Did Taking Steroids Inflate Mark McGwire's Numbers?

Former Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire admitted recently that he took steroids on and off between the 1989 and 1998 seasons.

McGwire stated in his press conference that he took steroids for health reasons; more specifically, to recover from injuries sustained during different parts of his career.

But McGwire also said he believes the steroids he took did not improve his ability to hit the ball or hit it any farther. Big Mac said that he has always had great hand-eye coordination and that he was born with a “gift to hit home runs.” Shortening his swing and studying opposing pitchers led to more home runs, not performance enhancing drugs, said McGwire.

While I applaud him for finally coming clean about his steroid use, McGwire has to be insane if he really believes taking them did not improve his ability to hit home runs.

There is a reason why steroids and human growth hormones are called performance enhancing drugs.

If you look at McGwire’s numbers, he had his most productive years from 1996-1999, hitting 52, 58, 70 and 65 home runs respectively.

Incidentally, he was 34 years old in 1996, an age when most players begin the down slope of their careers. Two years later, at 36, McGwire would break one of Major League Baseball’s most sacred records, the single season home run mark.

Prior to that time, the MLB record for most home runs hit in a season was 61 by Roger Maris. The most home runs McGwire hit in a single season before 1996: 49, way back in 1987 (two years before he said his steroid use began).

Does Mark McGwire really believe that he would have hit the same number of home runs during his career without the help of steroids?

The numbers say otherwise.