"Say it ain't so"
That mythic phrase directed at disgraced baseball legend "Shoeless" Joe Jackson nearly a century ago resounded loudly once again throughout the halls of Congress yesterday. Contemporary baseball hero, the "Bunyanesque" Mark McGwire, was exposed as a coward as he refused to own up to his past during Congressional hearings on the sordid steroid scandel. As the AP reported:
In a room filled with humbled heroes, Mark McGwire hemmed and hawed the most. His voice choked with emotion, his eyes nearly filled with tears, time after time he refused to answer the question everyone wanted to know: Did he take illegal steroids when he hit a then-record 70 home runs in 1998 -- or at any other time?
Asked by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., whether he was asserting his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, McGwire said: "I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject."
Asked whether use of steroids was cheating, McGwire said: "That's not for me to determine."
To a couple of other questions, all he would say is: "I'm retired."
Donald Hooten, father of a high school baseball player who comitted suicide in 2003 after using steroids, said it best:
Players that are guilty of taking steroids are not only cheaters, you are cowards. ... Show our kids that you're man enough to face authority, tell the truth and face the consequences. Instead, you hide behind the skirts of your union, and with the help of management and your lawyers you've made every effort to resist facing the public today.Others were exposed as liars. For instance, witnesses Rafael Palmiero and Jose Canseco blatantly contradicted each other. Canseco famously fingered Palmiero as a steroid user in his infamous book, an accusation Palmiero flatly denied. "Period." One of them is lying, but Congress was unable to determine who exactly. Interestingly enough, Curt Schilling was one of the few MLB witnesses who actually came clean about something. He admitted, in effect, to being an opportunistic wordsmith. Schilling said he had "grossly overstated" the impact of steroids in baseball in numerous interviews throughout the past year, just because, "I think at the time it was a very hot situation and we were all being asked to comment on it." Apparently in Schilling's book it's ok to offer a "grossly" exaggerated quote on a hot story in order to get media face time, then backtrack faster than a Curt Schilling fastball when you have give an accounting for your words. Meanwhile in other steroids news, Barry Bonds had his second knee surgery since January yesterday. No longer benefitting from the otherworldly benefits of "The Cream" and "The Clear," could it be that his 40-year old body is finally starting to break down? Will 2005 be for Mr. Bonds what 2004 was for the Yankees own Jason Giambi? Hmm. [Sarcasm alert!] Ain't this game great?
posted by Jeremy Del Rio @ 3/18/2005 11:17:00 AM
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