Bash Brothers Don't Speak

There is no going back for Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach Mark McGwire. He is done with former “Bash Brother” Jose Canseco. McGwire told ESPNLosAngeles.com on Wednesday, “It’s too late. I don’t care to ever speak to him again…. What he did was wrong…. I can care less what he does.”

McGwire is still furious that Canseco revealed that McGwire had used performance-enhancing drugs in his 2005 book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big. McGwire initially denied he had used PEDs, but later confessed that he had, indeed, used the drugs.

Canseco has made public efforts to apologize to McGwire for some time. In September 2012, when McGwire was the St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach, Canseco appeared at Dodger Stadium for a Dodgers-Cardinals game wearing a black T-shirt that read, “Sorry for everything, Mark.”

Last Saturday, before their game with the Baltimore Orioles, the Oakland A’s held a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of their 1989 World Series victory, but McGwire didn’t attend; he was with the Dodgers in St. Louis. He and Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, who pitched for the A’s in 1989, sent video tributes instead that they had made during spring training.

Canseco, who showed up for the event, told reporters:

Mark, to me, when I played with him, I looked up to him. I idolized him for a lot of reasons–the guy was on the field, he was off the field. It haunts me till this day that I said those things about him, even though obviously they were true. I could have gone about it a different way and gotten my point across.

Canseco admitted that since the book was released, he and McGwire have not met or spoken. He said he has a number of regrets: “I regret writing the book for sure. I battled and fought with the thought of, ‘I wish I never used chemicals or steroids.’ But I don’t see how back then when I was only 19-, 20-years-old, I didn’t really know the situation.”

Former A’s pitcher Dennis Eckersley, who said he and Canseco had spoken at card shows, said he wasn’t angry at Canseco for the revelations, while admitting that Canseco had said nothing about him. He added that most of the 1989 A’s felt the same way, saying, “I mean, come on, man. It’s been a long time. Time heals everything. I don’t know if it’s even a forgiveness thing. Just understand, understand people and accept people. I’ll tell you, I’ve said things. I just haven’t said it in a book.”

Dave Stewart, one of the starters for that A’s team, echoed Eckersley:

I’m glad to see him. It’s been years since I’ve seen him. He was a big part of all the things we were doing back in the day. Whatever took place back then, as far as the team is concerned, we were always in position to win. And he was a big, big piece of that. I’m glad he’s here. And as I look back on it, I’m glad that I had an opportunity to play with him.

The A’s ran roughshod over the San Franciso Giants in the 1989 World Series, sweeping them. A massive earthquake interrupted the World Series. The A’s currently own the best record in baseball and hope to return to their McGwire-Canseco era glory.