Mark Mcgwire

Long drives home and sleepless nights have become a part of Mark McGwire's life now that the former home run champion is the Dodgers' hitting coach. But McGwire said his job is everything he hoped it would be when he left the St. Louis Cardinals to accept it. His off-season home in Irvine has become his year-round home, which allowed him to catch his two sons' recent Little League game. The Dodgers' training facilities might be the best in baseball. As for the Dodgers' low-scoring offense, McGwire believes it's only a matter of time before it is "devastating.

I had never met Mark McGwire before Tuesday night, but I knew of his reputation and the fact he has struck out so far as the Dodgers' hitting coach. So given the Dodgers' lack of power, I asked, "Is it time to introduce the players to steroids?" McGwire laughed and I wondered why. "You're funny," he said before finally adding, "No. No. " What a bummer, I told him, I thought you might have the magic potion to get the Dodgers going. "The magic potion is in between the ears," he said.

I had never met Mark McGwire before Tuesday night, but I knew of his reputation and the fact he has struck out so far as the Dodgers' hitting coach. So given the Dodgers' lack of power, I asked, "Is it time to introduce the players to steroids?" McGwire laughed and I wondered why. "You're funny," he said before finally adding, "No. No. " What a bummer, I told him, I thought you might have the magic potion to get the Dodgers going. "The magic potion is in between the ears," he said.

Long drives home and sleepless nights have become a part of Mark McGwire's life now that the former home run champion is the Dodgers' hitting coach. But McGwire said his job is everything he hoped it would be when he left the St. Louis Cardinals to accept it. His off-season home in Irvine has become his year-round home, which allowed him to catch his two sons' recent Little League game. The Dodgers' training facilities might be the best in baseball. As for the Dodgers' low-scoring offense, McGwire believes it's only a matter of time before it is "devastating.

INDIAN WELLS -- Mark McGwire was officially named the Dodgers' hitting coach on Wednesday. A former single-season home run record holder, the 49-year-old McGwire was the St. Louis Cardinals' hitting coach the last three seasons. McGwire, whose legacy was tainted by steroid use, will replace Dave Hansen, who was fired last month. This will be a homecoming for McGwire, who graduated from La Verne Damien High and played at USC. He has an off-season home in Orange County. In 1998, both McGwire and the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa pursued and broke Roger Maris' 37-year-old single-season home run record of 61. McGwire, then playing for the Cardinals, finished the season with 70 home runs to set a new standard.

Here's one you probably didn't see coming: The Dodgers are close to hiring Mark McGwire as their new hitting coach. McGwire has served as the Cardinals' hitting coach for the last three seasons, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that he has told the club he intends to accept the same position with the Dodgers. The deal with the Dodgers has yet to be finalized, but the Post-Dispatch said he has told the Cardinals he will not accept their offer of a contract extension.

PHOENIX - If Mark McGwire had a Hall of Fame ballot, for whom would he have voted? McGwire wouldn't say. “I don't vote,” McGwire said. Asked if he would have voted for Barry Bonds, McGwire sidestepped the question. “I really don't have opinions on a lot of things,” McGwire said. “Barry Bonds was quite a ballplayer. He was pretty damn awesome. That's all I can say.” McGwire, who was at the Dodgers' winter development camp as the team's new hitting coach, was polite but diplomatic when asked about about the fact that no players were elected to the Hall of Fame on Wednesday.

A suggestion for Major League Baseball: When it is time to replace Bud Selig as commissioner, forget businessmen, lawyers or charismatic leaders. Hire a priest. Monday was Mark McGwire's turn in the confessional. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. A lot of those 583 home runs I hit in the major leagues were juiced, like me. The year I hit 70 and broke the cherished record of Roger Maris, they were all juiced, just like me. I am sorry. I was wrong. Yawn. The usual reaction these days is to give the player credit for fessing up and apologizing.

As I watched this giant of a person hit this home run, it occurred to me that Mark McGwire is a hero in every sense of the word. The thing that has most impressed me, even more than the accomplishment, is the style and grace this man has shown. From involving his young son in the chase, to the emotional embrace he gave the Maris family, to the way he and Sammy Sosa show obvious respect and friendship, Tuesday is a day I will never forget. In this age of presidents letting us down and star athletes who seem to care more about the money than the game, I am proud of the great American pastime.

It was 2:30 on a weekend afternoon, and Mark McGwire was still in the hitting cage, in uniform, working with St. Louis Cardinals hitters. He had been there since shortly after 7 a.m. after arriving at the Roger Dean Stadium complex an hour earlier, as usual reporting to duty with his extra security detail. As McGwire picked up a bat to make a point to a non-roster hitter, in the Florida Marlins' identical cage at the shared facility, less than 100 yards away, players' children, some barely old enough to walk, ran around and wrestled with each other in the hitting area.

