Dave Henderson: “When you shower with a guy every day, you notice their body and muscular transference and these guys got big overnight and we kind of knew something was up”
January 12, 2010 – 10:55 am by Chris Fedor
When it comes to steroids in baseball, I don’t know who to believe. I don’t know who to trust. In fact, the minute that you think a player that played in the steroid era is clean, it comes out that he used some sort of performance enhancing drug. Don’t blame me for my skepticism here. I’m not the one that put steroids in my body. The most recent example of this is Mark McGwire. After much speculation and many people already feeling like Big Mac was on steroids, he finally came clean yesterday and admitted to it. I guess it’s something that I always thought, but I never really had anything substantial. Well unless you include the fact that he started off relatively thin in Oakland and ballooned into Popeye the Sailor Man by the time he left the game of baseball.
He was always known for his power, he was always known for his homerun capabilities and he is probably most known for what he did in 1998 breaking Roger Maris’ record for home runs in a season with 70. I remember watching McGwire growing up and being in awe of what he was able to do in 1998. The chase for the home run record was great theater and something that I always tuned in for. Now, after his admission, it seems like everything that he has done throughout his career is tainted because he cheated. He used performance enhancing drugs to give him an edge. He can say what he wants as to why he used them, but at the end of the day, they helped him do what he was able to do throughout his career; they gave him an edge. One has to question just how many home runs he would’ve hit had he not used steroids. He had a ton of ability, but now we see that all that ability that he had when he stepped out of the dugout was not natural. At the end of the day, he like many other big leaguers during his time cheated and used an added edge to put up the kind of numbers that he put up. That cannot be ignored. I don’t have a Hall-Of-Fame vote, but I know that if I did, he would never get my vote.
Dave Henderson joined ESPN 101 in St Louis to talk about his former teammate Mark McGwire using steroids, whether or not he knew it was going on in the locker room, and whether he was ever tempted to use steroids himself.
On whether or not he is surprised that McGwire admitted to his steroid use:
“No, not at all. I know Mark McGwire and he’s a good human being. I knew he would have to come out with a statement and I knew he would tell the truth. All along the guy never lied, he just didn’t admit it and Mark McGwire, he finally got the burden off his shoulders and told the truth.
On whether or not he saw the game changing around him:
“I came up during the cocaine era where everybody was doing cocaine. I’m a firm believer that we all get a choice and I chose not to do cocaine and I chose not to do steroids. It’s one of those things where I have no sympathy for guys that chose to do it but I do understand that they did do it. After you’re a clean guy, the bad guys, they never let you see them doing there bad deed. We didn’t actually see McGwire or (Jose) Canseco doing steroids. But when you shower with a guy every day, you notice their body and muscular transference and these guys got big overnight and we kinda knew something was up. We’re not dumb.”
On whether or not the steroid use was talked about in the clubhouse:
“Canseco, he bragged about it. McGwire never said anything. We kinda knew what was going up when we saw the bodies going 30 or 40 pounds of muscle. I think when guys started hitting 40, 50 or 60 home runs it was kind of obvious.”
On whether or not he is forgiving of what some of his teammates did:
“Of course because I’m part of that clubhouse union where we’re not cops, we just try to help out. Like I said during the cocaine era, we tried to help guys out. We didn’t go to the police and tell on them, we tried to get them to stop using. It was there ultimate choice to do it and to do steroids. I think the worst thing for me in the whole steroid era was that my 15 year old kid said that I wasn’t any good. I hit 24 or 25 home runs a year and he compared it to guys hitting 50 or 60. When your little kid says you’re not very good and you know you can’t tell him the truth about your teammates that they are using steroids, that hits you hard.”
On whether or not he felt Tony LaRussa knew about this:
“The manager doesn’t shower with us. We all have clothes on when we’re with the manager but I’m sure he probably figured something was up. Like I said, you had that clubhouse camaraderie and it’s not his job to be a cop. He was in quite a quandry. If you accuse a player of doing steroids and he’s not, you’re in big trouble.”
On whether or not he was ever tempted to use steroids:
“No, never. I think when you are a professional athlete and you’re making millions of dollars, you have to make a lot of choices in life. I was pretty lucky that I had very, very good parents and the drugs never, ever entered my mind.”
On whether or not he thinks the World Series that he won with McGwire and Canseco was tainted:
“No, not at all because as you noticed guys are coming out all over the woodwork so I’m sure that some of the Giants were probably on steroids too. I just look at it that I didn’t do them. I can look myself in the mirror and be proud of my numbers. Hopefully McGwire can look at himself in the mirror now that he admitted it.”
Listen to Dave Henderson on ESPN 101 in St Louis here
Tags: 1989 World Series, Dave Henderson, ESPN 101, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Mark McGwire admits to steroid use, MLB, Oakland Athletics, steroids in baseball
