here is another good column about yesterday's hearings....
Jon Heyman
SPORTS COLUMNIST
Players' testimony reveals weaklings
March 18, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C.
From the consummate windbag (Curt Schilling) on one end of the panel to the consummate dirtbag (Jose Canseco) on the other, baseball's lineup of five major-league wafflers, backpedalers and truth-hiders all whiffed at the Congressional steroid hearing.
No one whiffed more pathetically and profoundly than Mark McGwire, who didn't have the guts to either admit or deny he and his records are one gigantic fraud.
McGwire came up remarkably small. Speaking like an automaton after nearly breaking down during his evasive statement, McGwire said nothing worthwhile while alternating three excuses, one lamer than the next.
"I'm a retired player," he said.
"I want to be positive," he said.
"I'm not going to talk about the past," he said many times.
Guess what? That'll be our precise answer when McGwire's name comes up for Cooperstown consideration. We won't consider his past, either, at least nothing before yesterday, when he stonewalled at every turn after nodding dutifully and unconvincingly to the committee's assertion that baseball needs to eradicate steroids.
Deviating from his pitiful script once, McGwire said, "Steroids are wrong. It gives you nothing but false hope."
Alas, his great hope of getting away with a career-long deception ends now.
Today, McGwire's 70 home runs in 1998 look like a sham.
McGwire read a statement trumpeting his good deeds and lamenting the no-win box he's in. He has himself to blame.
If McGwire were innocent of taking steroids - or even confident of not being caught red-handed - he would have asserted innocence. But he knows investigators and reporters are closing in. He said, "My lawyers have advised me I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family or myself."
But he was never asked to name one name, only his own.
Predictably, he declined.
In a way that is understandable, as he was saving his hide. What's the excuse of the other four playing panelists?
Canseco scored by being the one player to admit baseball's serious problem, but his credibility quickly went into the toilet.
Without pressure, Canseco retracted the very thesis of the book he pumped for weeks, that steroids are good. Now Canseco says steroids are bad, very bad. The reality is, he says whatever is convenient or profitable. Another fraud.
Schilling supposedly was invited because he's the one in the game who's both outspoken and admired. Yet he took back the honest comments he'd made about the prevalence of steroids in baseball, erasing any reason to admire him on this matter.
"I grossly overstated the problem due to being uninformed and unaware," he said. Then Schilling called Canseco a "liar" for doing the very same thing, for "grossly overstating" things. Schilling, another phony, is unbelievable.
After expressing condolences to three parents who lost steroid-using sons to suicide, not one player felt an obligation to provide straight answers.
Maybe they thought they were being team players by toeing the company line. But to a man, they came off as monstrous weasels.
According to their testimony, not one of the players once confronted or reported a cheating teammate. Not one would venture a guess as to how prevalent steroids are in baseball. Yet Rafael Palmeiro bragged, "We are policing ourselves." How's that?
Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa denied steroid use, Sosa doing it through a paid mouthpiece. Maybe Sosa looked better than McGwire - for a day, anyway. But Sosa still acted guilty, whispering answers, giving non-answers and generally showing no interest.
Baseball told us there was no need for a congressional hearing, that it is taking care of the steroid problem. But it's easy to see why the committee lacks faith. Commissioner Bud Selig still had his head in the sand when he said there's "no concrete evidence" baseball ever had a "major problem." They had a problem yesterday, that's for sure.
The committee scored a near-shutout against baseball's powers, with only Padres GM Kevin Towers coming away unscarred. Towers disagreed with Selig about whether the sport ever had a major problem.
An honest man. There's one in every crowd.
While chairman Tom Davis acted like an autograph-seeker by halting members who aggressively questioned McGwire, and former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne (R-Neb.) never should have been allowed to act as if he's on the right side of this issue, the committee scored by pointing out loopholes in baseball's new policy.
Coming up big were Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) and Henry Waxman (D-Cal.), who spelled out baseball's see-no-evil, hear-no-evil steroids stance.
The evil is obvious. Yet even now, baseball and its players won't look or listen.
