Steroid issue won't go away
WASHINGTON -- George Mitchell's work on steroids in baseball is complete.
Everyone else has plenty left to do, from Congress and the Attorney General to Bud Selig and Donald Fehr.
Lawmakers want the Justice Department to investigate whether Miguel Tejada, the 2002 AL MVP, lied to federal authorities.
Selig will determine whether Barry Bonds' San Francisco Giants should be punished for failing to report concerns about the home run king's personal trainer.
The commissioner and union leader Fehr will meet for further talks about Mitchell's recommendations for improving baseball's drug program. And Selig vowed to look into the exponential increase in requests by major leaguers to be allowed to use stimulants used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that addressed each of those issues Tuesday plans to hold a Feb. 13 hearing that promises to be far more riveting, featuring Roger Clemens and his former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, who has said he injected the star pitcher with steroids and human growth hormone. Clemens has denied the allegations repeatedly and filed a defamation lawsuit.
"Our work here is definitely not done," said Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who chaired the same panel's 2005 hearing on steroids.
"I think Mr. Clemens would want to come here and clear his name," Davis said after the hearing. "I think he has an opportunity to come up here and raise his right hand under oath."
Taking on baseball's steroids problem once again, Congress kept the finger-pointing and tough questioning to a minimum Tuesday. Maybe that's because the people under the most scrutiny this time -- Tejada, Bonds, Clemens -- were nowhere to be seen.
Selig and Fehr accepted responsibility for the sport's drug boom, and Mitchell defended his findings in the same wood-paneled House hearing room that hosted a far longer and far more contentious session three years ago.
Overall, Selig and Fehr found a friendlier audience than they did on March 17, 2005, when they were chastised and grilled for a lax steroids program. That 11-hour hearing is best remembered for Mark McGwire's infamous and oft-repeated phrase, "I'm not here to talk about the past," and Rafael Palmeiro's finger-wagging denial of steroid use only months before failing a drug test.
Tuesday's 4-hour, 15-minute hearing exposed what might be the latest drugs abused by the sport's stars: Ritalin and Adderall, medications better known for treating hyperactive kids. According to data provided to the committee by MLB and the union, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, there were 35 "Therapeutic Use Exemptions" for drugs in 2006, of which 28 were for ADD and ADHD medications. In 2007, the exemptions skyrocketed to 111, of which 103 were for ADD and ADHD.
"We don't want abuse. We don't want guys taking Adderall to supplant their need for amphetamines," two-time NL MVP Dale Murphy said in New York at a debate about performance-enhancing drugs.