Roger before Congress

[gordon30307]

Originally Posted by Cub42

I watched the whole hearing, and while RC had some problems at times, The Rep. from Indiana took McNamee apart. He did not have to appear today, and keep in mind he faces perjury charges if it is proven he lied under oath. The bottom line I feel here is credibility. Brian McNamee testified he has lied to police and when questioned by authorities before. He is a disgrace.

You must be a Republican they back RC and Democrats back McNamee

Does not Petitte and Knolbach statement support McNamee?

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by wadeintothem

... if he broke the law.. thats not a Senate issue.

Did he and the others taint baseball?? Well.. know what? That's not a senate issue either. ...

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Breaking the law isn't a Senate issue?

The usage of illegal drugs isn't a Senate issue?

Yer funny......

While I agree with wade that this was not a legitimate issue for a Congressional hearing (no, they weren't investigating law breaking, they were grandstanding... some were practically gushing over Clemens - pathetic...), I'd point out to both of you that this was NOT a Senate issue. This was a House committee hearing...

[JJ]

Originally Posted by Dakota

While I agree with wade that this was not a legitimate issue for a Congressional hearing (no, they weren't investigating law breaking, they were grandstanding... some were practically gushing over Clemens - pathetic...), I'd point out to both of you that this was NOT a Senate issue. This was a House committee hearing...

...and Congress feels the right to poke around because Congress has allowed MLB an exemption to the anti-trust laws, which is one of the very few exemptions they have allowed.

JJ

[waltjp]

Originally Posted by Dakota

While I agree with wade that this was not a legitimate issue for a Congressional hearing (no, they weren't investigating law breaking, they were grandstanding... some were practically gushing over Clemens - pathetic...), I'd point out to both of you that this was NOT a Senate issue. This was a House committee hearing...

Correct! The Senate was busy meeting with the NFL guys.

[ptmac]

It seems to me that there was indeed a ton of grandstanding by adults who have never grown up. I looked at Andy Pettitt and Chuck Knoblauch’s depositions and testimony before the committee as well as a fair bit of other documentation that the committee released yesterday. With few exceptions, what a bunch of bottom-dwelling, scum-sucking ditch pigs…..oops, sorry, didn't mean to demean our animal friends.... . A Perfectly Performed Pirouette of Porcine CYA...

It all points up the bankruptcy of MLB to properly address issues in a timely manner. What did they do when the home run derby was going on? Can they seriously say that the ball was juiced? Certainly the players were, as we’ve come to understand (Mark, Barry, Sammy, Jose et al…). They’re trying to do as little as possible, and hope that we'll all ignore the owners, team officials and player's efforts to do whatever they want and pay for the priviledge of seeing these overblown princesses perform their chemically-induced magic. After all, better living through chemistry, right?

The real issue for me is whether or not the Congress will remove the antitrust exemption from baseball. An antiquated exemption that may be mercifully coming to an end. Perhaps they should compete on the same level surface as every other sport or commercial enterprise in America. A reasoned look at the exemption can be found at http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/Courses/econ352jpw/readme/Baseball%20Prospectus%20-%20Ending%20Baseball's%20Antitrust%20Exemption.htm .

Testing, testing, testing – would you believe now that baseball can structure and manage a testing program? I certainly don’t. This may be the lever to push Bud and the buds ‘n suds to accepting year round independent unannounced mandatory testing to clean up at least the perception that’s going around.

Thanks for reading my rant - perhaps no raves here....

[dash_riprock]

For me, the pathetic part was that Congress somehow found a way to make it a partisan issue. Con-gress - an antonym for Pro-gress. (Admittedly trite, but apropos nonetheless.)

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by dash_riprock

For me, the pathetic part was that Congress somehow found a way to make it a partisan issue. Con-gress - an antonym for Pro-gress. (Admittedly trite, but apropos nonetheless.)

Yeah, that was a wonderment to behold... the Republicans seemed to line up for Clemens, and the Democrats for McNamee.

