Nothing is simple. Give a man a positive and mankind will turn it on its head. Give love and a man will make it unseemly. Give a flowing stream and a man will dump his waste in it. Give him $10 and a man will want $12.

Give 62 home runs and a man will put an asterisk beside it, if only mentally.

Mark McGwire is on the verge of breaking Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers in a seaon. Home runs in one season is a baseball benchmark. When Maris broke the Babe’s mark of 60, some folks wanted to put an asterisk up because Maris played a 162-game season and the Babe 154. It became a mental asterisk, but a blot nevertheless.

Now this. McGwire takes a presumed and legal performance enhancing drug. The drug increases the hormone testosterone. The drug, like vitamins or herbal supplements, increases the volume of a particular chemical naturally created by the body.

In McGwire’s case, the desired result is an increase in muscle mass: strength to hit home runs. Author John Keegan in “A History of Warfare” no less, says “… testosterone, produced in the male testes and closely identified with aggressive behavior… heightens aggression. Generally speaking, high levels of testosterone in males make for heightened masculinity…”

Keegan spoke of testosterone in terms of “war and human nature.” In McGwire’s case, it’s baseball and home runs. How’s that for life imitating baseball, or vice versa.

McGwire, unfazed, simply said it was legal and helped make him a better player.

Reference has been made to the International Olympic Committee and the NFL having banned the drugs used. The IOC attempts to ban, not make illegal, all performance-enhancing drugs. The NFL has had so many problems with steroid-enhancing drugs that it tries to ban all related chemicals. Baseball has not done so.

There is a certain hypocrisy with the press, raising this issue, while McGwire makes daily news in his home run chase. Seemingly forever baseball players have taken uppers (amphetamines) to enhance their performance. The press and the pro leagues have generally winked at their usage.

Caffeine, a naturally occurring stimulant, now comes in a coffee cup or in tablet form. Athletes take it both ways. It’s legally like the drug used by McGwire. Is it wrong to have multiple cups of coffee before a pro game – or a big business meeting? How about a few caffeine tablets?

Perhaps the most distressing nut in this cake is the effect on young athletes. College sports are no different than the pros. Bet the house, if the pros have found a performance enhancer, it’s on your local college campus and at high schools.

We are a society of quick fixes, enlargements, reductions, implants and enhancers. Natural seems never enough. Why wouldn’t that whole philosophy show up in sports?

I like Mark McGwire a lot. My knowledge of him is of a genuine, honest, caring man. He values and protects the projected image resulting from his vocation. This matter will touch him deeply and he will rue the day this business of which he thought nothing of becomes a protracted nightmare.

Before placing the mental asterisk in front of his 62nd homer, remember, he has done nothing illegal or in violation of any rule. He unhesitantly and with no sense of impropriety said he used the drug.

As a matter of future course, there is an issue. Mark McGwire isn’t it.

NEWS columnist Gary Thorne, an Old Town native, is an ESPN and CBS broadcaster.