ST. LOUIS — Now the star pupil of the former Cardinals slugger, Skip Schumaker grew up admiring Mark McGwire’s feats of power, even collected his baseball cards.
On Monday, his hero called him to make a confession.
McGwire wanted Schumaker to hear privately what he was about to admit publicly: McGwire used performance-enhancing drugs during his playing career, and he was apologizing for it.
“He was emotional about it. He’s an emotional guy,” Schumaker said. “This is a guy I look up to, and he knows that. And I still do. It doesn’t change that. … There’s going to be a lot of questions for a while. But I hope he can move on, move forward from this and people can start respecting him as a hitting coach without this cloud following him.”
Schumaker was one of several players McGwire called personally Monday before he and the Cardinals released a statement acknowledging and detailing his use of steroids during his playing career. McGwire also spoke to Albert Pujols and Brendan Ryan, and he left a message for Matt Holliday, hoping to connect with the Cardinals’ left fielder.
Holliday was introduced to McGwire by Colorado Rockies coach Mike Gallego several years ago, before Holliday hit his way to a batting title in 2007. Last winter Holliday joined Schumaker and a few other majors-leaguers in private hitting workouts with McGwire.
The two have become close friends, Holliday said.
“We all have friends who have done things or said things you don’t agree with, and that doesn’t ever change the fact that they are friends,” Holliday said. “I don’t condone what he did. At the same time, I still love him. … As a friend, you hope that this offers him a little bit of relief. I’m sure he wanted to do this so he could move on and be a part of our team and our organization. He wants to be a part of what we have, and he didn’t want this hanging there.”
Schumaker and Ryan have been working this winter with McGwire in California. Shortly after the announcement of his hiring, McGwire had Schumaker and Ryan over to his house to watch the World Series, and that same night McGwire broke down Ryan’s swings from the Cardinals’ final playoff game. On Sunday, Ryan took batting practice with McGwire. The next day he was having a conversation he never expected to have with his hitting coach.
Ryan called McGwire a “mythical figure” to him, one he still cannot believe he exchanges text messages with on days when they don’t hit. For Schumaker, McGwire has gone from boyhood hero to mentor and then close friend. Schumaker said he learned for the first time about McGwire’s use of steroids Monday morning, when McGwire called to tell him.
He and Ryan, while wishing to keep the content of their talks with McGwire private, described the hitting coach as “remorseful” and “clearly upset by this.”
“It’s out in the open now, and I think it’s the first step for him in moving forward,” Ryan said. “He’s going to be all right. I think he did the right thing in coming out with it. I think the world is going to start to see what an unbelievable talent he is with a bat in his hand, or a clipboard as a coach. I hope I’m one of the main examples he can point to down the road here as what he can do, what kind of baseball mind he has, and what kind of coach he can be.
“Hopefully through all this we can learn about him as the person.”
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