McGwire is proud of documentary on sexual abuse

By Rick Hummel
Of the Post-Dispatch

JUPITER, Fla. -- Mark McGwire wants to make two things perfectly clear. "I'm not getting married," he said. "I don't even have a girlfriend."

And he is not buying a house in the St. Louis area to make his permanent residence there.

"There's absolutely no truth to that," he said. "I'm a California boy. I'm very happy with my apartment."

One thing McGwire is doing, however, is taking part in a documentary about sexually abused children that his Mark McGwire Foundation hopes to sell to a television network.

"I'm pretty proud of it," said McGwire, who did some of the interviewing. "We've interviewed sex offenders. We've interviewed children who have been violated.

"I interviewed young kids to find out what they knew about sexual abuse. It was quite amazing. This documentary is about disclosure, about telling you it's OK coming out and saying something happened to you."

McGwire had other random thoughts:

On his future after his career is over: "I want to coach. I want to teach. There's not a lot of teaching. There's a lot of kids coming up, and there's a lot of teaching to be done, especially mentally."

On prospering individually but not winning: "Anybody who says it's easier playing on a losing team is crazy."

On J.D. Drew, who struggled last season in his rookie year: "I tend to believe he's the real deal. It's not an easy game at this level. He has to make adjustments."

On advice he would offer to Ken Griffey Jr. and the media attention he will draw this year: "Take a deep breath and go with it."

On the attention he gets, "If people say they're comfortable with it, they're lying."

On the Rams winning the Super Bowl and the Blues threatening to win the Stanley Cup: "We've got something to prove. Now we need to get a basketball team."

On occasionally not talking to reporters: "I'm not the Shell Answer Man every day."

On beating the Roger Maris home run record: "There was more media to deal with than Maris, I guarantee you. Probably three or four times more."

On what he told golf star Tiger Woods at the recent ESPY awards: "There's only a few people in sports who know what it's like to totally use your mind and be above everybody else mentally, and he's one of them. He nodded his head and said, 'I know.' I've got the foul poles to work with. He's got those little fairways and greens."