A Day To Misremember

There’s nothing quite like four-and-a-half hours of televised perjury.

But that’s exactly what the American public got today as the House committee held its hearing on the Mitchell Report, with a focus on the conflict between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. It was every bit the circus that most figured it would be, if not more. In fact, it was a horrible day for Clemens, McNamee, Major League Baseball, Congress and nearly everyone touched by this saga. The only person coming out of this looking even a little bit good is the same guy who revealed that he used Human Growth Hormone in greater quantities than previously thought. When that’s the best you’re able to find, you know it was a rough day on the hill.

But that person is Andy Pettitte and he really is the key to today’s proceedings. Pettitte revealed that Clemens told him in either 1999 or 2000 that he was using HGH and when he brought up the subject again in 2005, Clemens said Pettitte must have misinterpreted (or ‘misremembered’ to use Clemens’ own word, which apparently is a real word, but sure sounds fake.) Clemens talking about his wife Debbie using it. Of course that took place in 2003 so in addition to having a heck of a fastball, Clemens can also apparently see the future. Shame he never saw today’s proceedings coming or he could have saved himself a major headache. Clemens also offered a rambling excuse about seeing a television program about older gentlemen improving their quality of life with HGH and suggested that was his only HGH conversation point.

None of this, however, carried greater weight than Pettitte’s testimony. You don’t want to get too worked over someone telling the truth under oath, but Pettitte’s unforced admission about a second run-in with HGH in 2004 added to his already high credibility. He obviously didn’t “misremember” because his wife recalled him telling her the same thing. Perhaps he misinterpreted Clemens, but whether the Rocket claims he was talking about his wife or some old guys he saw on TV, it’s a pretty big leap to believe Pettitte got either story confused with Clemens himself. So if he didn’t remember it wrong and he didn’t misinterpret it, the only thing left for the Clemens camp is that Pettitte is lying. And the only reason he would have to lie is to defend his friend. That’s not what he did. And that’s Clemens’ biggest problem.

Clemens can probably survive the Brian McNamee testimony, if for no other reason than McNamee is not the least bit likeable. He came off very poorly under the bright lights of Congress — much more so than most probably expected. He seemed to be someone willing to do seedy things in the seedy underbelly of the national pastime. The details of his threats of lawsuits, worthless PhD, requests for merchandise, willingness to use his star clients’ likenesses to sell himself all painted him in a very unfavorable light. And that doesn’t even take into account his history to lies, whether it be to police investigators, the media or feds. If this were a film, McNamee would have been played by a Steve Buscemi-type. Shifty, weasely and always in question. This is not a star witness and that probably will be the only thing that keeps Clemens out of jail.

Because as bad of a witness as McNamee is, the Pettitte testimony does lend credence to the idea that he is finally telling the truth. Chuck Knoblauch backed up his claims. Pettitte backed up his claims. Hell, even Debbie Clemens backed up his claims. The only one disputing them is Clemens, and not so conviently for the Rocket, he’s also the one with the most to lose. Why would McNamee tell the truth about Pettitte, tell the truth about Knoblauch and then lie about Clemens? It doesn’t make any sense. It took several hours but finally Elijah Cummings posed that very question to Clemens and not surprisingly, Clemens had no answer. It wasn’t the only time the Rocket dodged a question. Early in the proceedings, John Tierney repeatedly called Clemens out on inconsistencies within his own testimony, such as claiming to never have talked about HGH to McNamee despite his own heroic story of his outraged call to McNamee about his wife’s use. Clemens answered as if Tierney was asking him an entirely different question. I wonder if B-12 can be used to cure listening comprehension problems.

More problems for Clemens. Rep. Stephen Lynch presented an independent analysis of a “palpable mass” on Clemens’ buttocks. (And let’s be honest, there was way too much discussion of Clemens’ a$s today.) Without knowing who’s MRIs he was examining, a Dr. Mark Murphy concluded the mass was more compatible with Winstrol injections than B-12. Of course, Rep. Tom Davis nearly fell over himself to counter with a different analysis (I believe) provided by the Clemens’ camp. Davis even went as far as to call Lynch’s questioning of Clemens a “lynching.” How punny. How embarrassing.

