Steroids in baseball

[GoldenArms10304]

Thanks for the love in regards to me joining your community here, I kinda started with the polls because I think they are cool as well as informative. Who knows these topics better than the fans who dont have a monetary interest like the journalists and inside sports politics people? We just love the game so your opinion on these topics is all i care about as opposed to a media tainted story from some newspaper or tabloid. Anyway just wondering what do you guys think about these Congressional hearings? My opinion is that the Federal government needs to spend more time and money on fighting terrorism and national security than steroids in baseball. Whether its a sloppy cheesy attempt by Mr. selig or not, he has implemented measures recently to try and detect steroid use in baseball. The Feds need to leave our game alone and worry about more pressing issues. Let Bud selig clean the game up not the government. Hope to hear some responses on this.

[eddie010]

First off, welcome. I'd have to agree with you on several statements. If I were an American, I'd be pretty peeved that Congress is spending so much time and effort on this issue, when there are still National Security, Social Security, Education and Poverty issues to be taken care of. It should be Bud Selig and the Players Association's duties to look after this issue, especially if they took other players' illegal issues into their own hands (i.e. cocaine use, domestic violence).

[the_cynic]

From what I've heard the main focus is going to be on Bud Selig and correct me if I'm wrong but that's a good thing! We all have our own opinions on how the U.S. Government should utilize their time but several of them obviously feel that this is an important thing to discuss. Not only is it for baseball but for other sports as well, not to mention the little kids who look up to these star athletes. Now I don't' know if you have any kids or not but I'm pretty sure if you did you wouldn't want one of your child's favorite sports to have a overshadowing history of steroid use and having it be accepted. Congress just wants to get to the bottom on this so the steroid use doesn't leak over to anymore sports more than it already has. It seems to me that baseball has known about the steroid use for quite some time and it looks as though they've just accepted it and said it was okay.

[eddie010]

From what I've heard the main focus is going to be on Bud Selig and correct me if I'm wrong but that's a good thing! We all have our own opinions on how the U.S. Government should utilize their time but several of them obviously feel that this is an important thing to discuss. Not only is it for baseball but for other sports as well, not to mention the little kids who look up to these star athletes. Now I don't' know if you have any kids or not but I'm pretty sure if you did you wouldn't want one of your child's favorite sports to have a overshadowing history of steroid use and having it be accepted. Congress just wants to get to the bottom on this so the steroid use doesn't leak over to anymore sports more than it already has. It seems to me that baseball has known about the steroid use for quite some time and it looks as though they've just accepted it and said it was okay.

That's where you're wrong. First of all, I for one am not worried about steroids 'leaking' to other sports, and apparently neither is congress. They still haven't mentioned any other pro sports leagues; baseball remains the focus.

I don't have kids, but if I did, I wouldn't have to worry about his/her 'favorite sports to have a overshadowing history of steroid use', especially since baseball has the strongest liks to steroid use, and it has only surfaced in the last decade or so, not since MLB's inception, back in the 1800s.

In my humble opinion, U.S. congress should stay out of this. This is MLB's mess, let them clean it up.

[gosioux76]

There's no steroids in baseball. Or was that crying? I forget.

[BBTV]

First off, welcome. I'd have to agree with you on several statements. If I were an American, I'd be pretty peeved that Congress is spending so much time and effort on this issue, when there are still National Security, Social Security, Education and Poverty issues to be taken care of. It should be Bud Selig and the Players Association's duties to look after this issue, especially if they took other players' illegal issues into their own hands (i.e. cocaine use, domestic violence).

Those other issues are obviously more important, however baseball has been allowed to survive for so long under it's anti-trust exemption (I believe it is the only business to benefit from such legal favoritism.) Congress feels that they give so much to baseball with this exemption, that baseball should at least be held to a certain higher standard. I can't say I disagree. The timing (with a war going on, etc.) probably isn't best though.

[CaolinaJoe]

Canseco says to look forward to him pleading the 5th. Sosa denies ever using them. McGwire pretty much sounded like he'll be pleading the 5th quite a bit. Raffy and Schilling slam Canseco. Thomas was brief.

Less than interesting opening statements so far, pretty much what was expected.

[jkrdevil]

I believe the NFL has a limited Anti-trust exemption too, but not as much as baseball. And Baseball is still under anti-trust laws, if not then there wouldn't be free-agency.

I'm sure the government isn't wasting that much time and money on this. It's just more publicized than there other on goings. I'm sure most of their time is spent on more important issues. Plus this isn't the full congress.

All have been cooperative except McGwire. Sosa and Pamiero came out and denied use under oath. Which gives them some credibility. When Palmiero denied it he looked like he was in one of those viagra adds and was about to say I didn't use steroids, I use Viagra. He comes off looking the best and McGwire comes off the worst. No direct have you used steroid questions as most have denied (or admitted in his book in Canseco's case). McGwire has gotten some heat, as he said nothing like that.

[BBTV]

Can anyone who really knows tell me what exactly the anti-trust exemption does for baseball? I know it prevents another team from competing in the same city, but what else? I don't think it has anything to do with free-agency.

