MLB Fastball 2.17.08: The Witch-Hunt Continues

Posted by Neil Borenstein on 02.17.2008

Following the uselessness of the The Mitchell Report, Congress has managed to once again butt in where its not needed. In this edition of MLB Fastball, Neil Borenstein makes yet another plea for everybody to pay more attention to league now and move forward instead of remaining on the mission to name names and stay stuck in the past.

Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports/Getty ImagesCongress' most pressing issue – solving the Roger Clemens vs. Brian McNamee case?

Ever since José Canseco published Juiced in 2005, the use of performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball has overshadowed everything the league had to offer. Seasons have gone by since that book was released, but talk of steroids, human growth hormones (HGH) and amphetamines has run amok not just through the MLB, but through all sports around America, as well.

This year is much the same. Instead of highlighting the opening of Spring Training camps and the first pitch of the 2008 season less than two months away, the big story receiving all the hype and focus resides in Congress, where Roger Clemens takes on Brian McNamee.

Once good friends and colleagues, Clemens and McNamee are bitter enemies as a result of accusations made in The Mitchell Report. McNamee named Clemens as a user of steroids and HGH, something Clemens vehemently denies. McNamee claims he personally injected Clemens with the substances, also denied by Clemens. The pitcher is now on a mission to clear his name, which is he hoping to do through Congress.

On Wednesday, both Clemens and McNamee stepped in front of Congress to put their claims on the line. Both parties face the daunting task of proving their credibility as well as their stances. Clemens' credibility was questioned the second he was named in The Mitchell Report, while McNamee never had credibility since he is a supplier of performance enhancing substances. The hope on both sides was to find a truthful source between the two. That goal, however, has yet to be met. It probably never will.

The first problem with this issue is the fact that Congress is not the field to play this debacle out on. Congressmen undoubtedly want their hands on this situation. It's a way for them to stroke their egos and feel as if they are doing a deed for the country because they can "save" a sport from a questionable history. But while the United States is reaching recession-level danger in its economy and there is a "conflict" in Iraq that never had a use in the first place, worrying about steroid use in baseball (or in any sport, for that matter) in not a top priority for Congress. They are merely wasting time and taxpayer money trying to deal with an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with them and needs to be handled by Major League Baseball and it's players association – and only those two parties.

All Congress does in these hearings is show its pointlessness in such matters. Republican Dan Burton repeatedly called McNamee a liar and committee chairman Henry Waxman banged his gavel at Clemens to show just how insignificant his statements were to the committee. Instead of trying to find answers, all Congress wanted to do show their power. A four-hour and 41-minute circus was presented for those present and watching around the world. We are nowhere closer to finding out the truth of this matter than we were before the hearing.

The second problem with this whole scenario is far more damning on the sport than Congress' meaningless intervention. It's the fact that the league, the media and the fans can't find a way to move on. A fetish exists to try and re-write history by revealing the names of all previous users of performance enhancing drugs – those names that probably saved baseball at one point. That was the intention of The Mitchell Report, which was a completely useless document, primarily because it was supported by two completely non-credible sources.

This witch-hunt really needs to come to an end, however. There is this undying necessity to out every single user of performance enhancing drugs, but that does nothing for the progression of the sport. Making the MLB and the sport of baseball better going forward with the implementation of a solid performance enhancing drug policy needs to be the focus of commissioner Bud Selig and the rest of the league. Commissioning a report and using Congress to investigate past users of performance enhancing drugs isn't going to do a damn thing for keeping the MLB clean now and in the future.

What happens if it turns out Clemens did take steroids and or HGH? Does anything really change? His records will not have an asterisk placed beside them. He will still be an 11-time All Star, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner and a two-time World Series Champion. And eventually, through hell or high water, he will be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, somehow, some way. All that will remain is animosity by those who can't move on and can't let it go.

What happens if McNamee turns out to be the bad guy? He, along with every other critic of Clemens, isn't going to apologize for falsely throwing Clemens' name through the mud. Clemens' records won't be labeled in bold or highlighted in the books as a way for emphasis to show he proved everybody wrong. His Hall of Fame bid won't come any sooner, as the cloud of doubt will remain over Clemens' head forever since one's name is never cleared, even when proven innocent. All that will remain is a clan of foolish-looking critics who will still remain skeptical about Clemens' career.

How about if Congress never actually reaches a final conclusion? It's certainly not unheard of for Congress to lack closure. As stated before, Congressmen care more about stroking their own egos than actually finding answers. Otherwise, they wouldn't put on this laughable exhibition where they screech at people by calling them liars and bang their all-imposing gavels just to show how much more "important" they are compared to the feeble testifiers. If neither Clemens nor McNamee come out on top, where does this situation stand? And really, what was the point of this whole thing to begin with?

No matter the result, nothing changes.

No good will come out of this situation regardless of what the final result is. If a winner is even named, that doesn't do anything to better the game as it is right now and for the future of the sport. All it does is name names, which might be what the majority of people want, but is something that they don't really need and don't have the right to receive in the face of more pressing issues that Congress needs to be dealing with. In fact, Congress needs to learn to butt out of things that don't involve them. And the media and fans alike need to realize that concentrating on past possible occurrences of steroid and HGH use is not the way to better today's game, which should be the only concern at this point.

To all parties involved: Get over it. Move on. The witch-hunt needs to stop.

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Until next time!

~ Neil Borenstein