And now seems to be as good a time as any to discuss the deplorable display by so many of our Congressmen and women in that room today. I try not to bring politics into a baseball blog, so if you’re easily offended by partisan chatter, you should probably skip the rest of this paragraph. If you’re still here, that can only mean that you know in your heart that the majority of the Republicans on this committee were an absolute disgrace today. From Christopher Shays making McNamee go step-by-step through a line of questioning that resulted in him being labeled a “drug dealer” to John Mica testing if Clemens or McNamee were color-blind as it pertained to the hues of B-12, Winstrol and HGH to Virginia Foxx asking Clemens if he noticed any difference in her Kinkos photo presentation, it was a bad afternoon for the GOP. Even more disgraceful, Foxx was the first person to go greet Clemens after the hearing. She should have been waiting backstage with a bouquet of flowers the way she glowed over his performance. However, the Democrats were far from perfect. I think it added a lot to the proceedings that Eleanor Holmes Norton thinks Clemens will go to heaven. Thanks for coming. And it’s a real shame that Clemens didn’t answer William Lacy Clay’s question about what hat Clemens would wear in the Hall of Fame. After today, that might have been our only chance to find out.

They were few and far between, but a few of these guys and girls did their homework and looked like respectable public servants. No one looked better than Elijah Cummings. He was a freakin’ rock star. He stuck to simple, clear facts from the testimony and pressed Clemens every step of the way. When time ran out on his 10 minutes at the beginning of the hearing, it was like Clemens had been saved by the bell. It was one of those bloodbath, first rounds where the only chance the fighter has is to regroup in his corner and hope his opponent punched himself out. To Clemens’ benefit, no one else had the punching power of Cummings. He was Mike Tyson in his prime. Everyone else was Glass Joe. When Cummings got a second shot at Clemens, he didn’t miss. This exchange was without a doubt the most powerful of the hearing.

“I’ve listened to you very carefully and I take you at your word. And you’re telling me that Andy Pettitte is an honest man, and his credibility is pretty much impeccable. You said you were misunderstood. But all I’m saying is, it’s hard to believe. It’s hard to believe your story.

I hate to say that. You’re one of my heroes. But it’s hard to believe you.”

Clemens was speechless and he looked as white as he’s accused Pettitte of looking when talking about HGH in 2005. If you only took one moment out of the entire four-and-a-half hours this would be it. And it came courtesy of Rep. Cummings. Maryland should be proud today.

Another Congressman who was very much on point was a Republican from Indiana named Mark Soulder. He addressed McNamee’s ever-escalating memory of steroid injections and noted that these type of miraculous recoveries of knowledge are not uncommon when dealing with cocaine dealers. It’s not necessarily a flattering comparison for McNamee but it does go to the point that just because someone is rather unsavory (and McNamee is) and has lied in the past (and McNamee has), it doesn’t mean he’s not telling the truth now when he’s under oath. And it helps explain why he’s been more forthcoming now than at any time previously. That’s the type of thoughtful analysis that all Congressmen should have been making.

But of course you only had to go to his fellow Republican from Indiana to find another Congressman using childlike judgments. Dan Burton came off rather naive during his five-minute grandstanding questioning of McNamee’s prior lies. At one point, he didn’t even know what he asking McNamee to confirm. So McNamee lied to reporters about steroids? I’m shocked. McNamee worked for someone he didn’t completely trust? Unbelievable. And Burton can be as insulted as he wants about McNamee’s previous lies when Clemens’ reputation is at stake, but forgive me if I’m wrong, but weren’t all those offensive lies to protect Clemens’ reputation? Pollyana has a new name and it’s Dan Burton.

There’s so much more to dissect. Bloody pants. A long-lost nanny. Clemens not knowing what a Vegan is. But the bottom line in all of this is you can’t come out of this thinking Clemens had a good day. In fact, I don’t think you can even believe Clemens at all, but I came to this from the perspective of someone who believes most major leaguers were and are on some sort of performance-enhancing drugs. So I’ll concede that someone predisposed to believing Clemens may not be completely swayed. But you’d still have to say this was a bad day. The best you could probably say for the Clemens camp is that McNamee continued to have serious credibility issues.

But Andy Pettitte did not. And as Henry Waxman pointed out in his closing remarks, Pettitte didn’t believe Clemens in 2005. It’s hard to believe him today.

Cue the Clowns

The circus is coming to town.

No, not Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, though they will be in East Rutherford from March 5-9, New York March 20-April 5, East Rutherford again April 9-13, Phily April 16-27, Trenton May 14-18 and finally Newark Oct. 16-19.

No, not the Big Apple Circus, though that too will be around in March at Commerce Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater from March 1-23.

