"If a player answers 'no' he simply will not be believed. If he answers 'yes', he risks public scorn and endless government investigations." No truer words were spoken at Thursday's hearings on steroids in baseball than these remarks by Mark McGwire. Seeing no benefit in answering "yes" or "no," McGwire opted for silence. But even his fellow sluggers who emphatically denied using steroids, like Rafael Palmeiro, had their reputations smeared merely by getting called before the committee.

The hearings accomplished what the chairman of the committee, Virginian Tom Davis, hoped for: to get his face on the evening newscasts and cable talk shows. His gain came at the expense of the reputations of several ballplayers, who may or may not have used steroids. The stated goal of the hearings, to uncover information regarding steroids in baseball, was a complete failure. We know nothing more about steroids in baseball than we did yesterday. No player admitted using steroids who had previously denied it.

The congressmen hid behind their favorite ploy--"We're doing this for the children"--to justify the hearings. In addition to the baseball stars, the committee called parents whose sons had used steroids and died. The interest in "the children" was particularly demagogic, not just because the cause of death in the two cases discussed involved suicide rather than steroids, but because one of the suicide cases was a twenty-four-year-old man. Steroids didn't kill their sons. Their sons killed their sons. By invoking the two tragedies, congressmen sought to provoke crying instead of thinking. It's only when emotion overcomes thought, after all, that we forget how ridiculous it is for a House Committee on Government Reform to hold hearings on baseball.

The Constitution forbids bills of attainder--official acts which punish or attaint individuals without a trial. Today's kangaroo court attainted several ballplayers, who no matter their guilt or innocence will forever wear the scarlet "S" placed upon them by this mob of elected rogues.

Since when did the majority of the members of Congress let a little thing like the Constitution get in their way?

The Constitution has become a safety net for Congress to fall back on as a political weapon. That is truly sad, for most of our answers to today's political problems are there.

Be well,

Sponge

what puzzles me most is why after 16 years of playing professional baseball in the United States, Sammy Sosa still cannot speak a lick of English!

We've become a nanny state.

I am not a lawyer, but aren't you legally, if not morally, obliged to answer the truth when subpoenaed by the representatives of the people of the United States? McGwire is worried about the consequences of his answers, he is not concerned with answering the truth. He even posits the effects of his lying versus telling the truth. He may be speaking the truth when he explains the effects on himself of his answers, but he certainly shows no interest in the truth itself. He cannot effectively dissuade young people from using when he not only used steroids himself but he won’t even admit it. If the truth was “no, I’ve never used steroids,” he would have said it.

I suspect steroids are far from entirely safe to use. They also enhance athletic performance. Ergo they are a dangerous seductive substance for people striving to succeed in the highly competitive world of professional sports. The professional leagues want to maintain an image of sports as being healthy and fair, so they ban such substances. I suppose these substances are outlawed. Given that this use of steroids is illegal, and there is much reason to believe that their use is rampant in baseball, why should congress not look into it? How is congress doing harm? This is extremely high profile illegal activity by a lot of rich athletes. Their health and the health of a lot of misguided youngsters aspiring to be athletes is in jeopardy. How does this differ from cocaine such that steroids are harmless but we must prosecute cocaine abuse?

You don’t have to be able to speak any English to make millions in this country! Hell you don’t even need to speak English to obtain a drivers license.
Men and Women are putting their lives on the line everyday for what? 40,000-50,000 a year? And kids nowadays look up to "heroes" like Sosa, Ming and Matsui. Because their parents force them to play ball or singing lessons. They don’t see children to love, play around with, and have fun with or even to raise, they see dollar signs. Parents are so starry eyed; their children are just a means to an end. Back to the situation at hand... It really shouldn’t be congress' responsibility for showboating the steroid issue...it should be Selig getting a foothold of it. But like I said Selig is starry eyed with dollar signs, a lot of money from different players was probably thrown his way to look the other way. John McCain warned Selig to get control of it or Congress will. I just wish they could get a foothold of Illegal Aliens like they do the steroid issue.

What a bunch of miscreant whiners.

But you see this is what the Pols do, i.e. try to stay away from anything where there may be heavy lifting. They pick a softball issue like steroid use in professional Baseball and posture to make it seem like they’re concerned and actually doing something. Meanwhile, illegal criminals pour into our country daily, some of them very dangerous, but fixing that threat would require real planning and work. So, faggedaboudit!

Can’t think of anything that they could do that was as much a waste of time as this.

It is true that it's illegal to lie under oath. However, the Fifth Amendment states that you cannot be forced to be a witness against yourself. Mark McGuire was asked if he took steroids and he remained silent, which he has the legal right to do.

Regarding the hearings yesterday...."I don't want to talk about the past".

Baseball been vety, vety good to me!

Dishonesty was rampant at the hearings. What role models huh? Those Ignorant jocks can't even utilize the english language.

Such a blantant waste of time and tax payer's dollars. This was high drama and theater at its core and people who love enjoy staring at car accidents were more than likely loving it.

Don't think that these guys will make a difference either way when it comes to kids doing roids or not.

My testicles have shrrunken to the size of frijoles negros, subsequent my steroid use!

Paul,

Thanking you for reminding our readers of McGuire's Constitutional rights, instead of ranting some stupid comment.

That being said, I guess Social Security reform, Terri Shavio, and every other seemingly important issue takes a backseat to baseball.

Why is it Congress's place to conduct these hearings? The MLB is a private organization. If it has a drug problem, it should be taken care of within the organization. If congress wants to put pressure on the MLB to institute a real steroid policy, fine. But don't waste my tax dollars on these shenanigans.

Funny, you have a woman fighting for her life, and more attention gets placed on a sport. What kind of a society do we live in?

CJD,
Yes, McGwire is in fine company exercising the 5th. Perfectly legal. I meant to say if he answers, I believe he must answer truthfully. But what he answered demonstrated that he wanted to be seen as the good guy, not answer the truth. He says even if he lied he wouldn't look good. He doesn't say lying is out of the question, which is the respectable posture.

You say "if congress wants to put pressure on the MLB to institute a real steroid policy, fine." Don't you think that is exactly what they did? They affect public perception of baseball, and this pressures baseball, I hope. I believe that was the point. As for the cost of the hearing and the idea that there are more important things to discuss, do you know how much money is thrown away on useless crap by congress? Do you know how much time they waste on a whole lotta nothing? I doubt the day on MLB really put my grandchildren in much debt.