Oh my God you're kidding really I can't believe it I mean wow: McGwire used steroids

Well, over a decade after he made history, Mark McGwire has admitted that he used steroids.

For those of you too young to remember, McGwire broke the single season home run record in 1998, beating Sammy Sosa in a year long fight to the finish. It should be no surprise that McGwire cheated--the rumor mill has been saying so for ages.

Now McGwire has taken the first step to re-sanctifying baseball by telling the Associated Press that he used steroids over a 10 year period. He admitted that his record was tainted. But he's not the first to admit he used steroids.

What then, makes McGwire's admission the first step down the road back to what baseball should be? It's the little part about him setting a record while juiced. Other players cheated, but McGwire's home run record was arguably the first major feat that can be attributed to steroids. It was the inspiration for Barry Bonds to start juicing--and once again I suppose I must say "allegedly"--and was one of the key parts of the steroid era.

What makes McGwire's confession so important, is that he sets a precedent for other retired athletes to admit they juiced. This won't make people forget that he used steroids, but it will very likely lead people, present company included, to have a shred more respect for McGwire than we otherwise did.

I might even go so far as to allow him into the Hall of Fame with my hypothetical Hall of Fame vote. We'll have to see what the others think when the next round of voting happens.

Actually, the Hall of Fame issue is a big one. If McGwire is inducted, then the laundry list of players implicated in the steroid debacle have reason to come clean. If not, well, we're very likely back to square one.