No, I’m talking about the circus that will take place in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

The one featuring Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee and a cast of dozens. It should be one of the most bizarre scenes featuring people under oath since the heart of the O.J. Simpson trial. Clemens will call McNamee a liar. McNamee will call Clemens a liar. It could even approach Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men.” But while they call each other liars at will, the question of course is will Andy Pettitte call either of them a liar.

Of course, Pettitte won’t be there himself to do it, as he was excused from testifying late Monday night along with Kirk Radomski and Chuck Knoblauch. But Pettitte’s sworn deposition will likely be center stage Wednesday nonetheless. It’s already the source of much discussion as Newsday reported late Monday that Rep. Tom Davis said Pettitte’s testimony supported McNamee’s account. One source said Pettitte once asked McNamee why he didn’t give him the same stuff that he gave Clemens and McNamee responded because its illegal. Rep. Davis has since backed away from that depiction, telling ESPN that Pettitte didn’t get into a lot of detail. It will be interesting to see just how much Pettitte did say and it could tip the balance one way or another.

Right now things don’t look especially good for Clemens. The common assumption is that Pettitte asked out because he didn’t want to sit next to Clemens as he incriminated him. That could be presumptuous, but at the same time, it’s hard to envision a scenario where Pettitte asking out is good for Clemens. The best the Rocket can hope for is that Pettitte simply didn’t want to have his face on the screen as he answers uncomfortable questions about his own past.

But beyond Pettitte’s testimony, it’s hard to envision how this will play out as anything more than a very heated, quite personal game of “he said/he said.” Pettitte’s testimony might be enough to prompt a perjury investigation, but it’s not going to be a smoking gun. Anyone expecting any real bombshells will probably be disappointed. There won’t be the deus ex machina of postal workers dumping bags of steroids at Clemens feet, ala “Miracle on 34th Street.” Even if Clemens is guilty, a reasonable strategy at this point is simply to deny, deny, deny with the knowledge that McNamee’s latest evidence will not be admissable in an eventual perjury trial and sans the physical evidence, it’s hard to envision Clemens going to jail. In that scenario, we probably won’t get any definitive answers out of Wednesday’s hearing.

However, even with that presumed strategy, Clemens still can’t answer the obvious question which is why would Brian McNamee lie? At first, there were the rumblings that perhaps he was pressured by the government, but any suggestion of that has gone quiet. Now they’re accusing him of fabricating evidence, but still can’t answer the obvious question of “Why?” And not just why would he lie about Clemens? Why would he lie about Clemens but tell the truth about Pettitte, Radomski and others? And perhaps an even better question, if McNamee is of such awful character (citing a half-decade-old shady incident with a woman in Tampa as an example), why did Clemens continue to employ and befriend “Mac” (as Clemens called him repeatedly in the now infamous recorded phone conversation) right up until the Mitchell Report in 2007?

Those are the questions that need to be asked of Clemens on Wednesday because they’re the questions he likely can’t answer… at least not truthfully.

So let’s recap by setting some odds for Wednesday’s proceedings.

Even money: Clemens calls McNamee a liar.
Even money: McNamee calls Clemens a liar.
Even money: At least one Congressman embarrasses himself.
2-to-1: Pettitte’s testimony backs McNamee.
2-to-1: Pettitte’s testimony only discusses himself.
3-to-1: Clemens presents statistical data that favorably compares him to other aging pitchers.
4-to-1: At least 10 Congressmen embarrass themselves.
6-to-1: Clemens pleads the fifth.
7-to-1: McNamee offers to do for Rep. Davis what he did for Clemens.
8-to-1: Clemens places 8×10s on the table to sign, mistakenly thinking the hearing is a memorabilia show.
10-to-1: McNamee pleads the fifth.
25-to-1: Clemens presents data that proves the aforementioned aging pitchers were not also on PEDs.
50-to-1: All Congressmen embarrass themselves.
75-to-1: Clemens throws a broken bat in the direction of a Congressman.
100-to-1: Either Clemens, McNamee, Pettitte, MLB or Congress come out of this looking good.

Johan Santana’s Deal Done

You’d think the Mets could choose sometime other than the biggest NFL week of the year to make the biggest move of the MLB offseason. Of course you’d think wrong.

Regardless, the Mets completed negotiations with Johan Santana two days before the Super Bowl. But did the Mets really wait until after 5 p.m. on a Friday to finalize the deal? It’s bad enough half the sports media world is in Glendale, Ariz., right now, but they had to wait until most East Coast residents had left their offices and begun their weekend. I guess it takes a while to swallow the notion of cutting a $150 million check.

