Big Mac making his way back to baseball, one swing at a time

July 1st, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

If you parse out all the nonsense that has been performance-enhancing drugs and baseball the last few years and we look squarely at reputation dings the revelations have brought about, Mark McGwire arguably turns out looking the worst. His non-committal answers and his Batman-likes stealthiness since everything went down — the dude is constantly in hiding — haven’t helped his image.

But at the same turn: he didn’t do anything worse than any other player. He just happened to be a high-profile name that broke a long-standing baseball record in the Summer That Put Baseball Back On The Map. He is a victim of circumstance, if nothing else. So it is in that spirit that I’m glad McGwire is slowing creeping back into the game.

“The perception of Mark is so completely different than the reality,” says Craig Daedelow, a friend of McGwire who often sees and talks to him. “People think he’s out of the game, but they have no idea just how much he’s still in the game.”

Although McGwire declined to comment for this story, friends, colleagues and those in the game say he is slowly returning to baseball. They point to the secret hitting lessons he gives to a small group of major leaguers, minor leaguers and college players, and the time two years ago he nearly became the hitting coach of the Colorado Rockies.

[ … ]

“The game of baseball means so much to him,” Gallego says, “that he’s embarrassed what he did. He feels like he let a lot of kids down. They looked up to him. He was their hero. And he disappointed them.

“Mac was always a people pleaser.

“And he feels like he hurt them.”

[ …]

There is no routine, and he doesn’t show up every day, but McGwire can be seen in the early mornings or late afternoons at Daedelow’s batting cage, Total Baseball, in Huntington Beach, Calif.

[ … ]

McGwire has hitting disciples throughout baseball, including defending National League batting champion Matt Holliday of the Colorado Rockies; Skip Schumaker and Chris Duncan, Shelley’s brother, of the Cardinals; Howie Clark of the Class AAA Rochester (N.Y.) Red Wings; and Jack Rye, who recently completed his senior year at Florida State.

There is some speculation in the article that McGwire might return to MLB in the very near future, which, given his out-of-the-spotlight nature of late, seems a bit out of the ordinary. But hey: maybe he is finally ready to step back out again — in a small sense — and teach the art of hitting. Something he is apparently very good at. Who knows.

As long as he doesn’t bring Sammy Sosa along with him, I’m all for it.

{HT: SbB.}