Can someone please explain why Congress is holding hearings on BASEBALL?!

[shireen]

I realize steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are serious and ethical issues, and damaging for a multi-billion dollar enterprise.

But worthy of Congressional hearings??!!! :wtf:

I think there are more important matters for Congress to address. The shenanigans at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue should occupy them plenty.

Baseball and football, as well as other sports are very low on my list of national priorities. Congress has more important things to do.

[ixion]

1. distraction theater

pure and simple.

[arthritisR_US]

23. BINGO!! n/t

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Tell me about it.

This country has it's priorities out of whack.

[DrDan]

38. I am not sure it is the "country" that has its priorities screwed up

I have not heard a soul asking for congressional hearings on baseball/steroids.

[LisaM]

Because it's affecting young people who feel pressured to use them

Not to mention the violence engendered by some steroids - there are support groups for women whose husbands or boyfriends have used steroids.

Check out some of the violence against women we've seen by college and pro athletes.

[shireen]

13. i'm sympathetic to those problems but Congressional hearings are not the right venue to address this

Steroid abuse is not the only cause of domestic abuse. There's also alcohol, mental health problems, and the fact that some human beings are just plain jerks. If Congress wants to tackle domestic abuse, they should hold hearings on domestic abuse.

[LisaM]

19. I think they should hold hearings on mental illness

Alcohol's pretty regulated, but steroids and other substances not as much.

[shireen]

21. i totally agree with that! nt

[gateley]

3. Because Iraq is B-O-R-I-N-G. nt

:sarcasm:


EDIT to add smilie - just in case.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

4. It makes me sick...

At best congress might be concerned about the drug use but even *then* thats an executive function..

[kirby]

5. Where were you yesterday?

You missed the debate on the House floor on a much more important issue. Naming the Post Office in Derby, Kansas.

[shireen]

15. OMG! I can't believe I missed it!!!

So what name did they pick for the post office? :crazy:

[kirby]

44. SERGEANT JAMIE O. MAUGANS POST OFFICE BUILDING n/t

[supernova]

6. They'd rather do anything

than hold IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS.

x(

Personally, I don't really care how multi-millionaire professional athletes abuse their bodies.

[CTyankee]

29. "abuse their bodies". I have to laugh.

Some pro sports players abuse their bodies just by doing their sport. I am thinking here of downhill skiers, football players and even some basketball players. So it doesn't seem like steroids are as abusive as what they already put their bodies through...

Just sayin'...

[Bill McBlueState]

7. Two reasons

1) the anti-trust exemption

2) the vast expenditure of public money to support professional sports

Both are good reasons for Congress to exercise some oversight.

[shireen]

20. not good enough reasons, IMHO

1) the anti-trust exemption

What does steroid use have to do with that?


2) the vast expenditure of public money to support professional sports

That's mostly at the state level, isn't it? So that makes that a state issue, and if enough state governments are pissed-off, they could get together and do something about it. (They did it for big tobacco.)

[jmowreader]

56. Baseball falls under the purview of the federal government

because of the Interstate Commerce clause of the Constitution...very few baseball games are played between two teams from the same state.

Now, why is Congress wasting its time with this? It's obvious, isn't it? It is far more important that the American Game be beyond reproach than the American President.

[Selatius]

8. There's less people to piss off compared to hearings on, say, corporate corruption.

With football, nobody I can recall fears losing an elective office over holding hearings, but I'm not so willing to assert the same thing whenever a politician decided to hold hearings to fight corporate interests. There, a lot of politicians have a lot to fear whenever they go up against the wealthiest in the land.

[DJ13]

9. I dont care about the hearings, its the blanket TV coverage I hate

If the "news" wouldnt cover these things the politicians would stop holding these kinds of PR driven hearings.

[AndyA]

10. Yes, the hypocrisy of it all is infuriating!

We're going to hold hearings about someone who might have lied about taking steroids, but ignore the lies of the White House.

Is it any wonder approval levels are so low?