But it appears that’s about what it will cost the Amazin’s to have an ace at the top of their rotation for years to come. How many years is still uncertain. It appears the Mets have agreed to guarantee six years at approximately $23 million, along with an attainable vesting option that would bring the package to $150.75, according to Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman. Hopefully the full details will emerge at the press conference next week, assuming Santana passes his physical.

So that’s a lot of cash, but the Mets needed to get the deal done so they really had little leverage. They had to give in on the fundamental issue of guaranteeing more than five years to a starting pitcher because A) Santana is not just any starting pitcher and B) once the trade was announced, the Mets could not afford to explain that an extra guaranteed year got in the way of bringing a Cy Young Award winner to Flushing. Obviously, Santana’s camp realized that as well and came into the negotiations asking for the world — seven years and approximately $170 million. Smart negotiating on their part.

So the Mets got one high and tight from Santana this week but got up, dusted themselves off and did the right thing. It’s what they had to do.

They got a good deal on the trade and an expensive deal on the contract. That’s certainly better than if those factors were reversed.

Rice Robbed… Again

Congrats to Goose Gossage who was named to the Hall of Fame today. He’s a deserving choice who waited long enough. I’ll let T.J. celebrate over in the Yankee blog because I think the bigger story is what happened to Jim Rice.

I don’t have a vote, but if I did, he would have been my No. 1 pick. Gossage would have gotten a vote. As would have Jack Morris. As would have Bert Blyleven. And brace yourself, as would have Mark McGwire. But if I only could pick one, I have chosen Rice.

You’re talking about one of the dominant offensive forces for more than a decade, stretching from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. Growing up a Mets fan in the early-80s, he didn’t face my favorite team that often, but when he did, I feared him. And for good reason, he hit .333 against the Mets in the ‘86 World Series, scoring six runs and walking another six times for a .455 on-base.

And when you checked the back of his baseball card, there was an awful lot of bold numbers. He led the league in slugging twice, OPS once, at-bats twice, hits once, total bases four times, triples once, homers three times, RBI twice and extra-base hits once. He was an eight-time All-Star and MVP in 1978. He also finished in the top five of MVP voting six times over a period of 11 years.

Here’s the most telling stat about Rice: According to ESPN’s Jayson Stark, “… in his 12 seasons of domination from 1975 to ‘86, he led everyone in his league in homers, RBIs, runs, slugging and extra-base hits.” That’s a Hall of Famer.

But here’s something else to consider. I understand that 382 home runs and just under 1,500 RBI doesn’t sound like a lot these days. But at the same time, McGwire is being punished for the sins of the Steroid Era, netting just 23.6 percent of the vote this year. If we are going to disown the Steroid Era, shouldn’t we embrace the era that came before it.

Because Rice owned that era.

Tell Me What You Want Me To Do

Imagine you’re having a conversation with someone who has told some terrible lies about you. There might be yelling. There might be shouting. There might even be some obscenities. And surely there would be a demand for an explanation.

Do you have a good mental image of this fictional conversation yet?

Yes?

Good, now throw it completely out and forget every preconceived notion you might have about this conversation because it will be completely useless when trying to analyze the conversation between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee.

The Rocket held his long-awaited press conference Monday to coincide with his appearance on “60 Minutes” on Sunday. It’s been a day of surprises as first Clemens’ camp announced a defamation lawsuit against McNamee filed late Sunday. Then during the press conference they played an audio recording of the rumored Friday night phone conversation allegedly between Clemens and McNamee. In a surreal 15-minute recording, Clemens repeatedly states that he would tell the truth at his press conference and wonders why McNamee would tell anyone that the Rocket used steroids (Important distinction: He did not ask McNamee why he would lie. He asked why he would say it. There’s a world of difference there.), while a distraught McNamee repeatedly (and I mean repeatedly… like 21 times) asks Clemens to tell him what to do. It’s almost as if the two are having a conversation — just not with one another.

The obvious question is why didn’t Clemens simply answer one of McNamee’s many pleas for guidance by telling him to tell the truth? The other obvious question is why didn’t McNamee simply tell Clemens that he told investigators what he did because it was the truth?

Sure, there are explanations that can be given. Clemens’ lawyer claims he was leery of coercing a federal witness, even if said coercing meant telling him to do what he was sworn to do anyway. In a normal conversation, this wouldn’t even be an issue. But this was no normal conversation.

