"Let's backtrack to the late 1990s, when home run totals were exploding in both leagues and old long-standing records were either obliterated or under assault. Egged on by the sports press, fans began to pepper their Congressmen with complaints about the proliferation of steroids and other PEDs in baseball at both the pro and amateur levels, including high schools."
I don't really recall that part, but somebody somewhere must have started the ball rolling.
My recollection is silence from the sports press and, in general, a collective burying of heads in the sand.
I wasn't peppering my Congressman.
Were you peppering your Congressman?
"The first response of baseball commissioner Bud Selig to complaints from Congress was one of almost ridiculous arrogance. After stalling for years on requests for an investigation into drug use in the major leagues, in 2005 Selig sent the Congressional Committee a letter telling them they had no jurisdiction in the matter. The hearings, Selig informed them, were 'an absolutely excessive and unprecedented misuse of Congressional power.' "
It's an exaggeration, to be sure, but I don't think Congress is acting on behalf of the American people.
"Perhaps it was years of being called the 'czar' of baseball, but whatever inflated Selig's sense of his own power, he was delusional. Several Congressmen went public about the possibility of stripping baseball of its exemption from antitrust laws, which it had enjoyed since 1922."
This is precisely where Selig made a mistake. He should have simply called Congress's bluff. You want to remove the last vestige of the antitrust laws? Please go right ahead.
What is the real danger to MLB if the antitrust protections are removed?
"But on April 8, 2004, six days after testing was completed, federal agents confiscated the samples from a Las Vegas lab and records of the test results from a company in Long Beach, California. Both the Commissioner's office and the union vehemently objected. The agents' warrant was for only ten samples related to their investigation into the BALCO steroids lab in building their case against Barry Bonds, and they had no authority to take the samples of all 104 players who had tested positive. It took more than five years of legal squabbling for the union to get the samples back. On August 26, 2009, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-2 that the agents had violated the players' civil liberties and ordered the samples returned, which, after another appeal was denied, they were. The samples were promptly destroyed.
But it was too late for some well-known players. The feds broke the ID code on the 'blind' samples and were able to put names to the samples. In February, 2009, as the courts debated the status of the confiscated test samples, the names of Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz were leaked to the New York Times and Sports Illustrated."
Now, that's what I call an abuse of power.
Roger Clemens is not a likeable guy. Arrogant, mean, a real prick. He probably cheated and he displays zero remorse.
He's still an American citizen.
You don't forfeit your Constitutional rights just because you're a professional athlete.
"What are the chances of a conviction? No one really knows. The prosecution rested on May 29, and unless they still have something bigger up their sleeve than Brian McNamee's word or a bunch of old syringes stored for years in a beer can—regardless of the brand—it seems likely that Barry Bonds' house arrest is all the federal government will have to show for our $120 million."
$120 million.
I want my money back.
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