Unlike many players who played in the MLB steroids era of the late 1990s and early 2000s, former Cubs first baseman Mark Grace never had a performance-enhancing drug cloud of suspicion hanging over him.
Such is life when you hit 173 homers across 16 big league seasons and no more than 17 in any given year. It's with that as context that Grace was asked on the Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday morning why he didn't use steroids, and the answer he gave was classic.
"I'm going to give you the honest answer, Dan," Grace said on the show. "I was a single man in Chicago, and that stuff is bad for your get up and go, if you know what I mean. So I wanted to continue to have the ability to get up and go. So that's a big reason."
Grace also had a baseball reason as well.
"Second of all, I don't think myself, my swing was conducive," Grace said. "I wasn't a flyball hitter. I hit line drives and groundballs for the most part. If I elevated a line drive, it would go out of the ballpark. So I just don't think, I was never interested in it. And I'm glad I didn't because now looking back on my career, my numbers were my numbers -- not a syringe's numbers. They were my numbers, and I'm proud of that."
Grace was a three-time All-Star who played his first 13 seasons for the Cubs from 1988 to 2000 before finishing his career with the Diamondbacks. He hit .303 and had 2,445 hits in his career. He also won four Gold Gloves.
A former teammate of Grace's who was accused of using PEDs was outfielder Sammy Sosa, who has been exiled from the Cubs organization because ownership believes he owes an apology and honesty for his role in the steroids era. Sosa would like to reunite with the Cubs but has offered no regrets on that front.
"For the Cubs' sake and for Sammy's sake, I think welcoming him back would probably make a lot of Cubs fans happy," Grace said.
Grace added later while speaking generally, "There's a lot of PED users who aren't banished from their teams."
Such is life when you hit 173 homers across 16 big league seasons and no more than 17 in any given year. It's with that as context that Grace was asked on the Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday morning why he didn't use steroids, and the answer he gave was classic.
"I'm going to give you the honest answer, Dan," Grace said on the show. "I was a single man in Chicago, and that stuff is bad for your get up and go, if you know what I mean. So I wanted to continue to have the ability to get up and go. So that's a big reason."
Grace also had a baseball reason as well.
"Second of all, I don't think myself, my swing was conducive," Grace said. "I wasn't a flyball hitter. I hit line drives and groundballs for the most part. If I elevated a line drive, it would go out of the ballpark. So I just don't think, I was never interested in it. And I'm glad I didn't because now looking back on my career, my numbers were my numbers -- not a syringe's numbers. They were my numbers, and I'm proud of that."
Grace was a three-time All-Star who played his first 13 seasons for the Cubs from 1988 to 2000 before finishing his career with the Diamondbacks. He hit .303 and had 2,445 hits in his career. He also won four Gold Gloves.
A former teammate of Grace's who was accused of using PEDs was outfielder Sammy Sosa, who has been exiled from the Cubs organization because ownership believes he owes an apology and honesty for his role in the steroids era. Sosa would like to reunite with the Cubs but has offered no regrets on that front.
"For the Cubs' sake and for Sammy's sake, I think welcoming him back would probably make a lot of Cubs fans happy," Grace said.
Grace added later while speaking generally, "There's a lot of PED users who aren't banished from their teams."