There was so much in this 15 minutes to dissect. The health problems of McNamee’s son. His claim that he tried to warn the Clemens camp of Radomski. McNamee’s pledge that he would go to jail for Clemens. We’ve heard from Clemens. We need to hear from McNamee. Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman just posted an exclusive interview with him from during the “60 Minutes” broadcast in which he takes issue with Clemens’ assertions about the B-12 and lidocaine. But that was conducted before today’s press conference. Now all the questions have changed.

And we still don’t have answers to some of our previous questions. Like why Brian McNamee would tell the truth about Andy Pettitte but lie about Clemens? Or will Clemens deny taking steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs while under oath in front of Congress? (On “60 Minutes” he said he would talk about Vioxx. In his press conference he said he would talk about himself. Neither time did he answer the real question: Will you make the same passionate denials of steroid use while under oath?) Or why Clemens thinks people who illegally provided him with steroids would want to come forward, as he wondered aloud with Mike Wallace? And does Clemens really think people are concerned with his take on Vioxx?

The one thing that really struck me during the “60 Minutes” interview is the same thing that struck me during Sunday’s premiere of “American Gladiators” on NBC: That some people haven’t been paying attention the last few years. “American Gladiators” repeatedly boasted about its beefed-up, over-muscled Gladiators while 1980s steroid poster boy Hulk Hogan flexed his still-sizable arms for the camera. The producers clearly didn’t realize that our society has caught on to the steroid issue. Clemens didn’t seem to realize that either. He wondered why he didn’t have a third ear coming out of his forehead and why he would want to get tighter as a pitcher. Five years ago, that might’ve played well. But we’re — for better or worse — a whole lot more educated about steroids these days. We know they don’t cause strange extremities. And we certainly know an awful lot of pitchers seem to think they are beneficial. Those arguments may have worked for the 89-year-old Wallace. They probably won’t fly in front of Congress.

Still pundits, fans and columnists have taken a break from over-analyzing Clemens’ water intake and choice of shirt color and are already lining up on both sides of the aisle. Many seem swayed by today’s Clemens bombshell. Just check the comments section of Yankee blogs and message boards. Others seem to take his refusal to directly confront McNamee as further evidence of his guilt. Still others are more confused by the call.

Count me in that last group. If you want to question McNamee’s credibility at this point, I think that’s fair game. But there’s definitely no smoking gun here either.

And ultimately, Clemens can swear all he wants to the “60 Minutes” reporter. He can swear in a completely different fashion to a bunch of reporters. The only thing that really matters is if Clemens and McNamee will swear while under oath in front of Congress.

That’s the only thing that will start to answer some of our many, many questions.

Mitchell Report = Disappointment

So we got our names and we got our report and at the end of the day (OK, the middle of the afternoon), all we really have is disappointment.

The Mitchell Report, generated by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, was released this afternoon and revealed what we largely already should have known — the steroid culture was (and is, if you count HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs) widespread in Major League Baseball.

For fans of players like Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Eric Gagne, Miguel Tejada and Chuck Knoblauch, it’s the disappointment that players they cheered for allegedly cheated the game. Yankee fans were particularly beaten up with Clemens, Pettitte, Knoblauch, Ron Villone, Denny Neagle, Mike Stanton, David Justice, Rondell White and Kevin Brown all implicated, along with the obvious Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield revelations. (Geez, did I miss any?) But the Mets were far from unscathed with Todd Hundley, Lenny Dykstra, Mark Carreon, Matt Franco, Paul Lo Duca, Todd Pratt (What’s with the catchers?), Mo Vaughn, Scott Schoeneweis and Stanton. Plenty of blame to go around. Plenty of disappointment too.

But the disappointment associated with the Mitchell Report isn’t isolated to just the fans. There’s also a great deal of disappointment in the burden of proof in this report. I’m on mini-vacation right now, so I’ve only had a few minutes to peruse the report, but there’s some stuff in there that just isn’t solid enough. There’s outright hearsay in there and that’s going to discredit the entire report — most of which is probably dead on accurate. That’s disappointing.

And then there’s the overall picture which is the report is simply not enough. For anything substantial to come of this, the public had to be outraged. There are some big names, but not enough. It had to be bad for it to get better. It’s wasn’t bad enough and that will mean many of Mitchell’s recommendations — valid arguments for bettering the game — likely will not be implemented. All the while, as Mitchell noted, HGH use continues without fear of discipline. And so the Steroid Era continues on…

And that’s the ultimate disappointment.

