Did Cardinals Add Fuel To Fire With McGwire Treatment Sunday?

Writer Says McGwire Should Hold Legit Press Conference

The MLB Cardinals "didn't help themselves or Mark McGwire on Sunday" by allowing the team's new hitting instructor to hold a six-minute Q&A with fans, followed by a six-minute news conference with media members, according to Bernie Miklasz of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. The best way for the team to "get the media to stop hounding McGwire is to call a legit press conference, take plenty of time to give interested media a chance to show up and ask questions, and do it in a professional and civilized setting." But by instead denying "full access and time to McGwire on Sunday, the Cardinals only allowed this situation to fester, and all but guaranteed that they’ll have more people bugging" McGwire during Spring Training. McGwire insists that he has "nothing to hide, and the Cardinals insisted that they wanted him to be open in handling his past, but Sunday’s silliness made it look like the player and the team were anything but open." Miklasz: "If the Cardinals think they’re going to be able to muscle the media away from McGwire, I can assure them that all they’re doing is setting up a situation where they’ll have to deal with more disruptions and distractions" (STLTODAY.com, 1/18). The Cardinals estimated that about 17,000 fans attended the three-day Cardinals Care Winter Warm-up event (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/19).

ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM? In St. Louis, Bryan Burwell writes it was "embarrassing nonsense" that Cardinals fans greeted McGwire with a "rousing, standing ovation in his first public appearance here since admitting he used a potent array of performance-enhancing drugs while becoming a celebrated home run king." By applauding McGwire, the Cardinals fans are implying that they are "no different from the Giants-Barry Bonds fans and the Dodgers-Manny Ramirez fans." These are the fans who "will provide McGwire, the Cardinals and Commissioner Bud Selig all the cover they think they need to continue getting away with the scam they are trying to perpetrate" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/19).