Thursday, March 17, 2005

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON BASEBALL AND STEROIDS... ACTUALLY PRODUCTIVE

I saw watched some of the Congressional hearings today as I ate breakfast. My biases were initially against the hearings since I thought it was Rep. Tom Davis and others on the Government Reform Committee seeking some publicity and brownie points in their home districts. As I listened, I heard the stories of high school athletes becoming bi-polar and committing suicide and the heartbreak and anger of their parents against steriods. I listened to some of the medical researchers' findings on steriods and how it affects the body without the ignorant spin of Jose Canseco. I began to change my mind on these hearings and saw how they are telling stories that need to be told and information that needs to be highlighted or presented to the public that might not be aware of the detrimental effect steriods has on people and the overall system of sports such as baseball.

One sad outcome of these hearings so far is the damaged reputation of Mark McGwire. ESPN's Jayson Stark has a good article on this here.

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