Steroids in baseball

[LMU]

Here's the thing. Baseball is not government run, so the government is kinda sticking their noses where they don't belong. If players are breaking the law by taking steroids, let the proper authorities handle that, but if these substances were not banned while being used, there is no issue, and I hate seeing my taxpayer money blown on this sort of pointless witchhunt.

[Phil]

I don't blame the government for getting involved. Baseball is "America's Pastime", and sports in general and baseball in particular are important elements of American culture. Steroids is a blight on the athletic realm, and every effort should be made to remove it. Baseball has thus far shown a distinct inability to do so, and so the government has taken it upon itself to look into it.

However the process does seem somewhat overblown.

[DEAD!]

Well, one day in congress about this issue is not a total waste of time, but it will not solve the steroid problem. Considering that purgery is invovled, we do know a bit more more about who is doing what and who is creadible. Take Lil Kim who is facing jail time for purgery. I now do believe that Rafael Palmero was not taking steroids and that he really takes Viagra

Sooner or later, congress will also find the Major League Baseball satellite that gets information on each person (Simpsons referrence)

[BBTV]

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.

Didn't he go on record stating that he doesn't actually use Viagra? I thought I heard a press conf. where he said that he is only a paid endorser, not a user.

Also, I don't think that the gov't would be involved at all if not for the big breaks they give baseball w/ antitrust. I think that they have every right to make sure that a business that they go out of their way to hook up is being run properly. Sorry if I repeated myself. I'm very hungover.

[Mac the Knife]

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.

Actually it doesn't prevent another team from competing in the same city from another league. It does allow MLB to block a move of say, the Expos to New York, though.

Baseball's anti-trust exemption does nothing in terms of squashing any potential competition. In a practical sense, the 1922 court ruling that in effect created the exemption states solely that baseball is a "sport" rather than a business, and therefore is not subject to Interstate Commerce Commission regulations. This has since been interpreted by pundits and even some Congressmen as an all-encompassing exemption, but in fact its not nearly as big a deal as everyone seems to be making of it. MLB could lose its anti-trust exemption tomorrow and it wouldn't really hurt them all that much.

Football doesn't enjoy an anti-trust exemption, but rather was granted special dispensation (as a result of the AFL-NFL merger) by Congress to broadcast its games on multiple television networks (something that now any league could theoretically do). They have no anti-trust protection whatsoever, a fact proven by their pyhrric (sp?) loss to the USFL in court in 1986.

[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.

Turns out I wasn't that off afterall!

[Mac the Knife]

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

It is kind of scary though when Congress can keep bitchslapping MLB for being incompetent and have the people's first thought not be that of a certain pot calling a certain kettle black.

[eddie010]

Turns out I wasn't that off afterall! 

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.

I honestly cannot see what you are trying to prove by replying to my post twice.

[the_cynic]

Turns out I wasn't that off afterall! 

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.

I honestly cannot see what you are trying to prove by replying to my post twice.

"That's where you're wrong."

That's why!