New St. Louis Cardinals batting coach Mark McGwire decided to own up to his past when he admitted to using steroids as to clear the air before he began working for a MLB team again. The fact that McGwire used performance enhancing drugs wasn’t a big surprise to many people as it had been suspected since the ballplayer hit 70 home runs in 1998 breaking Roger Maris’ single season record of 61. In an interview with Bob Costas the former first baseman claimed that steroids did not help him break the record, but only aided him in recovering from injuries.Costas thinks otherwise, but feels that McGwire honestly believes what he says. The real question is how will the general public react when McGwire is in the dugout with the Cardinals this year. It seems likely that when the team travels the 47-year-old will be subject to some jeering. Baseball fans will be interesting to see how the crowd in Cincinnati will react to McGwire when the Cardinals open their season against the Reds.

Earlier this week, as you probably know, there was a huge earthquake in Haiti. There are quite a few ballplayers in the MLB who are from Haiti. As you can imagine, many of them are still worried sick about where their families are and how they’re doing. Some of them might even be down in Haiti itself during the offseason. The MLB is doing a great job helping out with the big relief effort that is underway. They are contributing a lot of money for these operations and goes to UNICEF. A million dollars from the MLB organization, and surely many of the players themselves are giving money to this effort. Hopefully they will be able to help out many different people as this unfolds. Good job MLB. People who are looking to donate themselves can find some links on other parts of the web too.

If you haven’t had the chance to check out the stadium where the Marlins play, you’ll have to look it up in a different name again. For a large part of last year it was referred to as Land Shark Stadium, as it had been leased by Jimmy Buffett, singer and founder of the Land Shark brewery. For the entire football season and much of the last baseball season, it was known by that name. It seemed clunky at first, but it’s finally started to feel normal again. Dolphin Stadium always seemed a little weird for the Marlin’s baseball team, but it makes sense for the location. I think they just keep getting stuck with fish down there in Miami, with the Marlins, Dolphins and “Land Sharks.” Anyway, it won’t change much about the stadium except the name on your tickets.

Adrian Beltre is reportedly headed to the Boston Red Sox. This means that there will be yet more money put into the 3rd base position for the team and the high possibility that both of the players at that position could be injured at any one time. It’s exciting, and Beltre is a very talented player. But he tends to get injured, as he hasn’t made 640 plate appearances very frequently over his 12 year career. He’s going to do well in Boston, I think, where there is a lot of support and high expectations. And with Lowell out for the first part of the season recovering from his recent thumb surgery, it’s no surprise that they are looking for replacements in various places. The Red Sox are trying to make some big moves and they might just get some kind of change this year.