[wordpix]

11. distract the sheeple from the Iraq War & Fratboy's failed admin. Plus, Dimson loves bball, his

highest priority. :puke:

[mac2]

12. It's like OJ. The story is a smoke screen for real

issues Congress should be addressing.

Like the impeachment and fraud of Iraq financial by contractors.

They turn on a dime to investigate baseball but still haven't done JFK, USS Liberty, 911, Katrina, Tsumani, bridge collapse in MN and explosion in LA, CA fires, cutting down of our park lands, American corporate fraud and patent stealing, and voting fraud of 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 properly.

The President needs to be impeached over his Iraq and 911 lies. His illegal Signing Statements, robbery of our treasury, and dismantle of our military, trashing of our Constitution using terrorism (lies) as an excuse, etc, etc., etc.

The baseball steriods hearings are just plain crap. Monitor and test them and get it over with. How many times have they had hearings on this now? It's almost like a Hollywood made for TV movie it is so phoney. I am an American and baseball player but I do my country good by confessing to using steriods, Vitamin B, etc. Good grief!!

[Maeve]

14. It's the breathless "news" coverage that ticks me off

I tried to get the headline news earlier, only to find the hearing is the only thing the media finds worth reporting. Meanwhile, the e-mails go on being "missing", the war budget eats up the rest of the budget, cronies get cushy jobs they aren't capable of doing and no one is accountable...except the over-paid game-playing boys.

[Muttocracy]

16. I'm with ya.

Can't find video of Biden's hearing with Condi this morning, a TAD more important.

but hey, Whitehouse is decrying torture on c-span 2 right now :)
http://c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan2_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS2

edit to say, Sheldon Whitehouse D-RI, not the White House!

[DemReadingDU]

26. That was great!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. It beats working for a living.

[liberalnurse]

18. Sports sells..........and is a magnet for media attention

which all politicians crave. So, what better way to meet the need of ones ego without having to sacrifice a thing?

[leftofthedial]

22. actually, it is this committee's job

baseball has an anti-trust exemption and is "regulated" by this committee.

[shireen]

25. what does anti-trust exemptions have to do with whether Clemens lied about steroid use? nt

[leftofthedial]

28. if baseball is viewed as corrupt, games rigged, gambling influence

drug abuse, etc.

Congress holds the anti-trust exemption over their heads to motivate the repukes who run the game to clean up their act.


this committee also has oversight of national drug policy, so their interest is actually the convergence of their baseball and their drug interest

[CTyankee]

32. It seemed kinda obvious to me watching today's hearings that having the

industry "police" itself isn't working (giggle). I don't know much about this and you do so maybe you can tell me how Congress is going to get them to follow the rules? Steroids are such a big deal and if one team uses them then the rest kinda have to also, it seems to me. But, as I said, I really don't know...

[leftofthedial]

34. it's hard to say in this day in age, but if Congress removed the anti-trust exemption

the entire business structure of baseball would stop overnight. Every team would, in effect, become a "free agent" team. The leagues would fall apart and major league baseball, as a business, would cease to exist. There also woul dbe major financial consequences. Baseball would end up kind of like pro wrestling I imagine, with separate major market and minor market leagues playing scripted exhibition games, lots of teams out of business . . .

there was a time when it would have been unthinkable in America to destroy the national pastime, but who really cares at this point?

[CTyankee]

36. So how did all this happen? Why was MLB "good" in the past and "bad" now?

n/t

[leftofthedial]

47. It was very bad in the past and has been borderline bad pretty much always

WAY back it was a pretty pure amateur sport, but it became "professional" during the age of the robber barons late in the 19th century. The owners then were corrupt in the extreme and swindled one another, host cities and especially their players. Team owners banded together creating the cartels that eventually became the leagues we know today. This led some players to become equally corrupt.

They developed the "reserve clause" that gave a team complete ownership of any player they signed. Long story short, the leagues (cartels) and the reserve clause were major issues in Congress giving baseball the anti-trust exemption originally. The reserve clause was attacked by the players in the 60s and 70s, ultimately it was thrown out, which lead to the current system of "free agency," which ushered in the era of the millionaire ballplayer. Before that, most players were paid about like teachers.

