Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Beizball Been Berry, Berry ...

Rich Galen

Wednesday March 18, 2005

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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 Canseco - 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, Canseco 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 Canseco, 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 Canseco is, at a maximum, a slow dribbler back to the mound. Canseco 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? On 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.

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