I'm not sure what to make of that... sports cheats are Republicans and drug dealers are Democrats? What

It is almost like they are programmed to choose opposite sides on every issue, no matter how pointless.

The fawning over Clemens was embarrassing. I almost expected one of the members to ask for his autograph.

Still, McNamee's story held up better than Clemens' did, IMO.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by gordon30307

You must be a Republican they back RC and Democrats back McNamee

Does not Petitte and Knolbach statement support McNamee?

I have never voted Republican a day in my life. And who cares about this issue. This is like trying to put steam back in the bottle.

Congress should not be dealing with the personal situation of one person. The committee is suppose to "oversight" actions not get into each case of illegal drug use.

Peace

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by waltjp

Correct! The Senate was busy meeting with the NFL guys.

That won't work. The NFL has already burned all the evidence.

And now the Commish says that Belechick has been illegally taping since the year 2000.

[umpjong]

Originally Posted by canadaump6

I couldn't care either way. All this steroids crap is interfering with the game of baseball. Too bad the media couldn't focus on pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training.

Yes and Umpires too!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[waltjp]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Yeah, that was a wonderment to behold... the Republicans seemed to line up for Clemens, and the Democrats for McNamee.

I'm not sure what to make of that...

I was also amazed by this. Maybe it was all worked about beforehand like they'd do before a the debate team in school. Today's topic is .... and you'll be arguing ....

[ozzy6900]

Again, I say that this is a Baseball issue not a Congress Issue. This is a complete waste of time and OUR DAMNED MONEY! Who cares about this anyway as you cannot put talent in a syringe, Baseball will not negate anything, Baseball denied that this was going on, and again, who gives a $hit! Get off this crap and get these politicians back to doing their jobs (if they could figure out what that job was)!

[umpjong]

Originally Posted by ozzy6900

Again, I say that this is a Baseball issue not a Congress Issue. This is a complete waste of time and OUR DAMNED MONEY! Who cares about this anyway as you cannot put talent in a syringe, Baseball will not negate anything, Baseball denied that this was going on, and again, who gives a $hit! Get off this crap and get these politicians back to doing their jobs (if they could figure out what that job was)!

Can I hear an AMEN, brother OZZY.

[Dakota]

The press reports have not been complimentary to the esteemed members of this committee. You know how in news stories when a member of Congress is mentioned, there is frequently a party-state ID that follows (e.g. R-Texas). Well, I saw one report that said, in reference to the committee chairman "Henry Waxman, D-Middle Earth"... And this was not in a right-wing rag, either.

Anyway, the pressure must be getting to the politicians regarding this ridiculous charade, since now we have this (quoting from the Sporting News)

House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman regrets holding the hearings regarding former trainer Brian McNamee's allegations of steroid use by Roger Clemens, the New York Times reports.

Waxman said of Wednesday's four-hour hearing before the committee, "I think Clemens and McNamee both came out quite sullied, and I didn't think it was a hearing that needed to be held in order to get the facts out about the Mitchell report.

"I'm sorry we had the hearing. I regret that we had the hearing. And the only reason we had the hearing was because Roger Clemens and his lawyers insisted on it."

Clemens' lead counsel, Rusty Hardin, called Waxman's statements "unbelievable, disingenuous and outrageous."

"We didn't think any good would come out of having a food fight with [McNamee]," Hardin said.

"He is the one who created this circus in the first place," Hardin said of Waxman. Hardin told the newspaper that Clemens and his lawyers asked Waxman several weeks ago to call off the hearings but that once the depositions had been taken, the Clemens side had no choice but to proceed, fearing the committee would turn the depositions into a hostile written report.

On that last sentence... they expected the hearing to have their man look better???

[jkumpire]

Guys,

With the way the governement is expanding its reach into more and more of lives, and messing things up more and more, it is a relief when they do something that causes little damage like that steroid hearing!

If it will keep them from fouling anything else up, let them do more hearings like this.