Jon Heyman
SPORTS COLUMNIST
Players' testimony reveals weaklings
March 18, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C.
From the consummate windbag (Curt Schilling) on one end of the panel to the consummate dirtbag (Jose Canseco) on the other, baseball's lineup of five major-league wafflers, backpedalers and truth-hiders all whiffed at the Congressional steroid hearing.
No one whiffed more pathetically and profoundly than Mark McGwire, who didn't have the guts to either admit or deny he and his records are one gigantic fraud.
McGwire came up remarkably small. Speaking like an automaton after nearly breaking down during his evasive statement, McGwire said nothing worthwhile while alternating three excuses, one lamer than the next.
"I'm a retired player," he said.
"I want to be positive," he said.
"I'm not going to talk about the past," he said many times.
Guess what? That'll be our precise answer when McGwire's name comes up for Cooperstown consideration. We won't consider his past, either, at least nothing before yesterday, when he stonewalled at every turn after nodding dutifully and unconvincingly to the committee's assertion that baseball needs to eradicate steroids.
Deviating from his pitiful script once, McGwire said, "Steroids are wrong. It gives you nothing but false hope."
Alas, his great hope of getting away with a career-long deception ends now.
Today, McGwire's 70 home runs in 1998 look like a sham.
McGwire read a statement trumpeting his good deeds and lamenting the no-win box he's in. He has himself to blame.
If McGwire were innocent of taking steroids - or even confident of not being caught red-handed - he would have asserted innocence. But he knows investigators and reporters are closing in. He said, "My lawyers have advised me I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family or myself."
But he was never asked to name one name, only his own.
Predictably, he declined.
In a way that is understandable, as he was saving his hide. What's the excuse of the other four playing panelists?
Canseco scored by being the one player to admit baseball's serious problem, but his credibility quickly went into the toilet.
Without pressure, Canseco retracted the very thesis of the book he pumped for weeks, that steroids are good. Now Canseco says steroids are bad, very bad. The reality is, he says whatever is convenient or profitable. Another fraud.
Schilling supposedly was invited because he's the one in the game who's both outspoken and admired. Yet he took back the honest comments he'd made about the prevalence of steroids in baseball, erasing any reason to admire him on this matter.
"I grossly overstated the problem due to being uninformed and unaware," he said. Then Schilling called Canseco a "liar" for doing the very same thing, for "grossly overstating" things. Schilling, another phony, is unbelievable.
After expressing condolences to three parents who lost steroid-using sons to suicide, not one player felt an obligation to provide straight answers.
Maybe they thought they were being team players by toeing the company line. But to a man, they came off as monstrous weasels.
According to their testimony, not one of the players once confronted or reported a cheating teammate. Not one would venture a guess as to how prevalent steroids are in baseball. Yet Rafael Palmeiro bragged, "We are policing ourselves." How's that?
Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa denied steroid use, Sosa doing it through a paid mouthpiece. Maybe Sosa looked better than McGwire - for a day, anyway. But Sosa still acted guilty, whispering answers, giving non-answers and generally showing no interest.
Baseball told us there was no need for a congressional hearing, that it is taking care of the steroid problem. But it's easy to see why the committee lacks faith. Commissioner Bud Selig still had his head in the sand when he said there's "no concrete evidence" baseball ever had a "major problem." They had a problem yesterday, that's for sure.
The committee scored a near-shutout against baseball's powers, with only Padres GM Kevin Towers coming away unscarred. Towers disagreed with Selig about whether the sport ever had a major problem.
An honest man. There's one in every crowd.
While chairman Tom Davis acted like an autograph-seeker by halting members who aggressively questioned McGwire, and former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne (R-Neb.) never should have been allowed to act as if he's on the right side of this issue, the committee scored by pointing out loopholes in baseball's new policy.
Coming up big were Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) and Henry Waxman (D-Cal.), who spelled out baseball's see-no-evil, hear-no-evil steroids stance.
The evil is obvious. Yet even now, baseball and its players won't look or listen.