[DEAD!]

When Palmiero denied it he looked like he was in one of those viagra adds and was about to say I didn't use steroids, I use Viagra. He comes off looking the best and McGwire comes off the worst.

You followed Palermo's use of viagra with "He comes off looking the best"

[jkrdevil]

Can anyone who really knows tell me what exactly the anti-trust exemption does for baseball? I know it prevents another team from competing in the same city, but what else? I don't think it has anything to do with free-agency.

I bealive the anti-trust has to do with mostly with the minor league system. It also has to do with other stuff. If it had full anti-trust exemption then it would be exempt from all anti-trust laws. That would mean the reserve clause that used to bound a player to a team wouldn't have been thrown out and there would be no free agency.

I'm sure someone with a better legal expertise could explain it better.

[the_cynic]

From what I've heard the main focus is going to be on Bud Selig and correct me if I'm wrong but that's a good thing!  We all have our own opinions on how the U.S. Government should utilize their time but several of them obviously feel that this is an important thing to discuss.  Not only is it for baseball but for other sports as well, not to mention the little kids who look up to these star athletes.  Now I don't' know if you have any kids or not but I'm pretty sure if you did you wouldn't want one of your child's favorite sports to have a overshadowing history of steroid use and having it be accepted.  Congress just wants to get to the bottom on this so the steroid use doesn't leak over to anymore sports more than it already has.  It seems to me that baseball has known about the steroid use for quite some time and it looks as though they've just accepted it and said it was okay.

That's where you're wrong. First of all, I for one am not worried about steroids 'leaking' to other sports, and apparently neither is congress. They still haven't mentioned any other pro sports leagues; baseball remains the focus.

I don't have kids, but if I did, I wouldn't have to worry about his/her 'favorite sports to have a overshadowing history of steroid use', especially since baseball has the strongest liks to steroid use, and it has only surfaced in the last decade or so, not since MLB's inception, back in the 1800s.

In my humble opinion, U.S. congress should stay out of this. This is MLB's mess, let them clean it up.

It's not like Congress is going to come out tell everybody what all of this is REALLY for. I was just expressing my opinion.........whether it's right or wrong.

[jkrdevil]

Here's a good link written during when baseball wanted to contract. The anti-trust exemption now has to do with relocation and minor leagues but it used to involve the reserve clause.

Baseball's antitrust exemption: Q & A

[BBTV]

That's a pretty informative article. I wonder why other leagues are still allowed to have drafts? Also, I'm not sure why a major league team wouldn't be able to just establish a minor league team for itsself.

[jkrdevil]

Well, because it's in the other leagues CBA's. An example of this might be coming up. If an agreement in the NHL doesn't happen soon there can not be a draft because there would be no CBA. Sidney Crosby (He would be the number 1 pick this year) has already said if there is no draft he would sue the NHL and try to have himself declared a free agent. He would win in the US and I think in Canada as well.

The minor leagues aren't much of an issue any more because the players can move from team to team when their contracts are up. You don't have a case like in the 50's where prospects are kept in the minors when they could play on another mlb team because of the reserve clause. This happened with the Yankees because there was no draft and the gave amatuers the most money to sign with them. After the were signed the players would get pay cut after pay cut. In fact a Yankee minor leaguer sued them because of the reserve clause in the 50's.

The Curt Flood case and the rise of the union brought all this out into the public and the owners were forced to negotiate with the players. Which lead to the reserve clause being struck down.

In 1998 congress brought into law the the Curt Flood act which limits baseball's anti-trust exemption.

[rockchalk]

I'm not going to pretend that I'm an expert or anything, but I believe that the reason the reserve clause was taken out (and free agency allowed) was so baseball COULD keep the exemption, instead of having to fight it out in court and Congress for a long time.

[slapshot]

I'm still trying to figure out why Congress is sticking its nose into the baseball business anyway. Baseball is a private enterprise...let it sort out its own dirty laundry. I don't know what these Congressional hearings are going to prove, and what the outcome of these is going to be. Most of the testimony is either going to be a 5th Amendment plea, or guys calling out Canseco as a liar trying to sell books. They're interviewing a pitcher. How many pitchers took steroids? I doubt much...pitchers don't want to be that bulky, they'd lose the flexibility they need to achieve the high speeds on their pitching. They're trying to get someone to rat out their own, and it's not going to happen, unless your last name is Canseco.

Are steroid a problem in baseball? Sure. Probably moreso in the past than it is now with the random testing. But it's baseball's problem. Let baseball deal with the bad publicity and removing the tarnish of its own image.

Seems more like a weird tactic to take attention away from the war in Iraq and the constant inflation of the price of gas.

[NJTank]

It looked like Congress wanted some attnetion so they just reached into steroids in baseball which has been getting allot of attention lately so it looks like they are doing something when the press covers it

[sacker12]

Right when I was watching the hearings on ESPN, someone else in the room joked that Raffy couldn't say he'd never used performance enhancing drugs because of him using Viagra.

[slapshot]

Viagra is a "performance-enhancing" drug...

Palmeiro lied to Congress...