Ethics Newsline®

WASHINGTON
Upping the pressure on professional baseball to come clean about steroid use, Congress last week slapped seven players and four Major League Baseball executives with subpoenas to testify at a hearing this week.

The subpoenas target some of the game’s biggest names, including Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi, Curt Schilling, and the retired Jose Canseco, whose recent tell-all book “Juiced” names names and alleges widespread steroid use in the sport.

While Major League Baseball (MLB) has adopted tougher testing measures, critics in Congress say the organization’s “what’s past is past” attitude is unacceptable given the spread of steroids into youth athletics.

Stanley Brand, a lawyer representing the players and MLB, said he would fight the subpoenas, claiming that the House Government Reform Committee is exceeding its authority with the steroid investigation.

Committee chairman Rep. Tom Davis (R-Virginia) warned Brand that MLB had abdicated its responsibility and compelled the congressional effort, adding that it would be “unwise and irresponsible” to fail to comply with the subpoenas, reported the New York Times.

Last week, Jose Canseco and Curt Schilling both agreed to testify before Congress.

While many players are ignoring the controversy, according to New York Yankees relief pitcher Mike Stanton, others say the recent push by Congress is understandable, even if a bit fuzzy in its aims.

“In light of what’s happened in the last year or so, people are looking for some answers,” Yankees starting pitcher Mike Mussina told the Times, but added, “I don’t know what they’re ultimately trying to get out of it.”

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the committee’s ranking minority member, last week told the Associated Press that the goal was to examine the role of steroids and its effects on young athletes, not to hunt down individual offenders.