Earth to Congress: Invite the Players!
Congress is expected to summon Bud Selig and Donald Fehr to a hearing on steroids on Jan. 15, but, according to ESPN, it remains undecided about whether or not to invite the players.
“We don’t want this to turn into a circus,” Rep. Tom Davis said to USA Today. “We just want to know what Major League Baseball plans to do about their problems. We understand the collective bargaining agreement complicates matters, but we’d like to see if they agree with Senator George Mitchell’s recommendations, and move on.”
The last congressional hearings engendered a tougher policy on performance enhancing drugs in baseball. The enduring and most effective images were not the words said, but a rattled Mark McGwire refusing “to talk about the past” and a sanctimonious Rafael Palmerio wagging his finger.
The only way to get any true assessment of the steroid problem is through the players, and, as their actions have shown, coercion proves the sole way to elicit a response. If this is merely a forum for politicians who are baseball fans to pontificate and admonish Bud Selig and Donald Fehr, why bother?
If Congress wants these hearings to meaningfully impact baseball, neither Congressmen nor Baseball executives should be the focus. To truly “move on” as Davis said, the spotlight must be on Roger Clemens.
