Does anyone else find it puzzling that Mark McGwire was permitted to evade all questioning from Congress without invoking his 5th amendment privilege from incriminating himself?
I find it baffling that the members of the committee permitted him to denounce the witch-hunt and grandstanding of Congress (which is correct, but that’s already in other threads) without admitting or denying under oath that he used PED’s.
Yes, Congress has overstepped its jurisdiction and will probably not help, but baseball and other professional sports need to address their drug problem. The two statements should not present an either/or choice (kind of like the LAPD has lots of racist cops, AND OJ killed his wife).
I can understand not wanting to tell his kids he took drugs. However, by saying nothing he made a huge mistake. He should have just come clean and gotten it over with. Now he will be questioned forever and his kids, well, I can imagine what the other kids are now saying about McGwire and that must be rough.
I agree that the people who are going to truly suffer from this are the kids.
These bozos who take whatever drug to enhance their performances need to deal with the consequences. They chose to use, now they need to suffer the results. Either man up and admit it or stop pissing in the wind and whining about it.
At least one thing McGwire said is absolutely true, as evidenced by this thread. If he had said he did them, he would be stomped on. If he said he didn’t do them, no one would believe anyway.
“When do you suppose they are actually going to do something?”
I don’t suppose they will. I did hear that part of the anti-trust agreement with MLB allows Congress to change the rules of the league if they don’t think baseball is doing the right thing. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I don’t know the terms of the anti-trust agreement.
Or he could just have said no, I never took them and let that be his answer for posterity. What did he gain by saying nothing if the truth is he never knowingly took any steroids other than andro? Let’s try this as an answer “I never took anything besides andro and andro was legal. I advise everyone to stay away from all drugs.” How hard was that to say if that’s the truth?
It’s not hard, but as he said, no one would have believed him. He’s already admitted to using andro in the past, so what good would it do to admit to it again?
Jose Canseco will never be confused with an intelligent person. IMO, however, there are two things that Jose knows well … home runs and steroids. There are very few topics involving Jose Canseco that would cause me to stop what I was doing and listen … these are two of them.
The BIG DEAL to me is that Jose is not suggesting that he thinks certain folks (McGwire, Raffy, Ivan, and Juan, etc) use steroids based on their physical/performance change … but, Jose is saying that he PERSONALLY injected them with an array of compounds including Winny, Deca, and test. That is first-hand account, not heresay, or rumor mill. That has to be taken seriously.
Regarding McGwire’s visible Ando bottle in his locker … I remember many people thinking it was a “plant” to cover the more serious performance enhancers. As I read it put today, “McGwire using Andro , would be like a hospitalpatient receiving morphine requesting an asprin”.
At this point, the only think that would shick us is to find out that a superstar was clean. That’s sad, but it is likely reality.
The mubers post 94 strike copared to the numbers slightly before and especially decades before are not comparable. Not only have steroids changed the game, but they are so dramatic that they are going to cause Hall of Fame standards to change. That’s significant.
I heard today that once somebody invokes the fifth amendment during such a hearing, that it becomes a blanket statement and effectively shuts down further questioning during that session. I agree, he attempted (succesfully) to weasel out of actually answering questions without invoking the Fifth. The dude is a coward, a cheater and a fraud.
Regarding McGwire’s visible Ando bottle in his locker … I remember many people thinking it was a “plant” to cover the more serious performance enhancers. As I read it put today, “McGwire using Andro , would be like a hospitalpatient receiving morphine requesting an asprin”.
Wouldnt be surprised… that andro did nothing for him
The anti-trust agreement does not allow congress the ability to change the rules of MLB. What it does allow is for MLB to control aspects of the teams without being sued. For example, if a team wanted to move cities, MLB could deny them from moving and they could not be sued. The NFL which does not have anti-trust exemptions, could not prevent Al Davis from moving the Raiders from Oakland to LA. Al Davis sued the NFL to move and won, all because the NFL does not have anti-trust exemption.
The cynic in me believes that when Mark says he is going to do everything in his power to prevent kids from taking steriods, what he really means is that he’s going to up his personal usage to reduce the available supply.
Dammit, slowguy I was going to write this at the bottom of all my posts: “something clever” … But with your insert pithy phrase, you beat me to it. You ruined my morning.
“Dammit, slowguy I was going to write this at the bottom of all my posts: “something clever” … But with your insert pithy phrase, you beat me to it. You ruined my morning.”
I heard today that once somebody invokes the fifth amendment during such a hearing, that it becomes a blanket statement and effectively shuts down further questioning during that session. I agree, he attempted (succesfully) to weasel out of actually answering questions without invoking the Fifth. The dude is a coward, a cheater and a fraud.
That’s what I was driving at when I started this off. How does McGwire get through the hearing without answering the question OR invoking the 5th amendment??? I can’t believe a bunch of TV hungry pols let him play his game on their turf.
I sort of envisioned this exchange:
CONGRESSMAN MINI-CAM: Mister McGwire, this committee has asked you a direct question: did you ever use steroids or any other illegal performance enhancing drug during your major league career. You can answer “yes,” you can answer “no,” or you may invoke your 5th amendment privilege. May I remind you sir that you are under oath and subject to the penalties of perjury. What is your answer?
The rules were determined before the hearing that direct personal questions were not allowed. A few of them asked pretty direct questions, but the meeting head interrupted them and told them to change their line of questioning when it became too direct.
Thanks for the clarification. Serves me right for only paying tangential attention to this and spouting off (not that it ever stopped me from doing that before…)
The idea of subpoenaing a witness in of whom you may not ask direct personal questions makes the hearing worse of a sham.
The problem is that that is exactly what baseball deserves.
