Mark McGwire thinks he could’ve hit 70 home runs without PEDs
By Matt O'Leary
20-years after he set records, Mark McGwire thinks that he didn’t need PEDs in order to hit 70 home runs back in 1998. That seems unlikely.
1998 was an exciting year for baseball. It saw two sluggers, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa duking it out for Roger Marris’ single-season home run record of 61 homers. Both players ended up finishing with more than 61 but McGwire finished highest with 70, setting the record at the time.
You can debate all day long if the steroid era was bad for baseball or not but one thing you can’t debate is the effect of steroids on the game. There’s no way Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds hit more than 70 home runs without steroids right?
Well, not so fast. Mark McGwire thinks he could’ve done it without the help of performance-enhancing drugs.
McGwire, who is now the bench coach of the San Diego Padres, said today that he truly believes that he still could’ve done it without steroids.
"“Absolutely,” McGwire said, according to The Athletic. “I just know myself. I just know. I was a born home run hitter. I mean, unfortunately, I did [take PEDs]. And I’ve regretted that. I’ve talked about that. I regretted it. I didn’t need to. That’s the thing. Didn’t need to.”"
Unfortunately, we will never know if that’s the case or not, but history isn’t on McGwire’s side. No one in MLB history has been able to break the 70 home run plateau doing it clean. McGwire and Barry Bonds both have links to steroids and are the only ones to crack 70 homers in a season.
Roger Marris’ 61 home runs is the “clean record”. It’s hard to imagine a clean 34-year-old being able to drop 70 bombs in a season, but again there is no way of truly knowing so all we can do is take McGwire’s words for what they truly are; hyperbole.
Next: These MLB teams are required viewing right now
There may be a day when someone is able to do it cleanly, but Mark McGwire certainly wasn’t going to be that guy. Sorry, Mark.