jenkins, But Not For Your Steroid Comments

It has been awhile since my last post, and I apologize, I have been busy with another writing project. But I would like to talk to you today about the Mark McGwire apology that happened last week. It has taken me some time to make a conclusion about what McGwire had said. First I thought that it was heartfelt apology, but then he said that he only used it to heal quicker from his injuries. He talked about how much of a relief for him to get this off his back and how bad he felt, but he never apologized to anyone it affected other than himself. Then I read an interview with former Cub pitcher, Fergie Jenkins, and it got me thinking, but about something else.

Jenkins came out this week calling out McGwire on what he did to those pitchers who gave up those home runs. He mentioned about pitchers who might have lost confidence in themselves, or maybe a manager or GM that lost confidence in them.

I agree with Jenkins, to a certain point. Singling out McGwire for causing the problems for a pitcher's confidence is I think is ridiculous. The problem is really about ALL the players who were taking steroids. Of course it is easy to target someone who broke single-season records of Roger Marris and Babe Ruth, but it's not all on him.

Then Jenkins did make a great point, but it wasn't even directly about steroids. Jenkins said, "in my era, Seaver, Gibson, Drysdale, Carlton, there were so many guys that would have probably knocked him on his butt. He wouldn't have hit home runs the way he did in that era". I guess I might be considered old school in my mentality, but I do think a pitcher should be allowed to go inside on batters, even if that means the batter gets hit every now and then. These days, if a batter gets hit, the umpires are giving warnings to both benches way too quickly. Jenkins mentioned that McGwire wouldn't have been able to hit like he did if he was playing in Jenkins' era. But pitchers like Gibson wouldn't be able to pitch like they wanted to if they were playing today.

In the NHL, the league leaves it up to the teams to "warn the other bench". All of the four major American sports used to be like that, but not anymore. I mentioned baseball earlier, but the NBA was at one point the same way. Try telling someone like Jerry Sloan that basketball is a non contact sport. Or try telling quarterbacks that had to face Dick Butkus or Ray Nitschke if they got protected like Tom Brady does, and they'll just laugh in your face.

It sometimes is odd, when someone says some criticism, but makes a more valid point in a seamlessly more innocent comment. So I say thank you Mr. Jenkins for opening my eyes, even if you opened my eyes for something completely different.