Check out the excellent movie "Eight Men Out," which chronicles the climactic scandal of the old era as the 1919 Chicago White Sox, fed up with being cheated by their crooked owner Charlie Comiskey, struck a deal with gamblers and threw the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Many powerful and influential gamblers lost big money, forcing the owners to hire a "commissioner" and clean up their act and forcing Congress to investigate. Baseball was the nation's favorite sport and it was outrageous that the outcome of the world championship was rigged by gamblers.

Baseball has a pretty amazing history that reflects much of American history. The history of African Americans in baseball is fascinating, horrifying and inspiring. Check it out sometime. "Only the Ball Was White" is a great history of the Negro Leagues. There is a great Negro Leagues museum in Kansas City.

[CTyankee]

54. Very interesting! Thanks so much for the history lesson.

It shows me where human greed has led us...

[CanSocDem]

33. It's almost hypocritical....

...that the arbiters of a 'professional-ized' athletic game are suddenly aware that athletes are in the business just for the money and that they will do anything....even lie to their last breath, TO KEEP MAKING MONEY.

That the danger exists that the truth will out, (that it is all about the money) this committee wants to ensure that the American Ideal of truth, fairness and good sportsmanship, still stands tall.

I don't know if the short-term memory syndrome is prevalent in this thread, but doesn't anyone remember ol' Rog coming back from a retirement of a few months 'because of the chance to play with his good buddy Andy in Houston'. That was a few years ago and he'd already lost his best stuff after the bluejays.

But it is also a sad commentary on what adults are forced to do in order to enforce a unworkable policy on drug use, performance enhancing or otherwise.

[leftofthedial]

35. it's not just the pros

I've heard of Little League aged kids (12 and 13) taking steroids

Since raygun, ends justify means, laws are for losers, greed is good, and "winning" is all that matters, even if you cheat or if the "game" is a sham.

[shireen]

41. thanks, leftofthedial

your comments have been interesting and helpful in understanding what all the fuss is about.

But I still think it's a colossal waste of Congressional time. :)

[leftofthedial]

48. next to the destruction of the Constitution, torture, illegal occupation,

immunity for MAJOR lawbreakers, etc.

this issue pales.

[shireen]

31. i've been reading up more to understand your point ...

ok, so the anti-trust exemption here basically means that the MLB has the right to play god over their member teams -- they have full control of their teams and team movements. If they lose it, they are subject to oversights faced by every other big business in the US.

Performance-enhancing steroids have a major impact on the MLB since it changes the performance dynamics of the players, which has an impact on the all-important money factor. The problem is that the MLB is incapable of enforcing its own rules and regulations so Congress has stepped in.

Am I understanding this correctly?

I still don't think that Congress should waste their time with these hearings. It's still not important enough to warrant that level of attention.

I think Congress should not have to baby-sit the MLB ... revoke that anti-trust exemption and let them survive like any other sports business,

Please let me know if I have misunderstood this issue.

[hiaasenrocks]

37. No it isn't.

This isn't about steroid use in baseball. This isn't about anti-trust exemptions.

This is about whether ONE baseball player is lying or ONE trainer is lying about something for which the statute of limitations has already expired. And (drumroll please...) it's ROGER CLEMENS.

THAT is why Waxman and these other scumbags are wasting our money and time.

[leftofthedial]

52. I don't know whether it is better or worse that Clemens requested the hearing

and got it

[katty]

24. Your tax $$$$ at "real hard" work

[BanzaiBonnie]

27. Illegal steroid use...

is illegal. What more needs to be said.


Ohhhhhh, this is celebrity drug abuse. THAT'S different.

Using drugs illegally... is illegal.

Rush --- Oxycontin Limbaugh off to jail. Ohhhhhh, THAT'S different. He's got connections.


Posse up friends. It's time to play --- SERIESLY.


Can't we just get law enforcement and the courts to do their duty? Ohhhh, I forgot. We live in a 9/11 world.


I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto. I don't think we're even in the United States anymore.

