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March 17, 2005
Congressional Hearings on Steroids So Far...
It's not over yet but so far the congressional hearings into steroid use in major league baseball has a lot more teeth than I thought that it would. Of course it's unlikely that much will come out of this and I still don't anticipate any bombshells about steroid use but it's been pretty riveting so far. Particularly as it relates to Mark McGwire.
Prior to these hearings McGwire emphatically denied every using steroids. But after hearing him today if he's not guilty of steroid use he sure is doing a great job of sounding like it. He's envoked his fifth amendment rights to not incriminate himself and he's evaded some of the questions. McGwire was directly asked if the use of steroids is cheating and he said "That's not for me to deterimine." Same answer when asked if records should stand for those players caught using steroids. Then he keeps talking about not wanting to talk about the past.
But most damning in my opinion is his opening statement when he started crying. In the panel prior to the player's panel two parents of kids who committed suicide spoke. Those deaths were possibly related to their use of steroids with the implication being that they were just doing as their role models have done. McGwire truly cares for kids, that is obvious based on his considerable charitable efforts in that area and I believe if he did in fact use steroids that hearing that particular testimony was very difficult for him. Which may be why he started crying. Those tears, possibly of regret, really indicates to me that any statements McGwire said previously about not having used steroids were probably complete untruths.
Today is really a sad day for baseball because all the excitement and amazement of the great homerun battle of 1998 between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, all the good will and everything else is crumbling to pieces.
Posted by silverdsl at March 17, 2005 04:56 PM