NATION

Mark McGwire, a thinner version of his former 70-home-run self, sauntered into a congressional hearing room on St. Patrick's Day wearing a light green tie. But there were no eyes, Irish or otherwise, smiling on him from the dais. Before members of a House committee and millions of fans watching on television, McGwire swore to tell nothing but the truth. Instead, he told nothing. After a moving opening statement in which he cried while ruing the deaths of young steroid users, the cameras clicked in wild anticipation. Was Big Mac ready to admit that he too had supersized himself with steroids?

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McGwire took a deep breath. "If a player answers no, he simply will not be believed," he said about the anticipated questions of his own steroid use. "If he answers yes, he risks public scorn and endless government investigations." So unlike fellow players on the panel, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, who flatly denied taking steroids, and Jose Canseco, an admitted abuser, McGwire essentially took the Fifth. The man whose eclipse of Roger Maris' home-run record galvanized a nation and who became this magazine's 1998 Hero of the Year, tried to draw a walk. Instead, he struck out looking, and looked bad doing it.

During 11 hours of testimony, the House reform committee further embarrassed the game by making baseball answer for its weak steroid policy. Baseball officials told skeptical committee members that the current policy represents progress, since the sport inexplicably had no policy until 2002. But baseball still falls woefully short compared with other sports. In the NFL, players are tested randomly in and out of season, and first-time abusers miss a quarter of a season. Baseball players miss 10 days, or about 5% of the season—and the legislators were incensed to learn about language that allowed a fine instead of suspension for first timers. Olympians—facing the gold standard in terms of strictness—are subject to testing at any time and barred for two years for a first offense, for life after a second.

The government has the power to rewrite baseball's drug laws, and Congress's patience with the sport is clearly low. But Congress probably won't act too fast—it rarely does—so expect more hearings, say House reform-committee members. Some members want to call more players and perhaps baseball trainers to prove that baseball has long known about the steroid use. Rather than single out baseball, the House might also try to create broad steroid restrictions for all sports or adopt the tough Olympic standard.

The hearings may help clean up baseball, but they have stained McGwire's legacy. His lawyer-crafted responses to the inquisition—"I'm not here to talk about the past," "I'm here to talk about the positive," "I don't know, I'm a retired player"—drew chuckles from the gallery. A lawmaker from Missouri suggested stripping the name from the Mark McGwire Highway in St. Louis. "He's a tragic figure," says former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent. "I feel sorry for McGwire; he was put in an impossible position. On the other hand, he did a stupid thing, and in this life, when you do a stupid thing, you pay for it." —from TIME, March 28, 2005

Questions

1. What are the penalties for steroid use by Olympic athletes?

2. Why was Mark McGwire criticized for his testimony before Congress?

TIME CLASSROOM

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