*****

Bud Selig just indicated in his press conference that he would deal with the idea of disciplining active players on a case-by-case basis. That goes directly against one of Mitchell’s recommendations that players not be punished for past discretions. Apparently he consulted Mark McGwire before making that recommendation. Let’s not talk about the past, right? More likely, Mitchell just understood that the level of proof was not up to snuff on all the names. As long as players aren’t getting suspended for hearsay, Selig is within his rights to dole out some punishment here.

*****

The obvious question on Mets fans’ minds is whether Omar Minaya and the Mets management were so dead-set against re-signing Lo Duca because they suspected he would be part of this report.

They’ll never own up to it, but you have to assume that was at least a consideration. Otherwise why would the Mets have gone to such great lengths to replace him. After all, they effectively brought in three catchers (Yorvit Torrealba, Johnny Estrada, Brian Schneider) over the course of a month, when they could have simply re-signed Lo Duca at any time.

I was critical of their decision from a baseball standpoint and stand by that assertion. However, I will concede that there may have been other factors that we weren’t privy to.

MLB & WWE: Together in Congress

Here’s a wrestling-related non-sequitur for a wrestling-related shameless plug. By now, I’m sure you’ve heard that Hulk Hogan’s wife Linda filed for divorce from her wrestler/reality show star/American Gladiators-remake host/Rocky III scene-stealer husband. All I’m saying is this is a man who talks about slamming Andre at WrestleMania III and with each interview, the only thing that increases more than the Giant’s alleged weight is the length of Hogan’s nose. It wouldn’t surprise me — or any longtime Hogan observer for that matter — if this was all an elaborate stunt for a very special “Hogan Knows Best” where the Hulkster gets down on bended knee. And with Hogan’s deteriorated knees, that would be no small feat.

Anyway, Hogan’s not the only person in the wrestling business getting bad press these days. Five months after the Chris Benoit tragedy, Congress seems to be moving closer to hauling pro wrestling’s leadership into hearings about the industry’s seedy reputation for steroids. One Congressman even went as far as to mention wrestling in the same sentence as Major League Baseball last week and that provides the opening for me to take another stab at pro wrestling’s myriad of problems in a feature-length column that appeared on today’s Sunday Review page of the Home News Tribune and Courier News.

Here’s the text of that column:

Getting unwanted attention
By STEVE FEITL
Published Nov. 25, 2007

The difficult-to-define genre of professional wrestling has spent the last several decades as the media’s version of the last kid picked for kickball. Too scripted for the sports pages. Not scripted enough for the entertainment pages. Not respected enough for the news pages.

That purgatorial existence ended five months ago today when the world encountered the horrific details of Chris Benoit’s murder of his wife and 7-year-old child, and his own subsequent suicide. The mainstream media suddenly became keenly aware of pro wrestling, and its unsavory reputation for drug use and physical wear and tear, not to mention an unprecedented death rate for performers under 45.

Where before obscure jazz musicians would get full-blown obituaries while dead pro wrestlers would only draw attention if they were the biggest of stars, now every wrestling death makes a headline — especially with jarringly young ages like John Kronus at 38 and Brian Adams at 44.

Pro wrestling has gone mainstream. And not just in the media.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., chairman of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, told the Baltimore Sun last week that he plans to call a hearing on performance-enhancing drugs next spring. And look who’s on the invite list.

“Given recent developments — the impending Mitchell report and reports of widespread abuse in professional wrestling — I believe it’s time we get a formal update on what progress is being made to eradicate steroids from all sports and sports entertainment,” he told the Sun.

That’s right, pro wrestling is sharing time at the table with the national pastime itself, Major League Baseball. Congrats wrestling, you’ve made it.

Of course, this probably isn’t how World Wrestling Entertainment boss Vince McMahon envisioned mainstream acceptance.

The week of the Benoit tragedy, I used this space as a call to arms in the media to look past the headline-friendly ” ‘roid rage” aspect of the story and shine a light on some of the lesser-known problems that plague pro wrestling. Now I offer them to Congress as some tough questions to ask.

Why is there no offseason in WWE that might allow families to reconnect and bodies to heal?

What is being done to prevent the long-term brain damage from concussions that Benoit suffered, according to an independent medical group?

And isn’t it time to close the loopholes in the WWE drug-testing policy that allow for steroids and other controlled drugs if they are prescribed by a doctor — a doctor like Benoit’s who federal prosecutors believe prescribed a 10-month supply of testosterone to Benoit seven times in 12 months?

