Congress and steroids
Every one seems to have an opinion on the Congressional hearings set to begin tomorrow. The simple answer is that having Congress getting involved is good, but it's disappointing it had to come to this.
From a pure entertainment point of view, the hearings should provide plenty of late-night talk show jokes. Imagine Jose Canseco tomorrow.
He's got a book detailing his steroids use, yet he plans to invoke the 5th amendment? That should prove interesting.
Might Mark McGwire come clean regarding his steroids use? Or will he continue to lie, and let Tony be his publicist and public apologist?
Regardless of what happens tomorrow, the fact is baseball pretended it was a monopoly that didn't have to worry about rules like you and me. Oh wait, baseball is a monopoly. But anyway, baseball still sticks to the sorry claim that since steroids weren't illegal in baseball during the '90's, all of this is silly.
Which of course would be true if we allowed Don and Bud to decide all the rules in this country. But since we don't, and our government had declared taking steroids without a doctors prescription is illegal, it actually does matter. See guys, when we (the public) fund your stadiums, pay for your $8 beers and allow you to keep your monopoly, we expect a few things in return.
And turning a blind eye to rampant steroid use for a decade is not what we expect. The only reason the current steroid agreement is in place isn't because Donald Fehr is such a good guy. No, it is because of public pressure.
And tomorrow is a chance to get a few answers in this sordid mess.
I don't really care what guys like Giambi or even Bonds have to say. We already know they used steroids. (If you think they didn't, you think OJ is innocent and Charles Manson was framed.) The real answers will come from Panel Four:
Bud Selig, Commissioner
Robert D. Manfred Jr., Exec VP of Labor and Human Resources
Donald Fehr, Prick
Sandy Alderson, Baseball Operations
Kevin Towers, GM Padres
These guys have the best chance of saying who proposed what, when and the least likely to lie. We all know Canseco can't keep his own "facts" straight, but this group knows there is a serious price to pay when it comes to lying before Congress.
Let's hope Bud and Don feel some pain tomorrow, simply because they deserve it.
Every one seems to have an opinion on the Congressional hearings set to begin tomorrow. The simple answer is that having Congress getting involved is good, but it's disappointing it had to come to this.
From a pure entertainment point of view, the hearings should provide plenty of late-night talk show jokes. Imagine Jose Canseco tomorrow.
He's got a book detailing his steroids use, yet he plans to invoke the 5th amendment? That should prove interesting.
Might Mark McGwire come clean regarding his steroids use? Or will he continue to lie, and let Tony be his publicist and public apologist?
Regardless of what happens tomorrow, the fact is baseball pretended it was a monopoly that didn't have to worry about rules like you and me. Oh wait, baseball is a monopoly. But anyway, baseball still sticks to the sorry claim that since steroids weren't illegal in baseball during the '90's, all of this is silly.
Which of course would be true if we allowed Don and Bud to decide all the rules in this country. But since we don't, and our government had declared taking steroids without a doctors prescription is illegal, it actually does matter. See guys, when we (the public) fund your stadiums, pay for your $8 beers and allow you to keep your monopoly, we expect a few things in return.
And turning a blind eye to rampant steroid use for a decade is not what we expect. The only reason the current steroid agreement is in place isn't because Donald Fehr is such a good guy. No, it is because of public pressure.
And tomorrow is a chance to get a few answers in this sordid mess.
I don't really care what guys like Giambi or even Bonds have to say. We already know they used steroids. (If you think they didn't, you think OJ is innocent and Charles Manson was framed.) The real answers will come from Panel Four:
Bud Selig, Commissioner
Robert D. Manfred Jr., Exec VP of Labor and Human Resources
Donald Fehr, Prick
Sandy Alderson, Baseball Operations
Kevin Towers, GM Padres
These guys have the best chance of saying who proposed what, when and the least likely to lie. We all know Canseco can't keep his own "facts" straight, but this group knows there is a serious price to pay when it comes to lying before Congress.
Let's hope Bud and Don feel some pain tomorrow, simply because they deserve it.
posted by Tom at
1:13 PM
