This day was probably too long in coming for Mark McGwire, who finally has admitted what everybody pretty much had figured out by the time he made that uncomfortable appearance before the congressional committee investigating steroid use in baseball. We all knew he had bulked up on steroids - it was too obvious - but we needed to hear him admit it and not say it happened just once during a weak moment.

Does this mean they'll throw open the doors to the Hall of Fame for him? I doubt that, but I think the admission is sincere, and I think it will improve his chances of eventually reaching Cooperstown. I don't know if he'll get there during his 15 years on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot, but there are a lot of ballots left, and I suspect his percentages will improve gradually until he has a chance. I'm guessing that time will take the edge off the steroid era and allow the voters - and the fans - to forgive, if not forget, the many players who used performance-enhancing drugs.

If you read me regularly, you know I'm not a particularly self-righteous guy, and I don't expect perfect behavior from the athletes I have covered. I liked McGwire during his early years in baseball, but didn't like him very much during the time he was the reigning home run king. He was so introverted that he became surly with the media and - frankly - I didn't understand how he could resent all the attention at the same time he was using performance-enhancing drugs to gain the stature that made that attention inevitable.

That said, I've never met a teammate who didn't love the guy (except maybe Jose Canseco), so I'll balance that against whatever disapproval I'm allowed as a person who is far from perfect himself. Someday, I'll probably vote for him, because he's still a better guy than a lot of guys who have been inducted.