Stepping in and regulating professional wrestling from the sold-out arenas of WWE to the mom-and-pop fairground shows may be too untenable a task for Congress to embark on. But a little governmental pressure is a good start.

Of course, WWE will balk at this upgrade to MLB’s equal. “We’re not a sport. We don’t compete,” it will say. Ignoring the decades-worth of evidence that top bodies usually get top spots and thus top pay, there’s another good reason to haul WWE into Congress.

Wrestlers aren’t cheating the sport. Baseball players aren’t regularly dying before their 45th birthday. Let’s call it even and fix the problem.

More MLB Drug Woes

Two drug-related stories in the news today.

First, former Met Mike Cameron received a 25-day suspension for failing a stimulant test. The 25-day suspension means A) it wasn’t for steroids and B) it was his second stimulant failure. You would have thought he would have gotten off whatever he was taking after the first failure, but what do I know? Oh yeah, I know this hurts his free agency.

The second story is that the New York Times reported Tuesday that teams get as much as two days notice before “random” drug tests are administered. This is to allow for the appropriate parking and stadium passes to be issued. And, of course, both MLB and the union don’t see the problem with this since there is no proof of players receiving advance notice.

Here’s the deal. If MLB wants to project a proactive image on the performance-enhancing drug issue — something they’ve been slow to do every step of the way — they can’t allow ridiculous loopholes like this to exist. Would it be that difficult to secure passes for the entire season for the testing administers? Of course not, but instead the players — the same players that already have undetectable HGH, boutique labs like BALCO that work everyday to create undetectable steroids and on top of all that, extremely limited testing — now have a potential heads up of what few tests they do take.

In a way, it’s comforting. Summer skipped right over autumn and led right into winter. Gas prices are two dollars higher than they were a decade ago. And “Wild Hogs” is still in the top 10 at the box office for the year. But Major League Baseball will always screw up the steroid issue. At least you can count on that.

Red Sox Sweep

Congratulations Red Sox. You are the champions of one of the worst Major League Baseball postseasons in history. With a 4-3 victory Sunday, Boston completed its four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies to win its second World Series in four years. But its sweep was also the fifth — yes, fifth~! — in seven postseason series this year. And in one of those non-sweep series, the Yankees lost in four and only really put up a fight against those annoying midges.

So there it is, a tremendously underwhelming postseason is in the books and the Red Sox are champions of the world. For a team whose championship in 2004 was celebrated as the feel-good story of the year — there was even a romantic comedy based around it — this championship came and went with little more than a yawn. Perhaps its the lack of a 80-some year drought. Perhaps its the ever-escalating payroll that turned them into Penguin to the Yankees’ Joker. (They’re both evil villains, but Joker is still more evil… just like the Yankees.) Or maybe we’re all just tired of the Red Sox.

As for the Rockies, this was a tough way to go down, but the reality was they were beaten by a better team and they were only really embarrassed in one game (Game 1). You don’t sweep two rounds of October baseball by just being lucky, but you also don’t win 21 of 22 at any time without some things breaking your way. The Rockies needed to continue to get some of those breaks, but they got very few in the World Series. I thought they would make a fun series out of it so I was wrong. But they never gave up in Games 2, 3 and 4, so they get the recreation soccer award for trying. And the fans in Colorado did a great job the last two nights. I’m not sure many cities would have supported their team like that down to the very last out. That’s got to count for something. Oh yeah, the recreation soccer award for trying.

Bring on the hot stove.

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Am I the only one who thought FOX’s theme to the World Series sounded an awful lot like the theme to Jurassic Park?

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Baseball needs to do something about these long layoffs for teams in between the championship series and World Series. It hurt the Tigers last year. It killed the Rockies this year. I know MLB likes to have the schedule set it stone so they can schedule out of bad ratings nights (Friday), but that’s short-sighted. Because teams are waiting a week or longer to play, they’re getting bad short series that never build to a good rating anyway. If you have an exciting series and a Game 6 or 7, it’s going to do a number no matter what night of the week it’s on. And it’s better to deliver six or seven nights to your advertisers than just four nights, no matter the numbers. Oh, and this is where I have to make the annual plea to start the games earlier than after 8 p.m. on the East Coast. OK, and this is where MLB officials roll their eyes and dismiss it out of hand. Great, let’s move on.

