Congress Addicted to Slamming Baseball - Vito's View Sports

After watching and digesting Congress’ latest attack on our national pastime, I came away wondering one thing—what was the point?

It’s not a waste of taxpayers’ money to clean up sports on all levels, whether high school, college, or pro. And it’s important for the government to follow up on the hearings it held nearly three years ago.

But after House committee members heaped praise on former Senator George Mitchell for his (slanted?) report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, the hearing was simply a regurgitation of everything we already knew. That includes the knowledge that many players are still using amphetamines to stay up day after day. The only real development came in the opening minutes when chairman Henry Waxman explained that the government is ready to go after Miguel Tejada for perjury.

The legislators then gave their soliloquies, sprayed out their allegations, and fired what they thought were hardball questions. Bud Selig and Donald Fehr answered every query, absorbed the criticism, and accepted responsibility that baseball’s drug era came under their watch. Still, anyone who watched the first round of Congressional hearings on steroids in baseball was left with the same conclusion—“we know.”

We know some players cheated. We know some fans felt defrauded. We know it proliferated under Selig and Fehr. We know other baseball officials didn’t act quickly enough to stop the spread of performance enhancers in their sport. We know the old policy was woefully inadequate. We know the new policy lets players cheat twice before they pay the ultimate price.

Did we really need this hearing to remind us, again, of everything everyone already knows? How many times are we going to go through this exercise?

Maybe this was just batting practice for the legislators who will grill Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Chuck Knoblauch next month. After all, it was Mark McGwire’s testimony on Capitol Hill that is keeping him out of the Hall of Fame.

But I have to ask: Why is Congress stopping with baseball this time? Why is the committee satisfied with the previous testimony from David Stern, Gary Bettman, and Paul Tagliabue? The NBA, NHL, or NFL didn’t launch an investigation to figure out who’s clean and who’s dirty. Why isn’t new NFL commish Roger Goodell answering questions? Where’s Shawne Merriman? He’s a star, he was caught cheating. Why aren’t lawmakers asking the linebacker where he got his drugs, who in the Chargers’ organization knew about it, and who else in the NFL is doping?

Please don’t try to tell me it’s because the NFL’s policy is so strong and MLB’s is so weak. Merriman returned to the field after sitting out just four games. And please don’t tell me it’s because baseball had the weakest drug-testing program in sports. That distinction belongs to the NHL, which didn’t institute a testing program until 2006 and still refuses to test players in the offseason.

The uncharismatic Selig may be a punching bag, but at least he had the guts to try to clean up his game. He admitted baseball had a drug addiction and he sent it to rehab. His sport’s biggest stars will again sit in the same chair he did and face the same committee. He’s willing to punish players, executives, and club personnel.

Despite these measures, there Selig and Fehr were, sitting in front of legislators again and listening to them harp on the fact that baseball was on steroids and that they were slow to react.

Sure, the fireworks will come when Clemens and ex-trainer Brian McNamee go head-to-head. But until legislators start following up with the other major sports and bringing them to task, it’s hard to believe that baseball is getting a fair shake. After all, is it the committee's intent to end drug use in all sports, or just embarrass baseball over and over again?


Message Edited by Vito_Forlenza on 06-26-2008 04:11 PM