Talking Chop

From one of my contacts at Sirius Radio:

Last night (Jan. 11) on ‘Mad Dog Radio on SIRIUS XM’, host Dino Costa spoke with two-time NL MVP Dale Murphy, a noted steroid critic and founder of the "I Won’t Cheat" foundation (www.iwontcheat.com),  about yesterday’s admission by Mark McGwire.

Dale Murphy: "I don’t think anybody can argue with the fact that it would have been a lot better [if McGwire confessed] earlier.  I agree with that.  A couple of things come to mind.  The Congress thing irritated me a lot because to me that was a lot of publicity for congressmen, that we weren’t really trying to solve the problem.  To me, you grant all those guys immunity.  You don’t sit there and hang jail time over Mark McGwire or anybody’s head and have the lawyers say, ‘Look, you can’t talk about this because they’re going to put you in jail if you do.’  That’s ridiculous."

Murphy: "Yeah, it would have been great to have Mark say something a long time ago.  I kinda understand why he didn’t.  I think Congress made some serious mistakes in a publicity grab to try to humiliate guys instead of solve the problem.  If you want to solve the problem you give these guys immunity.  People will be shocked, maybe, that I’m saying that but I’m like, ok, look, we know they took them, let’s try to solve the problem instead of going back and punishing guys.  Having said that, yeah, it would have been good to hear it a long time ago.  I’m glad that he said it now, though."

Murphy: "I have read most of his statement and if a guy says he’s sorry he did it and wishes he hadn’t done it, I’ve got to take him at that.  You know, he is the first one to come out with such a detailed admission and maybe it’ll get the ball rolling.  To me, I’ve got to respect him for it.  Obviously, yeah, it would have been better earlier but at least it’s out now."

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Host/Dino Costa: "Anyone who has been exposed as a steroid cheat, do they deserve entrance into the Hall of Fame?"

Dale Murphy: "Well, I don’t think so and I think the voters have been pretty clear on that.  My point about Mark McGwire coming clean is my respect for him and just how you feel about him as a person, regardless of the Hall of Fame.  This isn’t really going to help him get in.  Some voters probably voted for him because it was never proven [saying], ‘Yeah, I heard what I heard but you’ve got to prove it to me.’ … Now’s he’s admitted it so how do you vote for him now?"

Murphy:  "I don’t think this is a Hall of Fame PR thing because it’s not going to help him.  What I’m saying is I want to be able to look at Mark McGwire and say, ‘I respect the guy.’  Yeah, ok, I agree with you it could have been earlier but the point is he’s come out and said it.  And to me there’s got to be a level of respect for anybody that says, ‘I messed up.’  I don’t think any of those guys are going to get in because, well, how could you vote them in?"

Good for Murphy, defending McGwire from the dogs of congress, but being hard on him for not coming forward sooner and not supporting him for the Hall. Maybe what will come from this whole admission of the steroid use of players during that era is that guys like Murphy will be looked at in a new and better light. His chances at the Hall have been hurt because the players who came after him put up SUCH gaudy numbers in such a short amount of time.

“The Dino Costa Show” airs weeknights (8:00pm-1:00am ET) exclusively on Mad Dog Radio, SIRIUS channel 123 and XM channel 144.