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Do you need to know anything else about Alex Rodriguez than the fact that he revealed his intention to opt out of his contract during the clinching game of the World Series. Classless. Simply classless.

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And as a pre-emptive strike… No. The Mets should not go after A-Rod.

Who Said This Could Be Fun?

Boy, was that wishful thinking. The 10-5 victory by the Red Sox on Saturday night for all intents and purposes ended this World Series. The Rockies could show some moxie with a Game 4 win Sunday, but does anybody believe they would get by Josh Beckett in Game 5? Of course not, most don’t think they’ll even avoid the sweep tonight. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I do either.

I was a little surprised Clint Hurdle left Josh Fogg in as long as he did Saturday night. The game was clearly getting away from him and a six-run deficit is so much worse than a four- or five-run deficit. Just look at their comeback. As spirited as it was, they only managed to get five runs when they needed six. If they had been able to tie the game off Hideki Okajima they instantly would have changed the course of the game and if they parlayed that into a Game 3 win, we would have a much more interesting series than we do today. Coming up one run short in their comeback likely sealed this series’ fate.

By the way, we all knew David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez would come up big. And there was always the possibility that guys like Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis would beat the Rockies. But Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury? The Rockies are losing this series because in two of three games, they haven’t got the pitching, but guys like Pedroia and Ellsbury sure aren’t helping.

Well since there’s not much else to say about the World Series, I’d like to offer you some Yankee talk (yes, even in my Mets blog) because what’s going on crosstown is fascinating these days. I penned a feature-length column for the Sunday Review page today in the Home News Tribune that you can read here or in the text I’ve pasted below. It’s about the botched start of the Hank and Hal Steinbrenner regime and the somewhat understandable reason for it.

Check it out. It’s more exciting than the World Series.

Hank, Hal stumbling at start
By STEVE FEITL
Published Oct. 28, 2007

A legacy is a tricky thing to protect. Especially when it’s someone else’s legacy.

Just ask Hank and Hal Steinbrenner.

Their father, George Michael Steinbrenner III, has been one of the most colorful characters in a city not lacking in colorful characters for close to 35 years. His tenure as Yankees owner has seen 10 pennants, six championships and countless back-page headlines. There’s been Reggie and Billy. Winfield and Spira. Jeter and the clubs.

No matter the situation, the man they call “The Boss” has always had something to say, whether it be to a reporter, his spokesperson or a studio audience at “Saturday Night Live.”

But as Steinbrenner’s voice has grown quieter in recent years, the rumors of his failing health have grown louder.

That’s why it was interesting to hear what the 77-year-old had to say to reporter Ian O’Connor during the AL Division Series. If the Yankees didn’t advance, then-manager Joe Torre likely would not be retained. It was a glimpse of the “old” Steinbrenner — the man who spoke his mind and called the shots as he saw them, differing opinions be damned.

We all know what happened next. An ace didn’t pitch like an ace. A captain didn’t play like a captain. A MVP didn’t play like a MVP. And we learned about the existence of midges. It all added up to another first-round exit for the Yankees. So clearly — for better or worse — Torre was on the way out.

Only one problem.

Steinbrenner is no longer the only voice in the room. Whether it be due to deteriorating health or simply a well-intentioned succession plan, Hank and Hal are now front and center in the Yankee hierarchy and the decision on Torre was a group decision.

“The Boss” has become a vote.

But his vote was made public before the Yankees’ season had even ended. So if Torre remained, the public would know Steinbrenner’s declaration was nothing but the ravings of a man no longer in power. And no son wants that image to color their father’s legacy.

We’ll never truly know what Hank and Hal’s view on Torre was and if the one-year deal featuring a pay cut and “motivating” incentives was meant to bring Torre back or chase him away. But we do know the end result. Torre is out, just as the patriarch predicted.

History will show Steinbrenner called out Torre and when he didn’t answer, he was gone. Just like old times.

Legacy preserved, right?

Not so fast. There’s still the matter of the vacant managerial post. Two former Manager of the Year winners are among the candidates, but the smart money is on the inexperienced Don Mattingly, because he’s the man “The Boss” anointed as the heir to the managerial throne years ago.

Again, maybe Mattingly is the choice of Hank and Hal as well. But even if he is, it will still be viewed as the likely final piece to their father’s legacy.

Of course, with all this work putting the final touches on their father’s legacy, they haven’t paid much attention to their own. And with the messy departure of a popular manager, a few controversial quotes to the media and still no manager, it’s off to a heck of a start.