What Mark McGwire’s confession means for you

NEWS will have reached you that former baseball star Mark McGwire recently confessed to using steroids, though news may not be quite the right word.

In America, a baseball superstar revealing that he’s used performance-enhancing drugs contrary to the laws of the game is about as novel a sight as a glum weatherman in Ireland, and McGwire’s predictable bout of lip-quivering when talking of his family followed a familiar pattern (which incidentally is bound to be emulated soon by Tiger Woods, though that’s another story).

On first glance there are all sorts of interesting nuggets in the interview, such as his response to the question of whether he’d have hit as many home runs on nothing stronger than a protein shake: “Absolutely … I believe I was given this gift by the man upstairs ... I did this for health purposes. There’s no way I did this for any type of strength purpose.”