NEW YORK — Andre Ethier hadn't seen his splits with men in scoring position. "I feel it's not good," Ethier said. He was right. Entering Thursday, the player who used to be called Captain Clutch was two for 19. But Ethier managed to single when it mattered most in the final game of the Dodgers' six-game trip, delivering a ninth-inning hit to drive in the go-ahead run in a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets. Ethier didn't know why he wasn't doing this earlier, as he couldn't point to anything wrong with his approach with men on base.

CINCINNATI - Mark McGwire hit 49 home runs as a rookie. It took him nine years to do it again. McGwire set a rookie record that stands to this day. Mike Trout celebrated his debut season with wondrous feats - some never before accomplished by a rookie, some never before accomplished by anyone. As the second year of the Trout Era dawns, with visions of Cooperstown dancing in the minds of Angels fans cheerily sporting fish heads, this would be a good time to take a deep breath.

Sizing up the Dodgers' 25-man roster for opening day: STARTERS No.; Name; Pos.; B/T; Age; Comment 25; CARL CRAWFORD; LF; L/L; 31; Looking to rebound from the two worst years of his career. 14; MARK ELLIS; 2B; R/R; 35; Dependable veteran provides stability in the middle of the infield. 27; MATT KEMP; CF; R/R; 28; Recovering from shoulder surgery; one of baseball's best players when healthy. 23; ADRIAN GONZALEZ; 1B; L/L; 30; Might not be the home-run threat he used to be, but a good bet to hit close to .300 and drive in 100 runs.

PHOENIX - What was an ordinary split-squad spring-training game for most players at Camelback on Sunday was of monumental importance for Carl Crawford. The Dodgers' 11-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers was Crawford's first game with the Dodgers and his first with any team since August, when he underwent a season-ending elbow operation. "The nerves were racing a little bit," Crawford said. "When you have something taken away from you that you like to do and you've been out for so long, you have a different appreciation for it. " Crawford was hitless in three at-bats as the Dodgers' designated hitter.

PHOENIX - Like countless hitting coaches before him, Mark McGwire thinks Andre Ethier can hit left-handed pitching. "You know what, I'm telling you right now, it's not as bad as you guys think it is," McGwire said. It has been said before. But McGwire is offering the left-handed-hitting Ethier a new method to remedy his Achilles' heel. McGwire wants Ethier to focus on his mental approach rather than his swing mechanics. "Obviously, the mechanics are there so it's just the mental side and focusing on that," Ethier said.

PHOENIX — For the last five seasons, Adrian Gonzalez was basically his own hitting coach. "I really got to understand my swing and got a feel of what I wanted to do," Gonzalez said. "That's why I didn't need to get a lot of feedback from hitting coaches. It wasn't that they weren't good hitting coaches. It was that I knew what I was trying to do, I knew how to fix it. " But Gonzalez is taking a new approach to fixing a swing that he believes was flawed throughout last season, telling hitting coaches Mark McGwire and John Valentin he will do whatever they tell him. Gonzalez started working with McGwire last month, making weekly drives from his off-season home in La Jolla to Orange County.

In a telling sign of the times, the reporter who broke the 1998 story about Mark McGwire using androstenedione today stands a better chance of making the Hall of Fame than McGwire and his famous foil from that season, Sammy Sosa. Steve Wilstein, the former Associated Press reporter who spotted a bottle of androstenedione on the shelf of McGwire's locker and got him to admit to using the then-over-the-counter, testosterone-producing supplement, has been nominated for the J. G.

A trainer who previously admitted supplying Jose Canseco with steroids now says he also gave performance enhancing-drugs to Mark McGwire . Curtis Wenzlaff , arrested in 1992 for steroids distribution, told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that McGwire's goal was to get "bigger, faster, stronger," according to excerpts released Friday. The interview is to be broadcast Sunday morning. McGwire last week admitted for the first time that he used steroids and human growth hormone on and off for a decade, including when he set the season home run record with 70 in 1998.

Al Kaline, Dennis Eckersley and Mike Schmidt have a few things in common. One, they are all members of baseball's Hall of Fame. Two, they are all glad no one was elected to join them this year. “I'm kind of glad that nobody got in this year,” former Detroit Tigers outfielder Kaline told the Detroit Free Press . “I feel honored to be in the Hall of Fame. And I would've felt a little uneasy sitting up there on the stage, listening to some of these new guys talk about how great they were.” All-time home run leader  Barry Bonds received just 36.2% of the vote and pitcher Roger Clemens 37.6% in results announced Wednesday.

No players were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame this year in a polarizing vote that reopened the wounds of the steroid era. Home run king Barry Bonds, owner of baseball's most cherished record, was resoundingly rejected. So was pitcher Roger Clemens, who risked prison time by challenging allegations that he used steroids and successfully defended himself against perjury charges. Craig Biggio came closest to election, getting 68.2% of the vote and falling 39 votes short.