Governmental Interventions

(Not that I haven't been guilty of the same.)

harry waxman: cinematographer, the wicker man
henry waxman: congressman no one could get tired of seeing

I was always the one to turn from the daily news to sports for some relief. Now it's equally depressing. Maybe it was better before we knew the personal lives of our athletes. Enough already.

Naive way of thinking perhaps.

As much as I love sports for the reasons you gave, I still believe that Congress is doing what it needs to.

Granted there are many profitable reasons they are appearing on these issues it still comes down to a lack of oversight on professional sports.

I don't trust the Players Union one bit and wouldn't consider the oweners to be too concerned either about steriods. The public's only source of recourse to fight back against things like tainted records *cough* Bonds *cough* is through Congressional hearings and oversight.

So they are acting on behalf of the people and fans that care about this issue.

In a final point there is a social issue of student athletes using steriods to get an edge and in the end ruining their lives and health. These congressional hearings are a method by which kids will see that their favorite players (who used roids) can be flushed out and reprimanded in a very public manner.

I'm all for getting back to the green grass of the colesium but lets understand that there is an epidemic that needs to be fixed before we, as fans, can feel free to enjoy the game and all it's players.

only comes from people who don't understand how the government works.

Quite simply, they DON'T have better things to do. Subcommittees like this one exist all over the place and they deal with minor issues. Do people really think that the 435 voting members of the House should sit in one giant room together and only debate the important issues like the war in Iraq, health care, and education? They do sometimes get together in this fashion, but without dividing into the committees and subcommittees only the biggest issues would ever get attention.

The US Government has bent over backwards for baseball for a very long time. I have no problem with a handful of Congressmen trying to figure out if they're being taken advantage of. But, really, can somebody kick that dope Dan Burton out of office? He embarassed himself yesterday. I'm sure he's one of the idiots to asked Clemens to sign a ball for him.

but if MLB would make a real effort to keep its own house, none of it would be necessary. They've consistently demonstrated that their goal is not to address the issue, but to create the impression that they're addressing the issue--which is a very significant difference.

The government should not have to interfere with sports related issues. MLB needs to sack up and learn to police themselves effectively.

Reading your complaint, it sounds like you don't actually object to the substance of what Congress is doing, you're just tired of it dominating all your news. If the hearings were going on but it were all private with no information released to the press or public, would you still care?

I don't have a problem with whatever Congress is doing because I don't see it. I enjoy sports by following the games when they're playing, and going to sites like this one where they actually talk about sports. If I turn on ESPN and they're talking about something else, I say "phlbthlth" and change the channel.

I wonder if I'm more like a normal fan than you are, Blez. Your job puts you in a position where you have to listen to whatever the media puts out. Most of us don't.

I'm glad it is being "cleaned up" but I would rather be blissfully ignorant about everything.

I think congress/mlb should focus on testing, prevention, and campaigning to protect young athletes fro PEDs.

this whole thing is bs. So I agree with Blez.

1. This is enormous news: two guys sitting side by side, offering totally incompatible versions of the truth. One guy's a superstar, one of the best pitchers ever. The other's being compelled to tell the truth by the feds to avoid prosecution. This confrontation is the biggest sporto-juris-politic story since OJ, and you can't blame the media for covering it nor the people for following it.

2. Congressional hearings on active criminal matters are idiotic. No just sports, all such matters. Congress endangers prosecutions and put witnesses in horrible no-win situations...either take the Fifth and have the world assume you're guilty, or go ahead and convict yourself with your own words, or perjure yourself. Know your rights...all three of em! There's a reason why prosecutors don't publicly depose witnesses on live TV...other than grabbing themselves some "I'm tough on steroids" face-time, such Congressional spectacles rarely help solve a problem, and often exacerbate it.

There is an "off" button on your tv. You choose to watch.

I could really care less. I do feel sorta bad for the kids that did roids because they felt they had no choice. But all the talk about the hallowed records that have fallen as a result of twenty years of muscle-bound jocks? What a crock of shit. What about greenies? I mean, we're talking essentially about speed being an acceptable part of baseball for who-knows-how-long.

Gee whiz, I thought they all drank milk.

And seriously, politicians calling out athletes for lying? Talk about the pot and the fucking kettle.

I've often felt that sports have much more to offer than just a distraction. Not that there's anything wrong with viewing them as such, but to deny the importance or significance of what can be learned about society by watching the business of sports and all that entails is to bury one's head in the sand.

Again, I empathize with the feeling of just enjoying sports purely for what they are. At the same time, there is a media revolution in all areas of society, from many more angles than we have even considered. We're being forced to look at many things with much tighter scrutiny than we used to, for better or worse. It is uncomfortable at times, but such is change.

The clean up ain't pretty nor will it be perfect (with financial and fame stakes as high as they are, there will always be those willing to risk cheating) , but when the players start jerking with the integrity of an entity it has to be dealt with with the highest level of scrutiny lest we lose the very basics of what we watch it for: fair competition and the possibility that greatness can happen at any moment. Otherwise it's a slippery slope toward mainstream sports equaling WWE.

Am I the only one who wishes the sigs and IDs at the bottom of posts were the same size as the posts? On my monitor they are so small as to approach unreadable. Same with the avatars, though I approve of moving the avatars to the right side of posts.

To me, easily identifying a poster is equally as important as what they say.

Here.

One thing that I think has been overlooked -- both by Josh Green in this article, and here -- is that Clemens' lousy performance under pressure really does reflect his long history of snapping/choking/quitting under pressure (viz., getting himself kicked out of the playoff start vs. Stew, trying out for the Olympic javelin squad vs. the Mets).

His lawyers did him a grave disservice by allowing/encouraging/requesting his session before the subcommittee, especially because they seem to have overlooked Clemens propensity to perform poorly in such situations.