[McCamy Taylor]

30. Because they are braindead idiots? Because they wanna get autographs?

[libodem]

39. It's on the radio news as I'm reading this post

and thinking the same thing. Why are they not following the money that circulated out of the banks prior to 9/11 or how Cheneybush's war has turned our soldiers into murders and sadists? Life is not good.

[DangerDave921]

40. I will tell you

It's because baseball is so simple even a child can understand the rules. So every dumb-ass who is now in Congress can sit up there and pontificate and actually sound like they know something. It's a lot easier than understanding media monopolies, FISA courts, energy policy, and the like.

Plus it's the fame thing. Being seen in a hearing with famous ball players stokes their egos.

[calimary]

42. Henry Waxman is my congressman. I called both his local and his

DC office. The local office guy could not get me off the phone fast enough. And I identified myself as a constituent!

I wound up calling Conyers' office, too, and complaining. This is a waste of their time and MY tax money!!!! Who gives a flying fuck about some overpaid, coddled Michelin tire man when we have a confirmed and flagrant CRIMINAL occupying OUR White House?

BTW - it's easy and inexpensive to call Congress. I used some of the TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard numbers listed in my sig line below (hint, hint...)

[Karenina]

55. Pelosi, Conyers, Waxman... such profound disappointments ALL.

:cry:

[calimary]

57. Man, you are NOT KIDDING.

I had such hopes. I like my congressman, Henry Waxman, and he ordinarily is one of the leading good guys. But this round, he's repeatedly gone up to the edge, and then flinched and backed off. Because of his unwillingness to fight hard, a Congressional subpoena doesn't mean anything anymore. If you feel like turning your nose up at it, you can just go ahead and do so if you can feign "national security." A Congressional subpoena has been rendered meaningless, and a flat-out joke, because Waxman never bothered to enforce them, and keep teeth in them.

Wonder who else is gonna thumb their noses at a Congressional subpoena? I find myself half wishing it would be some Democrat in the future, who might be targeted for "the Clinton treatment" of nonstop persecution by bitter, ruthless GOP partisans. Wonder if any of ours would have the guts to flip off Congressional investigators like these bastards have.

I am extraordinarily disappointed in Henry Waxman. These hearings were a waste of his time and MY tax money.

[Dorian Gray]

43. Seriously....

You'd think they'd have more important things to cover with Iraq, our economy issues, and the healthcare debacle.

Our taxes at work.

[Brigid]

45. I love baseball, but . . .

I have been wondering the same thing. It isn't as if Congress doesn't have a full plate already.

[TreasonousBastard]

46. Sure, it's easy....

NOBODY GIVES A FUCK ABOUT THAT OTHER STUFF. They say they do, but they really don't.

They care about baseball. They understand baseball. FISA. telco immunity, supplemental war funding... All that stuff is too complicated to get a handle on and deal with. Drugs in baseball, though, that's real and that can be dealt with.

Corruption in baseball is far more important than corruption in politics, where corruption is considered the norm.

You got a few thousand people on the left screaming about everything from global warming to Halliburton losing billions and a few thousand people on the right screaming about taxes are too high and we should nuke Iran already while we outlaw abortions and gay marriage. The 250 million or so not screaming about that stuff cares about baseball.

So we get baseball.

(BTW, what's Paris Hilton doing lately?)

[Arctic Dave]

49. why stop with baseball

Why not look into the use of them in the military, police dept, etc. You know somewhere it really affects the public.

[L. Coyote]

50. Next week Apple Pie, then the Flag On G.Washington's B-Day. Getting ready for the Paradigm Shift

known as Impeaching the Guy Who Talks to God!

It's a big hurdle, and you need to break down a few paradigms to get there!

[Jeffro40]

51. I am ENRAGED! The Dem Congress is PATHETIC

is this what they have resorted to in order to "appear" competent. Meanwhile, Bush and the Repubs roll all over them. Even Rice shouted down Wexler today. Damn, I'm embarrassed to be one of them.

[Romulox]

53. People who support the War on Drugs have a lot of nerve complaining about this...nt