If the reports are true, and I hope they are, on Monday the St. Louis Cardinals will announce that manager Tony LaRussa is going to return, and he'll have a new hitting coach, Mark McGwire.
Yes, that McGwire.
The same guy, who along with Sammy Sosa electrified all of baseball in 1998 during their historic chase, and eventual passing of Roger Maris' single season home run record of 61.
The same guy, who in front of Congress in March of 2005, looked pained when asked about performance enhancing drugs, but only saying that he was "not here to talk about the past."
Fast forward to 2009, and it has become crystal clear to me that now is the right time for McGwire to return.
While everyone says, myself included, that they don't condone the use of performance enhancing drugs, baseball fans in general have shown with their wallets that they don't really care anymore.
In a season that saw David Ortiz ‘outed' as someone on the now infamous list of 103 from 2003, Manny Ramirez reportedly test positive for a female fertility drug, and of course Alex Rodriguez's eventual admission to using performance enhancing drugs for three seasons when he was with the Texas Rangers starting in 2001; McGwire's return to the game seems to be a natural fit.
For the record, I'm glad he's back, and I wish him well.
To see the way that he and his ‘generation' of players - Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro have been tried and convicted by not only the fans and but the larger baseball media, in comparison to the kid glove treatment that A-Rod's been getting this post-season is border line sickening.
The first group from the ‘Steroid Era' has been treated shabbily by the media and routinely snubbed by the Hall of Fame Committee for somehow being bad for the game, yet those who remain in action - I'm referring specifically here to Manny and A-Rod, seem to be getting a free pass.
I understand that the guys playing now still have a chance to change perceptions, because deep down fans love to see people redeem themselves for their previous mistakes.
A-Rod is the perfect example of this.
Up until this season, he was a major disappointment in the post-season, especially when you consider that for some of those years, he was considered the best player in the game.
This season, after his steroids admission along with missing over a month with his hip injury and his high-profile romance with actress Kate Hudson, Rodriguez is hitting .400 in the post-season while driving in 11 runs and clubbing five home runs.
It's a made in Hollywood redemption story and, for the most part, that's how it has been covered by the media.
That is completely inconsistent with the way that players like Bonds and McGwire, have been treated, and it's about time that it stops.
You either care about the alleged or actual drug use or you don't.
In light of all the A-Rod forgiveness that is dominating the majority of baseball coverage this post-season, I sure hope everyone gives that same consideration to McGwire on Monday.