Dave McKay is a long-time Major League Baseball coach. He has coached for over 29 years in addition to playing professionally from 1975-1982. He was at ground zero of the baseball steroid era when he coached the Oakland A’s during the time that the Bash Brothers Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco were making the long ball look easy. McKay is credited with the establishment of one of the first formal strength and weight training programs for a Major League franchise.
Before Jose Canseco wrote the book about anabolic steroids in baseball, Canseco co-authored a book with McKay in 1990. The book was called “Strength Training For Baseball”. Because of his knowledge of weight lifting and building muscle along with his association with admitted steroid users, many people have assumed that McKay was in on the steroid secret kept by McGwire and advertised by Canseco. McKay claims this was not the case.
As far as Canseco was concerned, McKay suspected that he used steroids and warned him about the dangers of steroids. But McKay never saw him inject steroids or take steroid pills like Dianabol or Anadrol.
‘‘I did the strength and conditioning with these guys, and you assume Jose [used steroids] because he’s talking about it,’’ McKay said. ‘‘I never saw him use anything. And I never even remotely thought about anybody else using anything.’’
McKay insists that he really didn’t think McGwire used steroids. In fact, when Mark McGwire was accused of using steroids by Canseco in his book “Juiced”, McKay was McGwire’s biggest defenders. He even told Mitchell Report investigators that McGwire was a clean athlete.
During the years that McKay defended McGwire, McGwire never told him the truth. It wasn’t until the eve of his big steroid admission in January 2010 that McGwire called McKay and apologized for his deceit.
‘‘I’m looking like an idiot here defending him, and all of a sudden people find out he did, and now there’s a little bit more link to, ‘Maybe he knows something that [he hasn’t said],’ that type of thing. I said to my wife: ‘From now on, I’m just going to watch myself.’ I’m not going to comment or go out of my way to defend [anyone] if you just don’t know.’’
Fortunately for McKay, the scandals of baseball’s steroid era and his association with two of the biggest steroid users of that era did not disrupt his coaching career. He has coached continually in the MLB since 1988. He was most recently hired as a coach for the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs management didn’t even address the issue of McKay’s association with baseball’s steroid era during his interview for the coaching position.
Source:
Wittenmyer, G. (March 31, 2012). McKay not dogged by steroid ties to Canseco, McGwire. Retrieved from http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/11629479-573/mckay-not-dogged-by-steroid-ties-to-canseco-mcgwire.html
