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WASHINGTON: US lawmakers will push scandal-ridden
Major League Baseball for tougher drug tests and an independent
antidoping program when Commissioner Bud Selig and union boss Don
Fehr attend a Tuesday hearing.
Former US Senator George
Mitchell, whose 20-month probe into dope cheats in the American
pastime revealed 92 players linked to performance-enhancing drugs,
will also attend the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee
gathering.
But Fehr, who urged players not
to cooperate with Mitchell’s investigation, and Selig, who has
already started implementing Mitchell’s suggestions for rebuilding
the sport’s credibility, will take the hard questions from
Congress.
“We look forward to their
testimony on whether the Mitchell Report’s recommendations will be
adopted and whether additional measures are needed,” committee
chairman Henry Waxman said.
Mitchell’s report, released
exactly a month ago, named US home run king Barry Bonds, who faces
charges for lying to a grand jury, and pitcher Roger Clemens, the
subject of a February 13 hearing, as the top stars involved in a
culture of cheating.
“It shows the use of steroids
and human growth hormone has been and is a significant problem in
Major League Baseball,” Waxman said. “It shows everyone involved
in Major League Baseball bears some responsibility for this
scandal.”
Representative Cliff Stearns, a
Florida Republican, urged Selig to resign in the wake of the doping
scandal unveiled by the probe Selig authorized in March of 2006
after a book’s revelations detailed Bonds’ doping connections.
“A lack of leadership and
oversight in Major League Baseball enabled these abuses to continue.
After 15 years of slow action, a new commissioner is needed to guide
the league out of this era of drug abuse,” Stearns said.
“Congress needs to evaluate the
substance and recommendations of the report as well as other
necessary steps to get drugs out of Major League Baseball.”
Selig has already acted on
recommendations from the Mitchell Report that he has the power to
impose without the approval of Fehr, such as tighter security in
team clubhouses and a halt to prior notification to clubs before
dope tests.
Major League Baseball announced
the creation of an investigations department on Friday, another idea
Mitchell championed.
Fehr has championed the privacy
of player medical records and fought blood testing for human growth
hormone as well as helping make sure almost no active players spoke
to Mitchell’s panel.
Union leaders fought for years to
keep drug testing out of baseball. That move is now haunting those
trying to prove their innocence from doping accusations without a
history of negative tests to support their claims.
Fehr’s player advocacy
positions figure to put him on the hot seat when lawmakers demand a
tougher stance, even after Fehr and Selig have twice agreed upon
tougher penalties for dope cheats.
--AFP
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