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Baseball's poor performance

There sat some of baseball's greats before a congressional committee, evading questions about steroid use, spouting platitudes, hiding behind their lawyers. Rarely does a witness look more arrogant and self-serving than a member of Congress. But America got a good look Thursday at why politicians are criticizing Major League Baseball for failing to clean up its drug problem.

The players and league executives were asked to chronicle how widely steroids were used, and whether baseball's ban on performance-enhancing drugs was tough enough to rid cheating from competitive play. Of all the denials and obfuscations, Mark McGwire's was the worst. "I'm not here to talk about the past," the former St. Louis Cardinal slugger said. How convenient - McGwire's retired, so end of discussion. This was a chance for the players to hit this issue out of the park, using their star power and television exposure to appeal for stronger testing and tougher penalties. Instead the players split on what even constitutes cheating. Commissioner Bud Selig gave such convoluted answers that several members of Congress came away even more confused about the league's antidoping strategy. Most calls for discipline were answered by the language of avoidance: We'll see. Get back to me. Talk to my lawyer. Neither the league nor the players apparently realize how much they have tainted the game.

Most Americans couldn't care less if a player looks like he was created in a laboratory, but athletes are role models. Their image is their industry. And parents are rightly concerned when children associate athletic achievement with the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The government's interest in the issue is not reducing the players to tabloid scorn, but to use the public exposure to confront a growing health danger. The congressional hearing was a chance for baseball to make a big impression.

Unfortunately, it did.

[Last modified March 19, 2005, 01:01:18]