Complying with a subpoena, Mr. McGwire goes to Washington D.C. to tell them about what he knows about'roids.
McGwire's decision, revealed Wednesday by a representative of the former Oakland and St. Louis slugger who spoke on condition of anonymity, made it likely all subpoenaed players except for Jason Giambi would attend the session on Capitol Hill.
Less than 24 hours before the start of the highly anticipated hearing, Jose Canseco's request for immunity was denied by the House Government Reform committee, which also revealed that baseball's drug-testing agreement contains a provision that testing would be "suspended immediately" if the government conducts an independent investigation into drug use in baseball.
Sen. John McCain, who has pushed for tougher rules, said the details of baseball's proposed new agreement angered him. "I can reach no conclusion but that the league and the players' union have misrepresented to me and to the American public the substance of MLB's new steroid policy," he said. "I expect the league and the players' union to modify the new policy to comply with at least what was announced by MLB in January. To do anything less than that would constitute a violation of the public's trust, a blow to the integrity of Major League Baseball, and an invitation to further scrutiny of the league's steroid policy."
This might, in years to come, turn out to be known as McCain-ism where innocent baseballers werw hounded out of the game by an over-zealous Congress - Well, we certainly know McGwire isn't a communist, because commies don't play baseball.
Meanwhile the commentary from the press box is bringing up the Maris name; just as I did yesterday.
"It's kind of an awkward situation," Rich Maris said. "Mark handled things really well with us. It was a great experience back in 1998. Who's to say what's right from wrong? As far as animosity, no, I don't have any.
"Tomorrow, Maris' name will be on the minds of folks who've been paying attention. Bonds already has been caught. No matter what contradictory jive he's throwing out there, he's long since stopped denying he's used. Sosa, who also eclipsed Maris, should appear, too. By tomorrow, they all could have earned real asterisks, whether baseball admits it or not.
"We're curious like everybody else," Rich Maris said.But of course, they're not like anybody else."In our heart of hearts, we know Dad did it the right way. We know he was clean. We know Hank Aaron was clean," Rich Maris said. "Everyone wants to see what's asked and what's admitted. It obviously doesn't look good for Mark."Rich Maris stopped there. He doesn't bash McGwire, beyond agreeing that the three men who beat his dad questionable today. "It looks like they did" take steroids, Rich Maris said.
It's a bit shrill. But you get the gist. The guys at BTF have this thread going. With their usual anal-pedant sensibility they are conetrating on the trivial in order to escape the looming obvious. It's interesting in its own way.
God, just exactly how do you put a smiley face on all this?
Circuit Breaker Breaks On The ISS
In Space News, the ISS is having trouble with the circuit breaker they recently replaced.
In a repeat from one year ago, the latest failure left the space station with only two functioning gyroscopes, the bare minimum needed for control, NASA said. This time, though, the problem could affect NASA's plans to launch Discovery to the station in mid-May after a two-year grounding of the shuttle fleet. The space station must be steady for a shuttle to dock. Despite the early-morning breakdown, the space station continued to cruise along smoothly in orbit and the two men on board went about their normal duties, including repair work on a balky oxygen generator.
It appeared to be similar to what happened in April 2004, when a circuit breaker tripped and cut off power to the same gyroscope. Two months later, two spacewalking crewmen plugged in a new circuit breaker and got the gyroscope working again.
So there you have it. Not only is the space shuttle a bum deal, so is the ISS... :)
- Art Neuro
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