Playing Hardball

ESPN's steroid hearings scorecard, and the sports day in general, makes me long for my time in college, where I'd cut class on the first day of the tournaament (if I wasn't on spring break anyway) and do nothing all day but watch sports and have a few drinks with some friends. These hearings had to be a hoot. My favorite highlight was this exchange...

Congressman Christopher Shays starts laying into baseball for announcing the new drug policy in January even though the document wasn't completed until March. And the copy that baseball turned into the committee has "drafting errors."

Shays, talking to Manfred: "I think I need to calm down. The commissioner announced this policy in January. And you're telling me that the document wasn't drafted until March? All you do by your answers is make me want to know more and more what the hell you do.

"Then you give us the information and tell us it's a drafting issue. That's unbelievable. Why should somebody have five strikes?"

Selig: "That's the best we could do in collective bargaining."

Shays: "So it's the players' fault?"

Selig: "It's not the players' fault."

Shays: "I want to know why you can break the law once, twice, five times, then you're out. Mr. Fehr?"

Fehr: "We believe in the concept of progressive discipline."

Shays: "Even if you're breaking the law?

"What you're telling the kids is you can break the law four times before you're out of the game. To me, that's amazing. To the commissioner, I don't know why you don't fight for what you want and fight like hell to get it."

Congressmen grandstanding on national TV is pretty damn funny, but it's especially funny when they're ripping guys like Selig and Fehr. I've wanted those guys to face an inquisition since the 1994 strike, and as much as I consider the hearings a waste of time, there's nothing wrong with seeing them get torn apart.