Mark McGwire Enjoys Warm Welcome Back to Baseball

MILWAUKEE -- Justin Morneau, Twins. Jonny Gomes, Reds. Carlos Gomez, Brewers.

On the surface, those three wouldn't seem to have that much in common other than their membership in the Major League Baseball Players Association.

They have in the last week connected in another way. Each has gone out of his way to approach Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire and welcome him back to baseball.

McGwire's return to the sport after what had seemed to be a Hall of Fame career has been something of a breech birth -- awkward to the point of complete convolution.

There was his original non-testimony to Congress in 2005 about performance-enhancing drugs, specifically steroids. He'd already been retired for three seasons at that point with 583 career homers, and after that he retreated further from baseball and the limelight.

He became eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2007, but he's never come close to the 75 percent of the vote needed for admission to Cooperstown. He hasn't ever broken 25 percent.

Then came this winter's text message from St. Louis manager Tony La Russa asking if McGwire was interested in the Cardinals' hitting coach position. It was time to return, and McGwire was ready. But there were some potential landmines in the way.

There was McGwire's admission in January that he had, in fact, used steroids. There were those who said McGwire hadn't said enough, hadn't come clean enough, and the storyline lasted in various forms through the early part of spring training, when McGwire's brother, one-time professional body builder Jay, published a book that talked about using steroids with Mark.

What Morneau, Gomes and Gomez, among others, seem to be saying now is that Mark McGwire has done enough time in the penalty box, that it's time to welcome him back into the brotherhood of baseball.

"I never really thought how it would be with players from other teams," McGwire told FanHouse Saturday. "I always felt I'd be accepted coming back to St Louis, but it's been great the way the other people in the game -- players, coaches, even some of the owners, even players I'd never met -- have been supportive.

"I want to give back to the game I love. That's probably the biggest reason I came back. And I think the majority of players in the game know how much I love the game."

Brewers manager Ken Macha said he saw his players seeking McGwire out before Friday's game. He said it with approval.

"I would hope they would welcome him back," Macha said. "No one can go through live without lots of difficulty. I think what you are seeing is Mac getting votes of support, like a lot of golfers are welcoming back Tiger Woods this week."

For La Russa, who managed McGwire for almost a decade in Oakland and then reunited with him in St. Louis in the middle of the 1997 season, it's a welcome sight to see opponents embrace the return of McGwire.

"What we in baseball have known for years and years and years, what was true in the American League and later in the National League, is that on every team in played on, Mark was one of the most popular teammates," La Russa said. "He cares about the other guys. He cares about the team.

"He was never arrogant about the numbers he put up. Players talk all the time. And so even the players who didn't know Mac before this know what kind of guy he is."

He's one apparently at peace, both with the past and the present.

"The game has changed so much," McGwire said. "Players come to me now and will say, 'You played when teams didn't have charter flights?' Or 'When you played you had roommates (on the road)?' And I'm like, 'Yeah.'

"But then I sit and talked with (Hall of Famer and former Cardinal) Red Schoendienst and he'll talk about how they used to have to hurry to catch trains. It's baseball. It's hilarious."

And once again Mark McGwire, embraced by his peers, can smile.