Growing up, I became an Oakland Athletics fan because my aunt who lived in Berkeley bought me an Athletics hat. So, naturally, I started watching their games when they were nationally televised. And man, the coolest guy on the team was Mark McGwire. As the saying goes, “Chicks dig the long ball.” Eckersley, Stewart, Henderson, Canseco, all were great too, but McGwire was my guy. I practiced his swing all the time so that I could go yard in little league. That, unfortunately, never happened until I was an adult in softball. When McGwire left to go to St. Louis, my fandom transferred. Go Birds was my mantra. I’ll never forget when he hit the home run to break the record. I watched history. Did he take steroids? Yes. Do I care? Not really. Should he have came clean immediately? Yes. Still, he’s my guy. I even named my kid, McGwire. I need to get my hands on the error card. One day.
