Congress wants more hearings. Demanding Selig resign.

[Gurgi]

As to an article in todays Baltimore Sun.(I cant link) called "Congress getting stirred up"

States they are planning more hearings in perhaps 2 different committes. Perhaps to start as early as tuesday.

Calls also for Selig to resign.

Election year. They are gonna pound and pound.

Should be fun. Probally get alot of "I plead the 5th"

Cant congress offer immunity and force someone to testify? Threating perjery if they dont cooperate?

[Baroquen131]

Here's the link:

Report Riles up Congress.

Are we surprised politicians are elbowing each other out of the way, trying to get the sound bite into the papers? That said, pressure Congress helped prod MLB into strengthening the testing program before. Maybe that will again help both sides to continue to revise the PED testing program.

[Gurgi]

The casual baseball fan may not respect Mitchell but you can bet congress does. Oh yeah they will belive what he says. He was Senate Majority leader.

Congress has all kinds of ways to worry baseball to death. The interstate commerce clause is probally the easiest way in. Also the threat of taking away the only legal monopoly allowed is the biggest stick.

[glenn__davis]

Oh, good gracious. I was hoping the Mitchell report would help put this to rest, but I guess not. Will this story ever die?

[AgentOrange]

Well that would stink...

If Selig did get enough pressure and had to resign, the Commish spot would be open.

Orioles Magic doing the disappearing act?

[Gurgi]

Oh, good gracious. I was hoping the Mitchell report would help put this to rest, but I guess not. Will this story ever die?

Best way for any real dramatic change is to throw as much attention as possible at it and blast away.

[Gurgi]

Well that would stink...

If Selig did get enough pressure and had to resign, the Commish spot would be open.

Orioles Magic doing the disappearing act?

No one knows if MacPhail will take the job or even be offered it yet. Tho he is a likely canidate for the job.

Personally if it meant cleaning Steriods out of baseball I would sacrifice MacPhail to the league. I think Angelos has seen the light. He probally wouldnt pick another lap dog. He would probally ask MacPhail for his advice and pick a good alternative.

[DrLev]

This is a more important issue than you might think. Any way you look at it, PED use is fairly pervasive among high school (and younger) athletes, especially those looking to get into top college programs and eventually professional sports. I know it always sounds contrived to do something "for the children" but in this case it makes perfect sense. Perhaps this issue might have been going to die, but Mitchell basically stirred up the pot in a huge way by the fact that he was able to get a good number of very big names and an opportunity to air a lot of suggestions in light of those names. Baseball has special protection from Congress and is the only sport that has it. Congress has a vested interest in removing PEDs from the sports scene ("for the children" and taxation being two major reasons). They've got some pretty darn big bargaining chips. We've already seen that MLB is slow to act on any issue unless Congress comes along with their cry of "say bye-bye to your anti-trust exemption!" As gurgi said, especially in an election year.

I'm interested to see what will come of this.

[wildcard]

Why is Congress so focused on baseball. Just take a look at the size of the football players. Are you trying to tell me that those huge bodies are not chemically enhanced. Why does the congress not go after the WWF. Sounds kind of one sided to me.

[Fan4Life]

Anyone (including congress) who thinks Selig is more to blame in this situation than the players union, isn't well informed. In fact, if it weren't for congress getting involved when they did, the players union would not have caved in on the drug testing plan we have today and we would be considerably further away from cleaning up the sport than we are now.

[Gurgi]

Why is Congress so focused on baseball. Just take a look at the size of the football players. Are you trying to tell me that those huge bodies are not chemically enhanced. Why does the congress not go after the WWF. Sounds kind of one sided to me.

Those sports suck thats why. Baseball is special. Always has been. A much more romantic sport than Football or the WWE. (Do you think the WWE is really a sport, more like an cartoon with live people)

[DrLev]

Why is Congress so focused on baseball. Just take a look at the size of the football players. Are you trying to tell me that those huge bodies are not chemically enhanced. Why does the congress not go after the WWF. Sounds kind of one sided to me.

Congress has for a very long time taken a special interest in baseball. Because of MLB's anti-trust exemption, granted to them by Congress, MLB is especially accountable to Congress. Things that happen in one sport are likely to happen to the others, and Congress can exert leverage on MLB that it does not have the bargaining chips to push on other sports. Yes, it may seem "one sided" but this is all politics, and politics take time (too long, if you ask me, but that's another issue). If MLB is forced by congress to make sweeping changes, you can bet the NFL will follow. They tend to be more receptive to change than MLB in the first place.

[orioles119]

Those sports suck thats why. Baseball is special. Always has been. A much more romantic sport than Football or the WWE. (Do you think the WWE is really a sport, more like an cartoon with live people)

I don't agree on WWE, but football should be investigated like baseball, if not more. It's just an unfair double standard. Football is just as popular (if not more) than baseball. You can wax poetic about the past all you want, but if this was truly a fair investigation, Congress would waste the taxpayers money going after both sports equally.

Sure, football has a drug testing program and have had penalties before baseball, but there still is a problem.

[JTrea81]

No one knows if MacPhail will take the job or even be offered it yet. Tho he is a likely canidate for the job.

Personally if it meant cleaning Steriods out of baseball I would sacrifice MacPhail to the league. I think Angelos has seen the light. He probally wouldnt pick another lap dog. He would probally ask MacPhail for his advice and pick a good alternative.

Just as long as he trades Bedard and Roberts and some of the deadweight off our roster first...

[Dipper9]

Why is Congress so focused on baseball. Just take a look at the size of the football players. Are you trying to tell me that those huge bodies are not chemically enhanced. Why does the congress not go after the WWF. Sounds kind of one sided to me.

Not to be a wrestling idiot, buts its WWE now due to another set of lawsuits a few years back by the World Wildlife Federation. And to answer your question, I can almost guarantee there will be a congressional hearing into wrestling this year or next along the same lines of the baseball one. If you think they want baseball to go down, you can only imagain how bad they want to take Vince McMahon down that much more.