With another injury and another pitcher having a bad start, the last thing you want to read about is the Mets. Which is convenient because it happens to be the last thing I want to write about.
But since this is a Mets blog, here’s my 30 seconds on the Mets:
It’s March 2. There’s four more weeks of this to get through. No one can live and die with every injury and bad start for this long before the games even count. The Mets do need to get healthier, as I alluded to last night. They can’t have everyone from the 25-man roster riding the Port St. Lucie pine. But really only the Delgado injury is one to worry about because of his troubling 2007. The Ruben Gotay injury today doesn’t appear to be serious. And as for Oliver Perez getting roughed up, pitchers always get roughed up in spring training. It’s not fun to watch, but you can’t get too concerned. If we’re still having this conversation in two weeks, my opinion might change but…
Meanwhile, it’s time to plug my own work. I penned the column for the Sunday Review page of the Home News Tribune and Courier News. You can read it here or pasted below.
It discusses how Vince McMahon ignored the time-testing strategy employed by Bud Selig, Roger Goodell, David Stern and Gary Bettman this week when he declined an invitation to come before Congress and discuss steroids. He wasn’t subpoenaed by the subcommittee and he had an out because his lawyer had a prior committment. But it doesn’t mean it was a wise choice. Because if he ticked off Congress enough to look a little closer at professional wrestling, they might not like what they see. And McMahon almost surely wouldn’t like that kind of attention.
So check it out.
McMahon ignores time-tested steroids strategy
By STEVE FEITL
Published March 2, 2008
Someone someday soon is going to make a lot of money writing “The Idiot’s Guide to Steroid Accusations.”
Because after numerous congressional hearings, some sustained public outcry and a couple of perjury investigations, there’s enough evidence to know what to do and, more importantly, what not to do.
For example, players can either admit their transgressions or deny, deny, deny. Andy Pettitte chose to own up to the accusations and was lauded by Congress as an honorable person . . . a cheater, but an honorable one. Meanwhile, Roger Clemens went door to door like a 7-year-old trick-or-treater, selling his denial on Capitol Hill. For his hard work, he received one big trick in the form of a federal perjury investigation. Advantage: admission of guilt.
It works for trainers, too. They can choose to cooperate with investigations or protect their millionaire clients. Brian McNamee opted to spill the beans. He was skewered publicly, but he sleeps in his own bed at night. The same can’t be said of Greg Anderson, who spent nearly a year in prison because he wouldn’t give up Barry Bonds. So unless you’re looking for work as trainer of the prison softball team, cooperation seems like a winning choice.
And even the heads of the sports themselves have choices to make. They can appear before Congress or they can no-show. Roger Goodell, Bud Selig, David Stern and Gary Bettman all chose to show up. The U.S. Olympic Committee chose to show up. Hell, even the National Thoroughbred Racing Association chose to show up.
I’ll give you one guess what World Wrestling Entertainment boss Vince McMahon chose.
Yes, McMahon was the only invited guest to decline to appear before Wednesday’s hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, which focused on possible federal regulation of drug testing in sports. Congress granted witnesses the right to be represented by their counsel and McMahon’s lawyer was unavailable Wednesday. But it’s not as if his absence went unnoticed.
The chairman, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said he was “exceptionally and extremely disappointed” that McMahon wasn’t there and added, “Steroid abuse in professional wrestling is probably worse than in any professional sport or amateur sport.”
But McMahon’s absence did accomplish one thing. It unified Republicans and Democrats.
“Mr. Chairman, you rightfully called out Vince McMahon,” Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said. “Someone that flips his finger at this committee or at Congress deserves to be called out.”
Now McMahon did make a lot of money in the ’90s with a wrestler that regularly flipped off authority figures, but it seems a lot like congressional grandstanding to say McMahon was doing it himself this week. According to WWE, he responded to the invitation nearly a month ago.
McMahon was within his rights not to be there Wednesday. It just may have been a mistake.
Rep. Rush said, “This subcommittee fully intends to deal with the illegal steroid abuse in professional wrestling.”
Apparently, McMahon may still be called to Congress. He can have his lawyer this time, but not the other sports commissioners. That means all the focus would be on pro wrestling and its steroid problems, not to mention its staggering death rate.
And the book on how to deal with those uncomfortable questions is no more written than the WWE’s own fictitious rule book.
