Cardinals GM still trying to get McGwire to talk to media

By Sporting News staff reports

updated 5:05 a.m. ET Nov. 11, 2009

Mark McGwire will meet the press. Soon. Perhaps.

St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak told reporters Tuesday that he'll try in the coming days to "work through" the logistics of having McGwire talk to the media about the present, the fture and, maybe, the past.

"Clearly my energy is focused on players and looking at how to improve our 2010 team. Understanding that, the McGwire situation has to be recognized," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoted Mozeliak as saying. "I don't have a timetable yet on when we're going to do things or how we're going to do them. But it's not something we're ignoring or hoping will go away."

Mozeliak, who is in Chicago attending baseball's general managers' meetings, said the leaking of McGwire's hiring late last month contributed to the delay in McGwire's media availability. McGwire did not attend the press conference in which his hiring was announced, and his phone number was not on an offseason list of contacts given to club personnel, the Post-Dispatch reported. Mozeliak said he has not yet talked to McGwire about his availability, but is hopeful Cardinals manager Tony La Russa can help set up a meeting.

"We were hopeful we could have (made McGwire available) a little later in the month after the World Series. Given (news of the hiring) was there, we had to address it. It's out there now," Mozeliak told reporters. "In hindsight, if we could have handled it a little differently we would have. But now we'll just starting looking forward."

Media members want to ask McGwire again about his alleged use of steroids when he played. He has been silent on the matter, going so far as refusing to answer questions under oath during a congressional hearing in 2005.