McGwire - 'Zero' chance of return

ST. LOUIS -- Mark McGwire said there's "zero" chance he'll be like Michael Jordan and come out of retirement.

In his first interview since retiring Sunday, McGwire told ESPN that his mind is made up.

"Michael Jordan can control the game," McGwire said Tuesday. "Give me the ball, I'll do what I want with it. When you're a power hitter, you're not in control of anything. There's absolutely no way. Zero."

McGwire hit 583 home runs, 17 short of becoming only the fourth player in major league history to hit 600. Although he said his 400th and 500th homers were special, he doesn't want to chase numbers for numbers sake.

"I am not going to stick around the game to climb up the ladder," McGwire said. "I've never been like that, I never will be like that."

McGwire felt he was just taking up roster space for the St. Louis Cardinals, the way his career wound down.

He missed most of the second half of the 2000 season with an injured right knee and only batted .187 with 29 homers in his final year.

"Heck, the last year-and-a-half I basically wasn't even in existence in baseball," McGwire said. "I feel like I've been hanging around."

That said, McGwire feels he'll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer along with Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn in five years.

"It's just something that comes after you have a fantastic career," McGwire said. "And if the writers vote me in the first time with Cal and Tony, that would be totally awesome."

McGwire said a combination of factors led to his decision to walk away from a $30 million, two-year contract extension, including the injuries.

"You can't say that it was the season, you can't say it was the injury, the surgery," McGwire said. "My mind and body are worn out from playing baseball since I was 12-years old.

"I'm done. I've always told myself I'm not going to hang around and just be another player."

McGwire had surgery to correct patella tendinitis after spending the second half of the 2000 season on the disabled list. He lasted six games in 2001 before going back on the DL, and never felt right.

"The thought of rehabbing again and going to spring training and hearing Tony's 45-minute dissertation on bunt plays is not appealing whatsoever," McGwire said. "You sit back and think about this and you just go, 'I have no desire to do that.' I am so ready to move on with the second half of my life."

McGwire knew something was wrong in spring training when he was hitting "lazy fly balls" instead of tape-measure home runs.

"After the work I did this winter, I couldn't believe it," McGwire said. "I sat back and I just said, 'How much more can my body take?"'

Only one thing about McGwire's final seasons makes him angry, the revelation that he was taking androstenedione in 1998 -- the year he hit a record 70 homers. McGwire stopped taking andro in 1999.

"What a waste of print, what a waste of film," McGwire said. "It has absolutely nothing to do with hitting a baseball.

"It helped me get through workouts after a game. Believe me, 90 percent of athletes take something to help themselves out."

Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., one of the team's primary owners, said McGwire telephoned him Monday night. DeWitt told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he wasn't upset that McGwire had informed ESPN first about his retirement, adding that McGwire tried to call him Sunday night but he wasn't home.

"That was his prerogative," DeWitt told the Post-Dispatch. "I don't want to question how he handled it."

The Cardinals are under no financial obligation to McGwire, although DeWitt made it clear that he wanted McGwire to continue in some role with the club. DeWitt said McGwire could be a spring training instructor like Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, but doubted McGwire would want to do that right away.

"I said I'll think about it, but I just want to stay away," McGwire said. "I'm always going to love baseball and I'm going to miss it, but who's not going to miss anything they've been doing since they were 12 years old?"