.jpg?downsize=56%3A*)
.jpg?downsize=56%3A*)
.jpg?downsize=56%3A*)
.jpg?downsize=56%3A*)
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
Still no schedule for McGwire news conference
By R.B. FALLSTROM
AP Sports Writer
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Mark
McGwire was hired to be the St. Louis Cardinals' hitting coach a month
ago, and the former home run king's initial media session has yet to be
scheduled.
General manager John Mozeliak,
who said on the day McGwire was hired that a news conference would be
held "sooner rather than later," was tightlipped Tuesday about the
team's plans.
"I'm not going to put a
timetable on it because I don't know," Mozeliak said in an interview
with The Associated Press. "It could be soon, it could be in a couple
of weeks, it could be the first of the year. I don't know."
McGwire's news conference has been highly anticipated. He has failed to
gain election to the Hall of Fame in his first three chances despite
hitting a then-record 70 home runs in 1998 and retiring with 583 homers
in 2001. He famously refused to answer questions about steroids use
during a March 2005 congressional hearing, saying he wasn't there to
talk about the past.
Before the recent era
tainted by performance-enhancing drugs, 500 homers was considered an
automatic ticket to the Hall of Fame. But the 46-year-old McGwire has
received just under 25 percent support from Baseball Writers'
Association of America voters in his three appearances on the Hall of
Fame ballot. That's well under the 75 percent needed.
Mozeliak said at the time of McGwire's hiring that there will be no
effort to shield the slugger from questions about steroids.
Mozeliak said McGwire wasn't resisting meeting with media, but rather
that the Cardinals and McGwire were simply "taking our time." He said
it hadn't bee decided whether McGwire would appear in person or on a
teleconference.
The GM was vague on what has delayed a news conference.
"There's a lot going into it," Mozeliak said. "It's complicated, and once we work through everything we'll be ready to go."
