In the entire history of the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, they’ve made just one playoff appearance, which happened so long ago that Mark McGwire probably doesn’t even remember being drafted by the organization that year. (1981 for those scoring at home.)

Since then, the Expos/Nationals have been a study in failure. Sure, there were those few years in the early 90s when the team was competitive under Felipe Alou, but for the most part the organization has been riddled with bad luck and underperformance.

Until now, that is.

Am I ready to crown the Nationals as my pre-season pick to win the NL East? No, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if they earned a Wild Card bid – especially with a playoff team being added in each league this year. Their starting rotation is excellent, their bullpen is solid, and their offense should be improved from what it was a year ago. Assuming their core players stay healthy, there’s no reason to think the Nats can’t challenge an aging Philadelphia squad and a club in Atlanta that has managed to choke in pressure situations the past two seasons.

It’s hard not to love Washington’s starting rotation. Stephen Strasburg is coming off Tommy John surgery but he and Jordan Zimmermann flat out throw gas. Gio Gonzalez was one of the more underrated pickups from this offseason and Edwin Jackson helped the Cardinals win a World Series title last season. Assuming he isn’t traded at some point, John Lannan is a pretty damn good fifth starter. In fact, all five of Washington’s starting pitchers could finish with ERAs south of 4.0.

That said, the offense will make or break this club in 2012. Outside of Ryan Zimmerman, not one hitter in the Nats’ projected 2012 lineup will hit for average. There also isn’t a 100-RBI man on the roster, unless Zimmerman and Jayson Werth (who had a brutal debut last year with the Nationals) overachieve.

But the 2010 Giants showed that offense isn’t everything, especially if you can make it into the postseason. Plus, it’s a pitcher’s game now and the Nationals aren’t short on arms this season. We’ll just have to see if they have enough offense to give themselves a shot to play past October 3.

Either way, this isn’t the same Nationals’ club that finished fifth, fifth, fourth, fifth, fifth, fifth and third since moving to Washington in 2005. This team appears ready to compete.

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa hugs batting coach Mark McGwire after the Cardinals won the 2011 World Series in St. Louis on October 28, 2011. The Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers 6-2 winning game 7 of the World Series. The Cardinals won their 11th World Series after defeating the Texans 4 game to 3. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa ponders his thoughts after announcing he has decided to retire during a press conference at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on October 31, 2011. La Russa, (67) who managed the Cardinals for 16 seasons guided his club to the franchise’s 11th World Championship just days ago. La Russa has 2,728 career wins. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Barry Bonds says he’s proud of friend Mark McGwire for admitting to his PED use back in January of this year.

From ESPN.com:

“I have a really good friendship with Mark McGwire. I’m proud of him,” the 45-year-old Bonds, back in the Bay Area for a reunion at AT&T Park of the Giants’ 2000 NL West champion team, said when asked what he thought of McGwire’s January admission. “We’ve had a great relationship throughout our entire lives and throughout our career. I’m proud of what he did. I’m happy for him.”

He appeared to be in great shape and said he is down to about 225 pounds from his playing weight of 238.

“I’ve just been working out a lot, that’s all. I work out all the time,” Bonds said. “It’s been in my genes my whole life. I just don’t work out as hard anymore. I don’t lift as heavy weights anymore to be bulky. I don’t know, I’ve got that Hollywood look.”

I’ve got that Hollywood look? Does anyone else need to vomit or am I the only one?

People love to talk about “Manny being Manny” when it comes to the antics of Manny Ramirez, but ManRam has nothing on Bonds. This is a man that will look the media dead in the face and tell them that he’s proud of Mark McGwire for admitting his PED use, as if he shouldn’t have done the same thing long ago. Barry is one of those people that has subscribed to his own lies for so long that he actually believes in them now. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Mark McGwire showed up on the first day pitchers and catchers reported to spring training and offered yet another apology for his use of performance enhancing drugs during his playing days. He maintains that the steroids were used to help him heal, not hit home runs.

From USA Today:

Mark McGwire said Wednesday that performance-enhancing drugs helped him get on the field and get more at-bats, but he stopped short of saying that the illegal drugs helped his power.

When asked about not admitting that steroids helped his home-run power, McGwire, the new batting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, said that he took steroids to help his injuries.

“That got me more at-bats and a chance to play,” he told reporters during a 17-minute interview outside the Cardinals’ clubhouse at Roger Dean Stadium, hours after he first worked with St. Louis hitters at their spring training home.

