Roger Clemens' hearing achieved nothing

Recently, the baseball and political world collided when a congressional hearing was held that featured legendary pitcher Roger Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee.

McNamee, of course, had named Clemens in the Mitchell Report as someone he injected with steroids and human growth hormone (HGH). The Mitchell Report was undertaken by Major League Baseball as one last attempt to understand the impact steroids have had on the sport during the last decade or so.

The testimony of Clemens and McNamee was fascinating to watch. Clemens emphatically denied ever taking any illegal drugs during his career, while McNamee continued to maintain that he had.

Obviously, one of them was lying in a big way, but both spoke with such conviction that it was difficult to get a feel one way or the other as to who was being truthful.

However, one question kept dancing in my mind while I was watching this and it was: Why was Congress investigating this?

Congressional hearings had already been held a couple of years ago regarding the impact of steroids on the sport. At those hearings, Mark McGwire famously refused to answer questions on the subject. Also, slugger Rafael Palmeiro wagged his finger at the committee and denied ever taking steroids.

Of course, Palmeiro flunked a drug test only a few months after those hearings and has apparently fallen off the face of the earth since then. He left the sport in disgrace.

Nothing new was gained from the Clemens' hearing other than hearing both sides air their dirty laundry in public.

However, as we all know, the one thing that politicians seem to love more than anything is free publicity. With this hearing, they knew they were guaranteed to get plenty of that.

And they were right. The major cable news networks carried significant chunks of the hearing. ESPN's cameras offered coverage both on television and the internet. C-SPAN replayed the hearing that evening for those who didn't have the chance to watch it during the day.

Our elected officials presided over a circus and got maximum exposure for doing so. They did not care about the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars that got flushed down the toilet so that this extravaganza could take place.

To many of our elected officials, taxpayer money is just like toilet paper. It is an easily replaceable resource, and when reserves get low, they simply go out and get more.

They demonstrate this attitude every day, but rarely do we get to see an example as blatant as the Clemens' hearing. Another circus like this is probably just around the corner.

As for Clemens and McNamee, I thought they both came off looking bad. Clemens repeatedly refused taking steroids and HGH despite some pretty compelling testimony that he did.

His good friend and fellow pitcher Andy Pettitte told congressional investigators that Clemens told him several years ago that he had taken HGH.

Additionally, Clemens' wife Debbie admitted that McNamee had injected her with HGH. If his own wife was supplied with HGH by McNamee, is it really that big of a stretch to suspect that Clemens also had been injected with it?

Also, two other players fingered by McNamee in the Mitchell Report have admitted what he said about them was true. If McNamee told the truth about those two players, why would he lie about Clemens?

As for McNamee, he didn't exactly come off smelling like a rose during his testimony. Congressional questioners got him to admit that he had repeatedly lied to the media and federal investigators during the time he had been investigated.

Obviously, that damages his credibility and should cause us all to think twice about anything he has to say. Then again, just because he lied in the past does not mean he is not telling the truth now.

As written earlier, one of these two is obviously lying. The passing of time has a tendency to reveal who is telling the truth and who is not.

Let's hope this happens in this case. Even though this event was a circus, one of these two is guilty of lying under oath to Congress.

This is a serious offense, and the guilty party should be prosecuted.

If this doesn't happen, then the crime of perjury should be removed from the law books.

The Mitchell Report caps a sorry era

In almost any large business, there is often a seamy portion that is not for the faint of heart.

When a person gazes upon it, the viewer's perception of the business is often permanently changed. For folks who are naïve and idealistic, seeing this often strips away a part of their innocence.

For others who have been hardened by the world, this ugliness only re-enforces their view of the world and makes them a little more cynical.

A moment like this occurred recently when Major League Baseball released the long awaited Mitchell Report. The report was the product of a commission headed up by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.

The commission's task was to investigate the impact illegal steroid use has had on professional baseball over the last decade or so.

The commission named more than 80 former and current major leaguers, which it claimed used illegal steroids during this time. The names in the report ranged from the inconsequential (Brian Roberts) to the extraordinary (Roger Clemens).

There has been no shortage of opinions regarding this report. Many questioned the need for it since most of the steroid use that is alleged occurred before Major League Baseball had a comprehensive steroid testing program.

However, this report was necessary. If nothing else, it puts this era of the sport into some kind of perspective.

For years, steroid use by major leaguers was the game's dirty little secret and rumors that certain players "were on the juice" circulated for years. To many, the inclusion of Roger Clemens in the report was a total shock, but he had been on the receiving end of rumors for a long time. Clemens, however, maintains that he has never used steroids.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig likes to talk about how the game is enjoying record attendance and that it is more popular than ever. While this is true, this popularity was fueled by the illegal actions of many.

Back in the mid 90s, the game was reeling after a work stoppage that eventually caused the 1994 World Series to be cancelled. Many fans swore they would never attend or watch another major league game again.

However, beginning in the late 90s, behemoths that looked like lumberjacks swinging a bat began slamming the ball out of the park. Home runs began flying out of ball parks in record numbers as players like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds took turns breaking the game's single season home run record.

It was a glorious time as every season seemed to bring another amazing feat by these highly paid entertainers.

Everybody got caught up in the wonder of it all. The fans, baseball management, and the media all bought into the idea that baseball had entered another golden age.

However, like all things that seem too good to be true, the golden age was really not much more than a lump of coal.

Renegade slugger Jose Canseco wrote a dubious book in 2005 that named players he said used steroids. Congressional hearings were held in which McGwire famously deflected questions from politicians by stating he only wanted to talk about the future and not what he might have done in the past.

Bonds has been relentlessly hounded, and the book Game of Shadows delivered a devastating portrait of him as a steroid user.

In the shadows of this calamity, Commissioner Selig asked Sen. Mitchell to lead the effort to record the impact of steroids on the game.

Though I have some problems with the report (primarily the credibility of the sources used to finger Clemens and others in this mess), I believe the report is important if for no other reason that it puts the last decade or so into a historical context.

Let's not kid ourselves by believing that the people mentioned in the report were the only ones who might have used the stuff. Far from it. Because of the lack of cooperation of most players with the investigation, the report likely doesn't come close to the true number of players who took steroids.

So, Commissioner Selig can take solace in the fact that baseball is more popular now than it ever has been. However, this success is built on a foundation of manure.

And, as we all know, manure stinks.