The Genius

Tony LaRussa has weighed in to defend Mark McGwire's honor against that evil Jose Canseco. LaRussa says he knows that McGwire was not on steroids, but I've got a problem with his claim. I mean, if Canseco was taking steroids, LaRussa presumably didn't know about it, in which case, why would we believe that he knew what McGwire was doing? On the flip side, if LaRussa did know what Canseco was doing, he sure didn't do anything to stop him.

My other problem with LaRussa is that he says he believes that McGwire got big through hard work, that Mark loved to work out in the weight room. Apparently, Tony LaRussa (and a lot of other people) are under the impression that steroids somehow provide a shortcut to muscles, that you can just inject yourself, go to sleep and wake up with 40 extra pounds of muscle. Of course, that's not the case at all. The reason athletes take steroids is that it helps their muscles recover faster after working out, so that they can work out again sooner, and thus build strength in their muscles faster. So maybe it's possible that a "workout fiend" like McGwire would want to use something that allowed him to work out more often?