Why haven’t McGwire, Sosa, and Palmeiro been indicted for lying in front of Congress? What about the illegal purchase of HGH by players such as by Byrd and Ankiel? Shouldn’t they also be held responsible in some way? What about Giambi and the rules and laws he broke. I would take this issue more seriously if the indictment playing field was level.
sportthink
You're preachin' to the choir here on this issue. As for the players in question that you've mentioned in your article the question one ought to be asking. Is why hasn't baseball itself taken any action whatsoever against these players ? Afterall they're the custodians of the sport and ought to be looking after its image and integrity above all else.
But as you can see Selig has never been the brightest guy in a room. He'd make the guys behind the Enron debacle seem like choirboys. He and the hierarchy of the sport as well as the Players' Union have been complicit in this facade. So what's now unfolding should come as no surprise to anyone. And for his take on MLB having the most stringent testing policy in all of sports is absolutely laughable. The man is a friggin' oaf . And you wonder why it is that they don't want the sport in the Olympics ? This is just one of the matters they wouldn't address to the IOC's satisfaction.
Did McGwire actually answer his question in Congress? I thought he gave a no comment, similar to what Barry's friend Anderson has done: didn't answer the question. As for Sosa, I can't remember that either; Palmeiro definitely denied it and definitely got caught. McGwire has already paying the price by being denied entry into the hall his first year of eligibility. Barry deserves at least that much; It seems his defense is very similar to Marion Jones (?) who denied and later pled guilty. That bothers me. People will always ask what the "medicine" is and what it does, even with Tylenol. If Barry did it, apologized and confessed, SOME people would forgive and go on. I don't think he is capable of such humility. The shame is he didn't need to do do what he has done, or accused of doing. He was that good in his prime. As for Byrd and Ankiel, I hope they get what is coming. They appear very guilty also. Maybe another 4 years?
Last edited by nospin on November 16th at 11:10 AM.
I'll speak candidly on this mess, since a few blogs have asked the question. You CAN plead the fifth. McGwire and Sosa essentially did this. Palmeiro lied. It's funny to me how Raffy is lumped in with "the white guys" when he isn't indicted. If he were to be indicted (which could happen if the Mitchell report determines that Palmeiro did steroids before March 2005), I'm sure the race card people will quickly make him a Hispanic again.
Regarding Glaus, Ankiel, and Byrd, I'm pretty sure that they admitted to using it until MLB banned it. Ex post facto does not hold up in any court.
If they broke they law in any way. Getting an illegal prescription, transporting it over state lines, using an illegal or banned substance (whether or not they admitted it is moot), these are all things that cannot be explained away. The 5th amendment does not allow for breaking the law, it allows you to not incriminate yourself. The evidence is incriminating enough to have all of these people thrown in jail. If Bonds is the only one held responsible it would be one of the worst injustices in the history of our country.
Last edited by sportthink on November 16th at 12:06 PM.
It's called common sense and being accountable for you actions. The rational is you must pay the piper for you own deeds...not for the deeds of others regardless if those individuals walked. People make their own choices in life and the actions of others DOES NOT make it alright and less accountable.
If admitted HGH users had prescriptions (the necessity of said prescription could be called into question), I'm not sure the users are punishable. There is illegal and then there's professional conduct. If baseball bans something, it bans it from the standpoint of professional conduct. If something is illegal, then that supercedes anything that baseball governs. If Byrd, Ankiel, Segui or other admitted HGH users obtained it legally, then they should be in the clear UNLESS they did it when it was deemed unprofessional conduct.
Barry's indictment stems from the BALCO case. Giambi and Bonds testified in those trials. It was deemed that Bonds perjured himself during this trial. Had Giambi done the same, he too would have been indicted.
We have all this confusion because all these parties (baseball, the feds, the union) want to plant their flag in the blissful territory of clean athletics. The problem is, they seem to be elbowing one another's efforts back whenever we see the promised land.
the true promised land would be either a blanket stance against the use of "performance enhancers" whatever those are, or none at all. I take offense to a wag the dog approach to taking care of the steroids, cheating issue. I guess I take offense to them making Barry the face of the cheaters, its such a joke. thanks for stoppin.
Published sports column contributor, but I'm about the 560th ranked blogger on this site. I'll keep most of my posts sports related. My sense of humor exists to amuse myself. This has happened by default because I rarely seem to amuse anyone else. I'm ashamed that my favorite professional sports teams are from the city of San Francisco.
Favorite sports listed from favorite to least favorite: duck-duck-
goose, red-light green-light, freeze tag, marco polo, and hop-scotch.
