Foul Territory
A sports blog with no specific focus, though I like wrestling and baseball
3.09.2005
Testify
It's been said elsewhere, but I guess the national debt is solved, the war is over, the Social Security crisis averted, and poverty eliminated. Now that all of that is taken care of, Congress can take a stab at steroids in baseball.
Laughable, of course, but that's exactly what they're doing. Seven current and former players, as well as some officials, have been subpoenaed to testify in front of the House Government Reform Committee. I'm pretty sure that there have to be more important things for our elected officials to be doing besides dragging some ballplayers to Washington to be picked on.
To their credit the MLB Players Association has vowed to fight the subpoenas to protect their membership. It's hard for me to sympathize with Congress on this one. What exactly they plan to accomplish by bringing these players and officials to Washington eludes me. In my understanding, the BALCO case, in which several of these players are involved, is going on right now and has not been resolved. Can't Congress let the legal system do its job and leave the grandstanding for another time?
Perhaps the most sickening part of it all for me is why it's happening in the first place. I can't believe that any of this would be going on if it weren't for Jose Canseco's new book that came out in the past month. It can't be a coincidence that many of the subpoenaed players were mentioned in the book as being users of performance enhancing drugs. Congress had mostly kept out of the BALCO investigation, and it's just now with the revelations in Canseco's book that this government committee has decided to take action.
I just don't get it. What do they hope to accomplish? Why are they doing this? Is it anything more than public relations? I really, truly hope that the Players Association wins out here and gets these subpoenas quashed. If it goes to the full House for a vote, I hope it is soundly defeated, and if it makes it to the U.S. District Court, hopefully the madness can end there so baseball can go back to policing itself and Congress can get back to the business of running the country.
Laughable, of course, but that's exactly what they're doing. Seven current and former players, as well as some officials, have been subpoenaed to testify in front of the House Government Reform Committee. I'm pretty sure that there have to be more important things for our elected officials to be doing besides dragging some ballplayers to Washington to be picked on.
To their credit the MLB Players Association has vowed to fight the subpoenas to protect their membership. It's hard for me to sympathize with Congress on this one. What exactly they plan to accomplish by bringing these players and officials to Washington eludes me. In my understanding, the BALCO case, in which several of these players are involved, is going on right now and has not been resolved. Can't Congress let the legal system do its job and leave the grandstanding for another time?
Perhaps the most sickening part of it all for me is why it's happening in the first place. I can't believe that any of this would be going on if it weren't for Jose Canseco's new book that came out in the past month. It can't be a coincidence that many of the subpoenaed players were mentioned in the book as being users of performance enhancing drugs. Congress had mostly kept out of the BALCO investigation, and it's just now with the revelations in Canseco's book that this government committee has decided to take action.
I just don't get it. What do they hope to accomplish? Why are they doing this? Is it anything more than public relations? I really, truly hope that the Players Association wins out here and gets these subpoenas quashed. If it goes to the full House for a vote, I hope it is soundly defeated, and if it makes it to the U.S. District Court, hopefully the madness can end there so baseball can go back to policing itself and Congress can get back to the business of running the country.
Andy, 9:38 PM
