Ten years after breaking the single season home run record in Major League Baseball, Mark McGwire has come clean and admitted he used steroids.

Before heading back to the ballpark as a hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, McGwire decided to finally come clean about using steroids as a pro baseball player.

"It's the most regrettable thing I've ever done in my life," McGwire said.

For years, McGwire avoided questions about the use of performance enhancing drugs, even refusing to testify before Congress.

He said he started using steroids after a series of injuries, including the year he broke Roger Maris' record for home runs in a single season.

"The wear and tear of 162 ballgames and the status of where I was at and the pressures that I had to perform, it's a very regrettable thing and I wish they had never come into my life," he added.

While McGwire's confession did not come as a total surprise, steroid use is not only an issue for the professional sporting world, but the problem trickles down to teenagers, who try to emulate their heroes and eventually go professional. The young atheletes think steroids will make them faster and stronger.

Recent statistics show that while steroid use among teens has dropped in recent years, the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates more than a half a million 8th and 10th graders are still using them. About a third of the high school seniors polled say it is easy to get them.

Steroids can to lead to a long list of negative sides effects from acne to aggressive behavior - to stunted growth and even lead to kidney failure.

However, McGwire's admission may help young aspiring athletes - and pros alike - to learn from his mistake.

"Yeah, I let a lot of people down. It doesn't feel good," he said.