Rocker- Rangers got safe steroids talk Photo by Duane Burleson - AP	Andy Pettite - Reluctant Witness Photo-Chris O'Meara - AP

As strange as any new information emerging from the recent muck surrounding the Congressional investigation of steroids use in Major League Baseball was John Rocker's volunteered statements of yesterday, that he and three other Texas Rangers were advised by management and union doctors on the safe use of steroids. 

According to Rocker, he and three other high-profile players, Arod, Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez, were told "Look, guys, if you take one kind of steroid, you don't triple stack them and take them 10 months out of the year like Lyle Alzado did.  If you do it responsibly, it's not going to hurt you." 

This new information provides an interesting backdrop to the entire situation of drug use in baseball.  It provides still one more indication of the attitudes towards steroids use at that time.  While the Yankees were cognizant of the fact that Jason Giambi was a steroids user upon structuring his contract back in 2002, I thought that may have been an isolated incident of management eyes closing to drug use by players.

Rocker's volunteered admission seems to indicate that there may have been a great deal of acceptance within the baseball community on the use of performance enhancers, that it was not at all isolated to particular teams or players.  And, while drug use may not have been as prevalent in baseball as it had always been in track, cycling or weightlifting, it was not in the closet either.

Given this apparently widespread use of performance-enhancers, it seems a shame in retrospect that we are now coming down so hard on the users.  And really, we are not.  Jason Giambi and Andy Pettite, for example, admitted their drug use and, aside from negative publicity, there have been no further penalties imposed on them.  It is only those who have lied to grand juries that are in real trouble.

The biggest of the big, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, have apparently decided that protecting their magnificent legacy is worth the risk of going to jail.  I suppose it's not really that surprising.  They obviously felt that their places in history merited the health risks associated with steroids in the first place.  We are, after all, a society that thinks nothing of taking drugs for everything from suntans to erections.  That they would risk jail time as well for lying to a grand jury comes as somewhat of a surprise to me.

Bonds and Clemens obviously feel that there is still a chance that they may prevail in their obstinacy.  I don't think so.  When the federal government comes after you, it is probably wiser to acquiesce.  Ask anyone who has had the misfortune of dealing with the IRS.

Adding to the soap-opera feel of events is the fact that there are no two sports figures more despised than are Bonds and Clemens.  That is, of course, if you don't count O.J. Simpson, who, incidentally, DID get away with murder, and then even wrote a book about it. 

Never, perhaps since the OJ trial, have there been figures so compelling.  Besides Clemens and Bonds, there are Bud Selig, the Baseball Commissioner, who has always seemed a little out-of-touch and nerdy, and Don Fehr, the arrogant head of the Players Union.  We have Brian McNamee, the trainer who saved syringes and other medical paraphernalia to cover himself, yet alleges that he was Clemens’s friend.

  <>We have the unimpeachable George Mitchell, the super-sleuth Untouchable Mr Jeff Novitzki, who ransacked garbage cans to get the goods on Barry Bonds, suddenly wanting to be present as Clemens testifies.  We have the Clemens lawyer, Rusty Hardin, who claims that Clemens will eat Novitzki’s lunch if he dares to show up, then hastily regrets his outburst after some Congressional chastisement.  We have “subtext” guys such as Chuck Knoblauch, who plays, along with Andy Pettite, one of the guys with the white hats.   <>

Anyone who can recall Chuck’s own strange psychological problem, that of getting the ball from his glove to the first baseman, can truly appreciate that things are getting “curiouser and curiouser”.  And today, we have a new player, Charles Scheeler, a partner in Mitchell’s law firm, who will testify to God knows what in place of Pettite and another key figure, Kirk Radomski, who had been scheduled to testify.  Radomski had earlier pleaded guilty to supplying many ballplayers with steroids.

  <>McNamee’s further inclusion of Mrs. Clemens in the controversy just adds fuel to an already furious fire.  McNamee contends that he also injected Mrs. Clemens with HGH.  While not that difficult to believe, as Mrs. Clemens was about 40 when she was scheduled to appear in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue, it was probably unnecessary, or would have been before Clemens televised taping of his phone conversation with McNamee.   <>That incident, of course, was the one in which McNamee asked Clemens over and over again, “What do you want me to do”?   That was, seemingly, McNamee’s attempt at getting Clemens to add witness tampering to his list of troubles.

 <>Much as in the O.J. trial, there are few principals in the matter that are sympathetic to anyone.  With the exception of the Brown and Goldman families in the O.J. trial, everyone else seemed fair game, from the judge, Lance Ito, to the witnesses.   <>

Who can ever forget the witnesses, Mark Fuhrman and Kato Kaelin and even Faye Resnick ?  The defense attorneys were all stars in their own right, F. Lee Bailey and Johnnie Cochran, Barry Scheck and Robert Shapiro.  And of course there was the hapless prosecuting attorney, Marcia Clark.  Tainted DNA, gloves that didn’t fit, barking dogs, limo driver, that trial had it all, including the curious result.  <>

And now we have these hearings, on the verge of having pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training, when nothing much is happening in the sports world, with college basketball working its way to March Madness, with the NBA headed for the All-Star break. 

What an opportune way to make a name for oneself, huh?