The Red Sox game, as well as every other game in Florida, was rained out yesterday. That left me torn between ruining the end of Million Dollar Baby for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet or listing my top ten favorite show tunes. Then I read more about the congressional hearings scheduled for March 17th (and there’s an irony about that I haven’t figured it out yet), so you are all saved for another day.
As a baseball fan, I say bring it. Have SWAT teams kicking down clubhouse doors and bathroom stalls looking for users. Bring in the drug-sniffing dogs. Hire assassins armed with cameras instead of guns to catch these guys on film. Invade privacy as you see fit. These guys are millionaires playing a kid’s game as their “job” and that isn’t enough. They cheat. I say catch them and kick them out of the game. Let the younger generations know how bad this stuff is and that they won’t get away with using it.
But as a tax-paying American citizen, I have to ask, doesn’t Congress have anything better to do? Isn’t there a budget to balance? A deficit to fix? A war to stop? Terrorists to catch? Education? Anything?
Now, let’s try to take this seriously for a moment. Who is being subpoenaed?
Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Curt Schilling, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Frank Thomas are the current and former players.
Our favorite head of the players association, Donald Fehr, baseball VP’s Rob Manfred and Sandy Alderson, and San Diego GM Kevin Towers.
Call me crazy, but aren’t there a couple of obvious names missing? Doesn’t the committee want to have a chat with Barry Bonds? Or, I don’t know, Bud Selig? Tony LaRussa?
This has all the makings of political showboating. What could possibly come out of this? Considering the guest list, nobody will get a word in edgewise with Schilling there. Maybe McGwire and Canseco will have a throwdown. I’d watch that on pay-per-view. By the time Congress releases any “findings”, we’ll be watching real baseball. Although if Bonds was there, the one question I would like to see Ted Kennedy ask…”ahhh, can I give you a lift home, Mr. Bonds?”