There are people in this world that start to believe in their own lies after awhile. I’m not sure if McGwire fits that mold, but it’s amazing to me that he can look at people with a straight face and say that the drug use was only so that he could stay healthy.

He could apologize 100 more times and what he says still wouldn’t carry any weight until he admits he juiced so that he could hit 500-foot home runs. If he just wanted to stay healthy, then he didn’t need to bulk up to the size of a freaking linebacker.

His apologies are very hollow and insulting to baseball fans, but at this point it’s just time to move on. He’s not going to change his story any time soon.

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Curtis Wenzlaff, a former trainer convicted of dealing steroids and who says he supplied Mark McGwire with performance-enhancing drugs in the late 80s, told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that Big Mac’s goal was to get “bigger, faster, stronger” from taking roids.

Wenzlaff also delivered the quote of the week when speaking on the subject:

“Will it help you hit a baseball?” Wenzlaff said. “Let me put it to you this way. If Paris Hilton was to take that array, she could run over Dick Butkus.”

When asked for his reaction to McGwire’s claim that he only took steroids to stay healthy enough to play, Wenzlaff said: “I chuckled. If excelling and kicking ass on the field is the end result I guess that’s a healthy, good feeling. But for health, there are other things you can take for health that are anabolic, but it wouldn’t be that type of combination.”

When asked about McGwire’s goal for taking the array of steroids he recommended and provided to McGwire, Wenzlaff said, “As anybody — bigger, faster, stronger.”

Shocking.

See, this is my problem with McGwire. He came “clean,” yet he still lied while doing so. He must honestly think that the general public is incredibly stupid and naïve. I would have had more respect for him if he came out and said:

“I’m ashamed – I took steroids and I want to come clean.”

“Why did you take steroids, Mr. McGwire?”

“Because they gave me big muscles and I wanted to hit as many home runs before my career was finished.”

He’d still be a cheater, but at least people could have respected him more for telling the truth. Now he just looks like a cheater and an idiot for thinking that he could get away with telling everyone he used drugs for health reasons. I’m not suggesting that everyone should buy into what Wenzlaff is saying, but it’s a joke to think that McGwire didn’t use riods to bulk up and smash 550-foot moonshots out of Busch Stadium.

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At Mark McGwire’s first public appearance since admitting to steroids he received a standing ovation from fans but evaded hard-hitting questions from reporters.

From ESPN.com:

His scheduled news conference, however, was shifted to an overcrowded hallway at the last minute, and McGwire evaded questions about the criticism he’s received from ex-players. The former home run king emphasized repeatedly he was ready to move on.

Dressed in jeans, a sweater and running shoes, the 46-year-old McGwire walked on stage to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, the hard-rock song played before his at-bats with the Cardinals.

He was cheered by fans who secured seats as much as 3½ hours earlier.

This is already playing out poorly. While McGwire’s confession was admirable, his claims that steroids didn’t increase his hitting power are ridiculous. Reporters are going to continue hammering him with embarrassing questions until he states the obvious.

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After Mark McGwire came out Monday and admitted to taking steroids during his playing career, baseball commissioner Bud Selig felt the need to recently proclaim that the steroid era is over.

From the New York Times:

“The use of steroids and amphetamines amongst today’s players has greatly subsided and is virtually nonexistent, as our testing results have shown,” Selig said in a statement. “The so-called steroid era — a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances — is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark’s admission today is another step in the right direction.”

Selig noted in the statement that in 2009, there were only two positive steroid tests in major league baseball out of 3,722 samples.

If only two positive tests came out of 3,722 samples, then the testing is a joke or players are finding better ways to mask the performance-enhancing drugs. There’s just no way those figures are correct and Selig should be ashamed of himself for actually believing that.

Selig wants everyone to move on because he doesn’t want his name to be synonymous with the steroid era. Well, too bad. He decided to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the problem over the past two decades and now he must pay for it.

I think baseball is finally moving in the right direction by having stricter testing in place. But that doesn’t mean I think the steroid era is over and instead of trying to rush the process, Selig should come to grips with the fact that it’s going to take the game a long time to get clean again (if it ever does, that is). He wants everyone to just forget about what happen and move on, but true baseball fans can’t and won’t allow that to happen.

Guys like Selig and McGwire need to slow down, take a step back and realize the magnitude of what they saying. They need to realize that fans are tired of having the covers pulled over their eyes and don’t want to be patronized with comments like, “the steroid era is over.” Because it’s not.

Photo from fOTOGLIF