According to Espn.com, the Cardinals are still figuring out how hitting coach Mark McGwire will eventually meet with the media and whether he will end his long silence on questions about his alleged connection to performance-enhancing drugs.
General manager John Mozeliak said the team is still in the planning stages of working out how it will formally re-introduce McGwire to Cardinals fans and the media. McGwire did not attend a news conference to announce his hiring late last month.
McGwire has remained out of the public eye since a 2005 congressional hearing on steroids, at which he famously refused to answer questions about steroid use, saying he wasn’t there to talk about the past. Former Oakland Athletics teammate Jose Canseco claimed McGwire had used steroids in his book “Juiced,” and former federal investigators who led the Operation Equine probe have said they had information linking McGwire to steroids.
The Cardinals hired McGwire as hitting coach last month, as manager Tony La Russa finally convinced the ex-slugger to end his self-imposed exile from organized baseball. While McGwire had privately worked with major-league hitters including Matt Holliday during the offseason, he had declined previous invites from La Russa to attend spring training as a hitting instructor.
Information from Espn.com contributed to this report.