Mark McGwire is the Cardinals' new batting coach, and if you've come to this space looking for moral outrage over his hiring, then you've gotten off at the wrong bus stop.

Perhaps I've become too jaded by the standards on display in professional sports. A Rams player who killed a woman while driving drunk has played a dozen years in the NFL. The Philadelphia Eagles signed an ex-con quarterback who tortured and murdered innocent animals.

The New York Yankees won the American League pennant with considerable assistance from Alex Rodriguez (steroids) and Andy Pettitte (HGH) and I don't see anyone storming the gates of Yankee Stadium, demanding their removal from the World Series roster. I was in Los Angeles for the NLDS, and Manny Ramirez was still batting fourth in the lineup, and the Dodgers still had their "Mannywood" sign in left field.

There are so many rogues, rascals and rapscallions earning paychecks while playing or coaching games, I simply cannot have a tantrum over McGwire's new career opportunity. Moreover, I don't believe most fans care about steroids. There's no sign that they do, no evidence that they've stayed away in protest or disgust. Baseball attendance dropped slightly this year because of the economy, but the industry's growth over the last 10, 12 years has been remarkable.

This is the entertainment business — the key word being "business." It isn't the monastery or a Boy Scout meeting. McGwire is going to roll some videotape and have meetings with hitters and suggest a better way to get base hits off Ted Lilly. McGwire wasn't hired to be the team chaplain, or life coach or to serve as the role model for the children of St. Louis. He's going to offer proverbs such as "keep your front shoulder in" and "keep your hands back." Really deep stuff, there.

McGwire has never been charged with a crime. He's never been convicted of a crime. He hasn't been banned by Major League Baseball. He's eligible to be hired. And the man who runs the sport, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, celebrates McGwire to this day.

And if you want to disqualify McGwire from working at a batting cage because he almost certainly used steroids in a playing career that ended in 2001, or because he made a fool of himself in testimony before Congress, that's fine.

But if we outlaw McGwire, we'd better take a pen and cross out hundreds of names of players who competed during the Steroids Era. They can't work, either. Same with the managers, coaches, general managers, owners and commissioners who looked the other way while bulked-up players went on juicing binges to power up the competition and the box office. Good luck putting together 30 teams.

All of that said, the McGwire hiring is problematic for other reasons.

I don't believe he knows what he's getting into.

I don't believe the Cardinals realize what they're in for.

I don't understand why McGwire has decided to leave a peaceful, secluded life to open himself up to greater scrutiny.

The Cardinals need to increase their onbase percentage by taking more walks, but why walk into a controversy?

The hiring of McGwire only reinforces the perception that this is a steroids-friendly franchise. They've employed players who have flunked baseball's official steroids test (Ryan Franklin, Ron Villone). They've employed players implicated in performance-enhancing scandals (Troy Glaus, Rick Ankiel).

Manager Tony La Russa has been pounded with questions about players' steroid use in Oakland and St. Louis. La Russa has been branded, fairly or unfairly, as the preeminent manager during the era of steroids. Look, all managers have had steroid users in their lineups; La Russa is no better or worse than the rest of them. But adding McGwire to his staff will only give his critics more ammunition.

McGwire will be hounded by questions, and the Cardinals' visits to other cities will prompt new rounds of steroid stories and innuendo.

McGwire won't be able to hide from these inquiries, and if La Russa and McGwire think it's possible to build a wall around him and fight off interrogators, they're being unrealistic. All that will do is create conflict and chaos.

And McGwire is in a no-win situation. Here's why: If some of the team's hitters experience a decline in production, McGwire will get the blame. But if a couple of players suddenly begin hitting more home runs, cynics will be at the ready, suggesting that he's injecting them with something more tangible than wisdom.

Rookie Colby Rasmus lost weight this past season because of a hiatal hernia, and I guarantee you that if he's bigger and stronger and hitting for more power next season, you'll hear idiots whispering about McGwire.

And what about the players who have to endure slumps and drops of confidence? They need maximum concentration and the full attention of their coach. What they do not need are disruptions caused by a media circus that awaits McGwire.

Obviously this is a great time for McGwire to come clean, unburden himself, and tell all that there is to tell. It's the quickest way for him to move forward.

Does Big Mac want to be an effective hitting coach or a distraction? McGwire can determine that, right way.

We're about to find out how smart the guy is.

Or how naive the Cardinals were in hiring him.