I'm no fan of Mark McGwire, so I'm not going to hide that. Personal feelings aside, the St. Louis Cardinals have made a huge mistake in hiring him as hitting coach.

 

McGwire was one of the best power hitters of his generation, but that's about all he did. He wasn't known as a man who "hit it the other way," or a "professional hitter." He was a masher. See the ball, hit the ball homerun hitter. In fact, during McGwire's prime, he was often a sub-.250 hitter.

 

The Cardinals batted .263 with an on base percentage of .332 and a .415 slugging. What does McGwire add to that?

 

While I'm not sure what McGwire can bring to the field, but what he brings off the field is a checkered pass for one of the most well-organized teams in the game. This also opens the flood-gates to the steroid era being "accepted" as a part of the baseball community.

 

McGwire has been able to run from questions of talks surrounding steroid use. There's no where to run now. Can you imagine, "Hey Mark, Albert Pujols his struggling with the long ball, do you recommend he "shoot-up.?" This is a joke. Good luck to the Cardinals.

 

Rob Long