Congress wants action, not excuses from Selig, Fehr

First, Bud Selig had to listen to the Mitchell Report's criticisms and now he'll hear from Congress, too. Stan Honda/Getty Images

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When Bud Selig and Don Fehr once again face up to Congress next week, the occasion won't hold anywhere near the drama and intrigue that next month's high-stakes, finger-pointing, lawyered-up Capitol Hill showdown between pitching great Roger Clemens and his one-time trainer, Brian McNamee, promises.

Still, this is Washington. It's Selig, Major League Baseball's longtime commissioner, and Fehr, the longtime chief of baseball's players' union. It's a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In other words, Yogi, it's deja vu all over again.

And just as was the case when these parties last gathered three years ago, that means baseball's about to take another shot or two to the chin.

"This is a very critical moment for Major League Baseball," says Rep. Elijah Cummings, (D-Maryland), "If we fail to act -- the league or Congress -- that is a kind of yellow, if not green light, for things to get worse.

"The question is: Now that we have the information, what do we do?"

Tuesday's hearing is a response to the release last month of the Mitchell Report, the 20-month investigation -- pushed by Congress and paid for by Major League Baseball-- into steroid use in the game. The report was authored by former Sen. George Mitchell, who is scheduled to take the hearing floor first, before what almost certainly will be a sympathetic committee.

In the 409-page report, done largely without the cooperation of the players or their union, Mitchell outlined a sordid history of unchecked use of performance-enhancing drugs in the sport, putting the blame for the so-called Steroid Era evenly on the shoulders of commissioners, club officials, the players and the union. Mitchell also submitted several recommendations to improve the game's drug policy, ranging from the establishment of a department of investigations to increased education.

Although Mitchell will no doubt find a friendly audience in the committee, he will face some questions. "I will ask about the scope of the investigation, and the efficacy of it," says Rep. Stephen Lynch, (D-Mass.). "But I think they did a good job, given the tools that they had."

Says Cummings: "I thought he did a pretty thorough job. One thing I want to ask him is, did he feel that there's more to be done by Congress, some things he couldn't get to?"

Selig and Fehr, who are scheduled to appear after Mitchell, will get no such softballs from the lawmakers. Many of them have faced down baseball's top men before, and at least one of them bristled at Selig's initial comments after the release of the Mitchell Report. "His report is a call to action, and I will act," Selig said last month.

"It's hard for me to hear the commissioner come out and say, 'This is a wake-up call,' about the Mitchell Report," says Rep. Christopher Shays, (R-Conn.). "The wake-up call should have been when he appeared before Congress the first time.

"It's somewhat clear to me that the players have intimidated the commissioner, and he has not stood his ground. But you know what? He has a chance to redeem himself."

Committee members will undoubtedly urge both Selig and Fehr to adopt the recommendations that Mitchell made in his report, and that's where Fehr, too, could come under some heat from the Congressmen. Selig already has said that he will implement whatever changes he can. In fact, he has already begun that process, announcing earlier this week that baseball will tighten security in big-league clubhouses. Selig also said he will soon announce other moves called for by Mitchell in his report.

Several other recommendations must be undertaken with the cooperation of Fehr and the players' union, though, through baseball's collective bargaining agreement. And getting the commissioner's office and the players' union to play nice always has been a tricky process, as the House committee well knows.

"I don't want to hear any excuses. This is not an issue of compromise," Shays insists. "I want to know what they are going to do about this very pervasive problem."

One of the biggest problems that baseball faces -- and one, no doubt, that the committee will ask about on Tuesday -- is finding a way to deal with the issue of human growth hormone. The Mitchell Report suggested that the use of HGH has grown tremendously in baseball. Currently, no urine test for HGH is available, and the players' union has resisted blood tests, citing privacy concerns.

Still, these lawmakers will push for a solution. That's what they do.

"I'd like to see an agreement to get at HGH, to have that as part of the testing protocol, as well," says Lynch, who last month introduced legislation to add HGH to the list of Schedule III drugs in the Controlled Substances Act. That would tighten restrictions on dispensing the drug and allow for tougher penalties for trafficking. "I'd like to see a way to adopt all the recommendations."

Though things promise to get testy when Selig and Fehr sit before the committee -- the two have angered lawmakers before with nebulous answers to questions and evasive ways in dealing with appearances -- several of those involved with the proceedings acknowledged this week that baseball has moved forward in its efforts to clean up the game." I think the commissioner and Don Fehr genuinely would like to see a more effective policy in place," said Phillip Schiliro, the committee's chief of staff. "What always makes news is conflict. But I think we'll see a lot more cooperation on Tuesday. I think Tuesday will be about looking forward to get a plan to dramatically reduce the use of performance-enhancing substances ..."

And though some continue to paint these committee hearings as a forum for long-winded politicians to strut before the public, their bullying effects on baseball can't be denied. Since Congress first jumped into baseball's performance-enhancing mess, shortly after President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address in January 2004, called on all sports to clean up their steroid-tainted image, Major League Baseball and the players union have twice increased penalties for positive drug tests and launched Mitchell's multi-million-dollar investigation.

"Look, no one's been tougher on Bud Selig than I have. I will be the first one to say that we have come a long way. They've made great strides," Lynch says. "The saying is, 'Sunshine is the best disinfectant.' I think that's what happened with those hearings. It really put a spotlight on the issue. I think baseball is in a better place because Congress was persistent and thorough."