Posted on 03/17/2005 8:03:51 PM PST by CyberAnt
The Government Reform Committee of the US House stepped up to the plate yesterday and held a day-long hearing on the issue of steroid use in American sports.
There were four panels including the parents of two high school athletes who took steroids and then committed suicide in the aftermath of their drug use.
The meat of the order, though, was the three current and two former major league players including Jose Conseco - who has written an autobiography naming several other panel members as steroid users; as well as Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmiero, and Curt Schilling.
I'm not certain anyone cares about this subject, but as I was at the Comcast SportsNet studios in Bethesda, Maryland all day as their Congressional Analyst, I thought you should suffer along with me.
Not suffer at the studio. That was fine. But watching the hearing was like waiting out a rain delay.
Of the lineup of five players, Conseco admitted to illegal steroid use in his book, so it was hard for him to deny it at the hearing.
McGwire didn't deny it, didn't admit it, and didn't answer any questions other than to say that he was not interested in the past but wanted to turn "this in a positive."
It wasn't exactly taking the fifth, but a Congressional hearing, like baseball itself, is a game of inches.
Palmiero and Sosa, who were named as users by Conseco, denied any steroid use, Red Sox pitcher Schilling has never been accused of using steroids and has, in fact, been an outspoken opponent to its use.
Rather than going right at the players, the Committee Members seemed to be intimidated by them, just nibbling around the edges.
The issue of kids using steroids - or any illicit or illegal drug - is a serious one but hauling professional ballplayers up to Capitol Hill makes for good theater, but doesn't do much to solve the problem of kids and drugs.
How many young women, do you suppose, suffer from the effects of eating disorders developed while trying to emulate Hollywood stars?
I think it would be interesting for Congress to issue subpoenas for some Hollywood bigs to ask them, under oath, whether they've ever taken illegal drugs to enhance their screen performance or their physical appearance.
For that matter, I would have liked to have seen a double-switch - have the ballplayers ask the Committee members, under oath, whether they've ever taken illegal drugs. That would have taken away their home-field advantage.
Calling a hearing based upon a book by Jose Conseco is, at a maximum, a slow dribbler back to the mound. Conseco is best known in our family for that classic drug-enhanced play when a long fly ball, hit to him in the outfield, bounced off his head and into the stands for a home run.
Hello? Mensa? I have a candidate. Do you have a form which can be completed in crayon?
Despite a series of Bronx cheers by the Members about the testing policy agreed to by the owners and the players, Curt Schilling helped MLB when he said he thought the testing policy was a good first step and rather than looking for problems, everyone should be looking for ways to make it more effective.
Palmiero, looking and sounding more Congressional than most of the Members, simply said he has never taken steroids. Period.
Asked about his having taken a substance called "andro" he had taken during his home-run-record-breaking season, Mark McGwire simply said he wanted to turn this from a negative into a positive. Again.
Retired Mark McGwire, couldn't get much higher, and that's what he was aimin' at.
It was not clear to me that the Congress did anything other than make some very talented guys perform in an arena in which they have absolutely no experience.
I'd like to see them stand in against Schilling.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: What a backward "K" means, a Mullfoto from the Comcast set; and that's about it.
-- END --
Copyright ©2005 Richard A. Galen
Also .. it has been my personal belief that not only are the democrat senators using this for grand standing face time on TV .. but I wonder if they are using it as an attempt to link President Bush to the steroid use from his time as the manager of the Texas Rangers.
It sure would appear the democrats are trying to find some excuse to try and impeach Bush. Hillary is trying to make the repubs pay for impeaching her husband (even though he deserved it).
I'm confident the dems won't find what they're FISHING for .. but all the same, I just don't like it.
To get to the "Secret Decoder Ring" page - simply click on the link at the top of the page.
I would agree that the Dems are grandstanding, as they do AT ANY OPPORTUNITY. This is NOT A CRITICAL ISSUE to the American people and our country -- not at all.
Why is the Congress wasting its time with this??? They have alot bigger fish to fry, if it suits their personal political agendas, of course...
I love Rich Galen and this article hits the nail right on the head.
Parading this athletes in front of Congress will do nothing...
Bizarre!
It was so Bizzare I couldn't even watch it - and at the first break I bailed.
When they took a break during Shepard Smith's mid-afternoon program, he asked people to email him and tell him what they thought.
He said they got about 700 emails. Primarily people said that this was grandstanding, and the rest said that baseball needed to control the drug use better.
I was one of those who said the senators were grandstanding.
Like I said, they're FISHING!
GRANDSTANDING ensues!
And .. speaking of Richard Clarke - it was the 911 Commission that USED A BOOK to interrogate Dr. Rice, and now here they are again using another book to interrogate the baseball players.
Looks like our senators don't have any ideas themselves - and have to rely on lies written in a book.
What in heck are they doing in the senate anyway!!
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