Mark McGwire admitted Monday that he had used steroids “off and on” during his Major League Baseball career. Talk about anti-climactic. That would be kind of like me coming clean here about being a Red Sox fan. It’s too late Big Mac, that ship has sailed.

Really though, good for McGwire. He at least has finally shown the guts to do what Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have yet to do. Of course it took him at least five years to finally come clean, but at least he did and now the healing can begin. (Did you get the sarcasm in that last part?)

As far as I’m concerned, as long as Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose aren’t in the Hall of Fame then there is no place for any player even remotely linked to steroid use. You can blame Jackson for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series (his batting average would differ with you though). You can judge Rose and find him guilty of betting on baseball, but neither of those guys did anything to distort their career numbers the way the players of this generation have. Illegal substances are the reason McGwire hit 70 home runs in a season and Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s home run mark. And when the criteria to get into the Hall of Fame is the numbers you compile during your career, then I see no way they ever deserve to be enshrined next to the Babe and Ty Cobb and Ted Williams.

Speaking of enshrinement into the Hall, is Andre Dawson really deserving? The Hawk was a nice player, but give me a break. I read where his career numbers compared favorably to one of my all-time favorites, Dwight Evans and Dewey got dropped from the ballot after two years. Now I’m not in any way going to argue Evans belongs in the Hall. I will, however, argue all day that Dawson does not.

Another big story broke Monday as I was writing this. Seems like Pete Carroll is leaving USC to coach the Seattle Seahawks. I’m sure I won’t be the first person to tell you this, but I will say it anyway, this is a horrible decision for Carroll. The guy already had stint in the NFL and he was 33-31. He did reach the playoffs a couple times with New England, but he was hardly on his way to becoming Vince Lombardi. Don’t forget, many a great college coach has tried to make the leap the NFL and failed. I don’t see any reason Carroll will be different. The Seahawks are now and have always been a middling franchise and I’m pretty sure Carroll won’t be able to funnel all that talent he got at USC north to Washington. I give him three or four years before he’s either retired or begging USC to give him his job back. Of course, by then, he’ll have way more money than he’ll ever need so I suppose he will get the last laugh.

Finally, there will be two great local basketball games tomorrow night when Pflugerville and Connally square off. The girls teams will be playing for first place in district so I urge you to get out and take in a game. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.