We've already talked about
Donald Fehr's dilemma -- he's both responsible for protecting the players' interests yet expected to help rid the game of PEDs. But when meeting with Congress yesterday, he turned the tables and blamed the government for sharing some of the culpability. From the
New York Daily News:
As the hearing on the Mitchell Report wound down, the MLBPA chief executive acknowledged that while juiced ballplayers had made steroids appealing to America's youth, Congress has played a role, too, thanks to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.
The law, better known as DSHEA, allows supplement manufacturers to sell their products without the expensive and lengthy safety testing required for prescription medicines and over-the-counter remedies.
As a result of the deregulation of the industry, supplements that promise to make people slimmer, stronger and sexier became staples on the shelves of thousands of pharmacies, gas stations and convenience stores - and many of those untested, little-regulated products are targeted at teen-age athletes and other kids.
As the article goes on to explain, some of the supplements that are able to escape the FDA's watchful eye either end up being discovered to be potentially harmful (such as ephedra and androstenedione) or actually tainted with other regulated substances. Rep. Henry Waxman, who led the proceedings yesterday, actually agreed with Fehr and called for the DSHEA bill be re-examined. It'll be interesting to see what actually comes of this, but either way it's a good example that baseball's PED problem is far more complex than just a bunch of greedy ballplayers.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. A valid point by Fehr. At the same time, it still looks like he's trying to deflect some of the heat. All the more reason for Congress to play hardball until they finally clean up the game for once and for all (ownership and the players union clearly cant be trusted to do this themselves).
In my opinion, until baseball adopts the same testing standards and consequences as the Olympics, I will consider MLB a fraudulent product. The stonewalling by the players' union gives us free rein to assume most of the players are using PEDs. (Believe me, I take no pleasure in saying this because I really love the game.)
And now if I may follow Fehr's example and do some deflecting of my own: Hey, what about them American Gladiators? Just watched the show and dang, those gladiators were FREAKY PUMPED. Some of them make Barry Bonds look anorexic. Am I supposed to believe they got that way naturally? This issue will never go away...
Posted at 9:43PM on Jan 16th 2008 by Drolz
2. I'm so glad that our nation has progressed to the point where the biggest concern for certain members of our Congress is baseball players taking steroids. I'd like to know what the cost of these hearings has been to tax payers. On the other hand do we really want Henry Waxman taking on real issues?
Posted at 10:52PM on Jan 16th 2008 by rob