Will A-Rod get an invitation from Capitol Hill?
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Will Alex Rodriguez get a Congressional invitation -- or something more forceful -- in the mail now that he has acknowledged using performance enhancing drugs earlier in the decade? That’s the question being raised by the Swamp, a blog produced by the Chicago Tribune (which is a sister paper of The Times).
Major League Baseball didn’t make a very good impression in 2005 when Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling and, by video hookup, Frank Thomas appeared before the House Committee on Government Reform to testify about steroids.
McGwire earned a sharp rebuke from one congressman with his refusal to talk about the past.
Last February, Roger Clemens drew another overflow crowd when the committee invited the pitcher and former trainer Brian McNamee. The two contradicted each other on whether the latter had ever injected the former with performance enhancing drugs.
Here’s some of what the Swamp’s Frank James has to say about Rodriguez:
An ARod hearing could be even more useful in terms of sending a message than Clemens’ in that Rodriguez is actually owning up to his use of steroids while Clemens never did. Since Rodriguez is apologizing and chalking up his use of the substances to foolishness, among other things, that’s a message Congress might want to give a bigger stage in order to drive home the idea to young athletes steroid-use is not only stupid but potentially dangerous.
-- Greg Johnson