It goes without saying that I have nothing but contempt for Bud Selig, who presided over MLB during the so-called steroid era. Rather than take the fall for his obvious obliviousness to the use of steroidal medication to get "pumped up" from the 1980s on, he "protested too much" and was more than happy to throw the players under the bus, and immediately declare a "war on cheating" which including releasing test results that were supposed to be anonymous. The widespread use proves that using the drugs really doesn't give a player any sort of edge, because if it did, Marvin Bernard could have hit as hard as Barry.

The attacks on only a few players, now including Roger Clemens http://a.espncdn.com/media/pdf/100819/Clemens_Indictment.pdf, is pure spite on the part of Selig. Some players were attacked, and others condoned. Selig is following the biased enforcement champ, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a corrupt, racist judge who was appointed the first Baseball Commissioner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenesaw_Mountain_Landis It's important to understand the history of the law and baseball, in particular this case: http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Federal_Baseball_Club_v._Natio.... The ruling was never overturned in subsequent cases: http://supreme.justia.com/us/346/356/case.html http://www.law.depaul.edu/students/organizations_journals/student_orgs/l... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_v._Kuhn http://www.slate.com/id/2068290. It is interesting to note in the Clemens indictment that the Grand Jury insists that Congress does have authority over baseball, yet this is contradicted by case law.

Selig outdid Landis et al  by using Congress to help the owners get some payback for free agency, something they never got over. Congress acted more like baseball groupies and hecklers than a legislative body, creating a problem that didn't exist in order to distract us from the real problems they are too craven to face.  After decades of refusing to address the issues raised in the original case and upheld in later decisions, which was basically that the Federal government has no business trying to interfere with how the team owners, and now, MLB Inc run baseball, why did Congress suddenly feel that it was in their jurisdiction?

It's more than a bit specious for the GJ to define terms in propagandistic terms, defining anabolic steroids as "performance enhancing," a bit of sophistry not matched since the antiabortion fanatics were allowed to use the nonmedical term "partial birth abortion" instead of the actual medical term. This is classic "Defending the Indefensible" http://orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit using Goebbel's Maxim, "If you allow me to define the terms I will win every debate." AS were further demonized in the indictment by bringing up the Schedule law, one of the biggest disasters in the history of Congress, and mentioning that there is a morbidity and mortality rate associated with its use, but does not tell how prevalent this is, or whether or not any morbidity and mortality might be actually caused by other factors, and that every approved drug the FDA has signed off on can also have negative sequelae, many of the approved drugs have in fact a much higher rate of significant complications than AS.

Only your doctor and your mother have any right to tell you what you can and can't do with your body. When it comes to professional athletes, since they are employed at the team owner's discretion, it should be up to the baseball club if they wish to employ someone who is using a drug that can harm them. By denying all players the use of some drugs because they are defined as "performance enhancing" (again, where's the studies that show that AS can enhance performance? Come on, the Feds are the ones who insist that there is no known medical use of marijuana, despite evidence to the contrary), they are prevented from using some drugs and therapy that could very well allow them to continue their careers.

Give it up, Congress. Do something useful. Calling that tacky hearing "Restoring the Faith in America's Pastime" was sickeningly ironic; would that you'd try to restore faith in America's congress.