Shelley Duncan Trained With Mark McGwire

I just realized you're probably expecting some sort of punchline with the headline I gave you. Sorry to disappoint, but this is not a joke. The big talk over the weekend in New York -- besides the Yankees offensive outburst that rivaled the scoring by defenses facing Eli Manning -- was Shelley Duncan. The 2001 2nd round pick of the Yanks went 4-for-12 over the weekend, crushing three home runs, including two on Sunday, driving in seven runs. But it's not so much the amazing weekend that concerns me about Shelley Duncan, as it is this nugget I picked up. Just when you thought Mark McGwire was out of the spotlight, his name reappears:

Duncan, 27, is the son of the St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan and the brother of Cardinals outfielder Chris Duncan. As a child, he tagged along with his father's teams and became close with the slugger Mark McGwire, spending a week with McGwire in California last October.
"It was funny, I went out there thinking we were going to hit," Duncan said of his visit with McGwire. "It wasn't really. It was all mental stuff. That's how he's always been his whole career. He was so strong mentally, and that's what made him such a great hitter.

"I've talked to a lot of successful people around the game, and that's what they all have in common: they stay focused every single day."

Seems pretty innocent I guess. But here you have Barry Bonds stuck on 753, three home runs away from setting the all-time home run record, and he's the center of attention. Hardly ever thought of these days is Mark McGwire. Probably the last thing he wanted was for his name to be brought back up in the news, but unfortunately for him, it has been. And I'm sure Shelley Duncan is only to happy to be creating headlines.