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CONSIDERING THAT its news value was almost non-existent and that its inherent dramatic effect made it the least-shocking confessional since Boy George came out of the closet, this Mark McGwire story sure does seem to have some legs.

After nearly five years, during which his personal entry in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations seemed destined to be “I’m not here to talk about the past”, McGwire’s decision to talk about the past, or at least part of it, has managed, for two days running, to upstage the NFL playoffs in the sports pages of many American newspapers.