Mark McGwire Ends Exile, Returns to Baseball as Cardinals Hitting Coach
Since the infamous "I'm not here to talk about the past" comments Mark McGwire made to Congress, the former home run king has remained famously out of the spotlight and free of questions about just how he built his impressive physique.
Now, McGwire has agreed to become the St. Louis Cardinals' hitting coach:
La Russa told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Sunday that talks were ongoing. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported La Russa will return, and was negotiating with McGwire to be the hitting coach to replace Hal McRae.
This will be McGwire's first coaching job, but apparently the team has been interested in his expertise for some time:
Approaching manager Tony La Russa, who appears finally to have worn down McGwire to return to the game, this time as the Cardinals' hitting coach, McGwire all but demanded that La Russa keep a swarthy, 21-year-old Dominican Republic native on his roster for that season. Even though Albert Pujols had played just one season in professional baseball, including only 14 regular-season at-bats in Class AAA.
McGwire had seen enough in a few weeks of spring training to know the real deal when he saw it. He teasingly (we think) threatened to wring La Russa's neck if McGwire's manager, both at Oakland and in St. Louis, followed through on his plan to send Pujols to the minors for more seasoning.
Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa has always been McGwire's biggest defender (enabler?), so the environment should be comfortable, although he'll no longer have the benefit of hiding from reporters
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