Let's Just Play Ball Say Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Players

[Itsthetruth]

Just play ball: Jays
Steroid scandal a tired issue
By MIKE RUTSEY
Toronto Sun
March 15, 2005

The dog-and-pony show about to hit Washington, D.C. -- otherwise known as the congressional hearings into steroid abuse in Major League Baseball -- is set to open tomorrow. But, as far as the Jays are concerned, it's a waste of time.

"Baseball season is just about upon us and I definitely think it's time to turn the page," veteran catcher Gregg Zaun said. "The drug policy that we have in place is meant to punish guys that are going to be using from now on.

"If we want to focus on all the things that have happened in this game up until this point, let's go back and put an asterisk next to some of the pitching records in the shineball, spitball ages. It's ridiculous. Who cares whether guys did it in the past? All we're worried about is what they're doing from here on out."

"It's a circus, and I think the politicians in this county have a heck of a lot more things to worry about than if a few guys in the game are using performance-enhancing drugs," Zaun said. "I don't think their constituents back home voted them in to worry about this kind of stuff. I think there are a lot bigger problems on a lot grander scale in this country that they should be worrying about."

Zaun was the most eloquent of the Blue Jays interviewed with Frank Catalanotto, Eric Hinske and Reed Johnson all in agreement.

"We have to stop dwelling in the past and need to let our current program work," Johnson said.

"What's happened with steroids has put a tarnish on the game, but we're trying to get rid of it, trying to make the game better (with the current policy) and I think it's working," Hinske said.

"I think it's piling on at this point," Catalanotto said. "I think it's too much."


http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseball/MLB/Toronto/2005/03/16/962744.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. leaguewide cover up

just spin and ignore the problem, and pretend it will solve itself (just like TV contracts, the CBA, payroll discrepancies, etc., etc)

[jakefrep]

2. How exactly is this a cover-up?

Baseball belatedly got a handle on its steroid problem, and introduced measures to deal with it. Why isn't that good enough?

[Itsthetruth]

3. Congressman Waxman Inflexible

The Hill
March 16, 2005

In gathering political intelligence, another lobbyist said, committee lawmakers’ positions on the hearings were at odds with their long-standing positions on privacy and labor rights.

Democrats have not been “as sympathetic towards the rights of players” as one might expect, the lobbyist said. Some Republicans said they were uncomfortable with the prospect that some of the players’ privacy might be violated.

The same lobbyist noted that Democrats were disappointed with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the committee.

“What would happen if an ex-con wrote a book about a Hollywood star using cocaine subpoenaed?” the person said, referring to Jose Canseco, who has admitted using steroids and has accused other players, in his explosive new book, of doing the same, “Waxman is unwilling to compromise on anything and has been just shockingly inflexible.”

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/031605/bat.html

[Blue_Tires]

4. the proof will be in the pudding

the future will tell whether or not MLB has properly addressed the problem with their measures (which are half-assed, imo)...I'm not going to believe everything is instantly all right because MLB says it is

for starters, it would be nice if they actually tried to discipline some of the more blatant abusers...

[Itsthetruth]

5. Hearings Could Help Conservative Republican Run For Senate

Lawmakers from rival parties team up in probe of steroids
House panel leaders show a unity unusual in current Congress
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau

San Franciso Chroncile
March 16, 2005

Their obvious political differences aside, Republican Rep. Thomas Davis, who chairs the House Government Reform Committee, and 16-term Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, the committee's senior minority member, have united on the topic of baseball and steroids. Such unity is rare in a Congress known these days for bitter partisanship.

On Thursday, the two men will share the limelight when a procession of current and former major league stars is scheduled to enter the committee's jammed Rayburn House Office Building room, take an oath to tell the truth and get grilled about whether they've used steroids or other illegal drugs.

The 56-year-old Davis is in his sixth term, elected as part of the big 1994 class of Republicans swept in when the GOP under Newt Gingrich took the House for the first time in four decades. Davis rose rapidly through the ranks.

In 2002, he headed the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, the fund-raising and candidate-recruiting arm of the House GOP. In an off-year election in which the party in power traditionally loses seats, the Republicans under Davis held their own. In return for his success, party leaders selected him over more senior members as chairman of the Government Reform Committee.

The political rumor mill says Davis is interested in running for the Senate in 2008 if Virginia's senior senator, Republican John Warner, retires. For that reason, the steroid hearings could be politically helpful for Davis.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/03/16/MNG0VBQ3QH1.DTL

[KharmaTrain]

6. This "Hearing" Should Be Good Amusement

Millionaire politicians (some still bagged from the night before) trying to "dress down" millionaire ballplayers who work for billionaire owners. This will be like watching driving lessons from Stevie Wonder. Keith Olbermann has a spot-on take on this issue and his report on Thursday should be a goodie.

As a White Sox fan, I look forward to hearing Frank Thomas...a player long maligned in baseball, and especially in this city, but has always played clean while a certain former Sox player who ended up at Wrigley Field and now in Baltimore got all the glory for his juiced up antics.

Once again, more Repugnican breads and circuses...fiddling while Rome burns. People like seeing the mighty torn down, and why not use a couple baseball players so it smothers the news over the latest from Iraq or another thousand job layoffs. Yep, this is far "sexier".

The ultimate judges in this "roid" mess will be the fans. Boycotting with your wallet and channel changer is a good start. But then it's better this kinda witchhunt than their normal pillaging of our rights and treasury.