Home -
Baseball
-
Football
-
Basketball
-
Hockey
-
Golf
-
This Day in
Sports History
Additional Links:
Sports
Thunder
Site Map
Advertising Information
Sports Articles of the Week
Partners
PARTNERS:
Texas Holdem Poker
Internet Directory
Gambling Online
Online Bingo
Wedding Website
Affiliate Program Software
SPORTS ARTICLES OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE:
MARCH 23, 2005
As you have most likely already heard, last week,
Congress held hearings addressing the issue of steroids in professional
sports, especially Major League Baseball. There has been a lot of debate
on whether Congress should be involved in this issue, or whether Major
League Baseball is responsible for cleaning up the league themselves.
When I first heard about these hearings, I was outraged. Why should
Congress spend a full day discussing a relatively minor issue? After
all, it is a 700 person business, with only a fraction of the players
actually using performance enhancing drugs. Don’t get me wrong, I am not
condoning the use of steroids in baseball, rather prioritizing the
issues in America. The general American public is much more interested
in social security, the war in Iraq, the economy, and other important
issues, but I don’t think too many people care if an athlete making
fifteen million dollars a year is taking an illegal steroid.
The even bigger issue in all this is whether Congress should be involved
legally or not. The last time I checked, Congress was not responsible in
seeking out and persecuting suspected criminals. There is a reason why
America has an FBI, and other similar organizations that investigate
suspicions, and seek out illegal behavior. It seems that this was almost
a publicity stunt to Congress, getting TV time on all the news stations,
in addition to the sports stations, smiling, and shaking hands with the
baseball executives.
What surprised me most about all the testimony that I heard that day was
how dumb Congress is. I understand that you don’t get to Congress by
accident, and that they all have very successful backgrounds, but some
of the questions they asked, to be blunt, were completely pointless. My
favorite question of the day, which was asked multiple times, by
multiple people, was, “Do you think the Major League Baseball steroid
testing program is effective?” This may seem like a reasonable question
at first, but what you have to know, is that Major League Baseball just
instituted a new steroid testing program days before these hearings. How
is anyone supposed to make a judgment on how successful something is,
when it has only been implemented for less than a week? This is
Congress’s job to know these kind of facts, and not have to be told time
over time, that the program has not been running long enough to
determine if it is effective yet. I think Congress really embarrassed
itself, and the entire US government, in their knowledge of this issue.
I also find it very interesting who Congress issued subpoenas to, to
appear and testify at these hearings. Many of the baseball superstars,
including: Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa, Jose Canseco, and Mark McGwire;
were expected to attend, due to their suspected involvement with
steroids. However, there were several unexpected players who were
invited, including: Rafael Palmiero. The only logical reason he was
invited, was because in Jose Canseco’s recent book, Juiced: Wild Times,
Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, Canseco accused
Palmiero of being a steroid user. This really brings up the issue of
freedom of speech. In today’s society, is anything printed in a book,
automatically believed to be true? In his book, Canseco had absolutely
no evidence to accuse Palmiero, yet it was obviously enough to convince
Congress that he was in some way connected to steroids. Palmiero was
forced to get up and testify in front of Congress, and the American
public, about his alleged use of steroids, which he denied over and over
again in his testimony. I find myself going both ways on the freedom of
speech matter, because I do firmly believe in freedom of speech, but I
don’t think that someone’s freedom of speech should be interpreted by
Congress to be the truth, and force a man, who I believe is innocent, to
get up and testify. It has entirely tarnished his reputation, and even
if it is proven that he is innocent, there will now forever be doubts
about whether he used steroids or not, because of this trial.
My last question for Congress, is why they did not invite the most
suspected steroid user, Barry Bonds? Their excuse of not wanting to make
these hearings a circus is ridiculous. If they truly want to correct the
problem of steroids in baseball, I don’t see how you can’t bring the
most important person regarding steroids, to testify under oath in front
of the American public. If the government busted a drug cartel, I don’t
think they are going to let the leader not testify, because they want to
keep the trial in order, and instead bring a bunch of smaller dealers to
testify. They are going to bring the leader, no matter what the effect
of him testifying is, because they know that is the only way they will
end up fixing the issue. The same is true with baseball. If Congress is
going to have a trial regarding steroids in baseball, then you have to
bring the leader, Bonds, not a bunch of the smaller players.
Now, changing the pace a little bit, I don’t think baseball is
completely innocent either. After all, it is a complete mockery that
Major League Baseball sent Congress a draft of the steroid agreement. In
this draft, there was a huge two letter word that completely changed the
policy. Before these hearings, Major League Baseball had told the public
that after a first offense of using steroids, a player would be
suspended. However, in the version of the agreement that Congress had,
it said that a player could be suspended or fined, based on the
Commissioner’s discretion. Whoever is responsible for this error in
paper work should be immediately fired. It created a huge confusion in
the testimonies, with the executives of Major League Baseball, having no
idea where this word “or” was in the agreement. It made Congress and
Major League Baseball both look highly unprofessional and amateur, at a
field that they are supposed to be the leaders in.
My final issue with these hearings is Mark McGwire’s responses to the
questions of Congress. It only made him worse, every time he was asked a
question regarding a history of steroids in his past, and he responded,
“I want to focus on the future, not the past.” Whoever advised him to
respond like this is obviously not very knowledgeable in the legal
profession. In saying this, he is basically saying that he is guilty.
After all, if he is innocent, this would have been the perfect
opportunity to say that he had never used steroids. In basically
pleading the fifth, he is basically pleading guilty. I guess you have to
give him credit for not flat out lying like Barry Bonds, saying that he
never used steroids, but if you are going to basically admit it, then
just go ahead and say it outright. Going half way on the issue just
makes it worse.
In conclusion, while this whole trial has been filled by slip-ups and
faults by various people, it has proven somewhat successful in getting
knowledge out to the public. Major League Baseball and Baseball’s
Player’s Association have agreed on removing all instances of “or” in
the agreement. I guess you can’t say the hearings were a complete waste
of time, because this mistake was corrected, but in my opinion, the
trials never should have occurred. It is not Congress’s responsibility
to govern Major League Baseball. I sincerely hope that baseball can get
cleaned up, whether by itself, or with the help of Congress, so that we
can get back to discussing America’s pastime on the field, and not all
this controversy off of it.
Until next week,
Tom
© Copyright 2005, OnlineSportsTrivia.com.
All Rights Reserved.
Privacy
Policy
| Las Vegas Golf - online guide to las vegas golf, offers golf course information, online booking for golf tee times and hotel and golf packages. |
| Structured Settlement - sell annuity, lottery winnings, cash for structured settlements and more. |
| Mobile Home Financing - specializing in mobile/manufactured home financing and refinancing in parks and on leased land |
| Concert Tickets - concert tickets - concert tour schedules - concerts ticket brokers available. tickets4concerts.com is a premium ticket agency that has been in business since 1982 with offices in orange county, ca. and las vegas, nv. |
| Sports Tickets - sports tickets : click search save on sports tickets. click4tickets.com is a premium ticket agency that has been in business since 1982 with offices in orange county, ca. and las vegas, nv. |
| Tennis - tennis directory with an option to rate and review tennis related links and resources. |
| NASCAR - nascar directory with an option to rate and review nascar related links and resources. |
| Aquarium Ornaments - over 100 aquarium ornaments at great prices, only from aquariumguys.com |
| Aquarium Filter - tons of aquarium filters at aquariumguys.com. power filters, diatom filters, wet dry filters, and more at aquariumguys.com! |