Sluggers Deny Widespread Doping

Lined up biceps to biceps, some of baseball's biggest stars told Congress Thursday that steroids are a problem for the sport but denied that use is widespread.

Mark McGwire, whose prodigious home runs helped fuel a surge in baseball's popularity,

On a day of tiptoeing around the Fifth Amendment, more drama unfolded than the House Government Reform Committee is accustomed to. Members of congress attacked baseball's new steroid policy, and then questioned five current and former players, all of them wearing dark suits and ties instead of uniforms and caps.

Under oath, Jose Canseco — whose best-selling book helped prompt the hearing — said anew that he had used steroids as a player. Current stars Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro said they haven't. McGwire repeatedly declined to respond directly, saying his lawyers advised him not to answer certain questions.

"If a player answers, 'No,' he simply will not be believed," said McGwire. "If he answers, 'Yes,' he risks public scorn and endless government investigations."

Asked whether he favored a tougher policy, McGwire responded: "What anybody can do to improve it so that there's no more meetings like this, I'm all for it."

And Canseco reversed course from the book, saying he now is against using steroids.

It was an extraordinary sight — some of the top names in baseball history wearing business suits on Capitol Hill instead of uniforms on a diamond. McGwire wore a green tie, being that it was St. Patrick's Day.

Two top sluggers who were not present testified in 2003 to a San Francisco grand jury investigating a steroid-distribution ring: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees.

In a tense scene, Canseco sat at the same table as the other players, some of whom he had named as steroid users, as he told the lawmakers that he could not fully answer their questions because of concerns his testimony could be used against him.

During a break after the players' opening statements, five of the stars gathered in one nearby room, and Canseco went to another.

McGwire, choking back tears, said he knew that steroid use could be dangerous and would do whatever he could to discourage young athletes from using them.

"What I will not do, however, is participate in naming names and implicating my friends and teammates," said McGwire, who ranks sixth in major league history with 583 homers.

CBS Evening News Anchor Bob Schieffer spoke with Dr. Gary Wadler, a sports medicine expert and one of the founders of the World Doping Committee, which polices drugs at the Olympics, about the

According to Wadler, current estimates say between 500,000 and a million youngsters are using these substances.

"This is bad in many many ways," Wadler told Schieffer Thursday. "Some of the effects are permanent, some are reversible, some are predictable, some are unpredictable. For youngsters they may wind up permanently keeping themselves shorter than they otherwise would have been."

McGwire did say he was willing to be a spokesman against steroids. When asked to make a statement to the youth of America, he said: "Steroids are wrong. Don't take them. It gives you nothing but false hope."

The hearing came after committee members accused baseball of ignoring its steroids problem for years and then, only under pressure, embracing a weak testing program.

At the hearing's start, almost all of the congressmen gushed about the sport, recalling how they collected baseball cards and autographs and naming several retired heroes before leveling their harsh critiques. But with rare exceptions, members of the committee appeared very deferential and unwilling to press the players.

Lawmakers were particularly critical of the plan's penalties, including a provision allowing for fines instead of suspensions. A first offense could cost a player $10,000 instead of 10 days out from a six-month season.

Using most steroids without a doctor's prescription for medical purposes is illegal. Baseball banned steroids in September 2002 and began testing for them with penalties in 2004.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig sat with arms crossed and lips pursed for much of the hearing. He craned his neck to get a better view as the players spoke.

The wood-paneled hearing room was standing room only when the players testified, with camera crews lining the walls and clogging the aisles. But much of the crowd cleared out when the players left, leaving empty seats as Selig began to read his opening statement.

Selig defended the steroids policy drawn up in January, saying it's "as good as any in professional sports" and adding that he agreed to shorter bans "on the theory that behavior modification should be the most important goal of our policy."

Baseball had fought attempts to compel the players to testify, but committee chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and ranking Democrat Henry Waxman of California threatened to pursue contempt charges if they did not appear.

More than four hours after the hearing began, the players walked in one by one as spectators, lawmakers and media in the cramped hearing room fell silent.

Curt Schilling, the Boston Red Sox pitcher who's been outspoken against steroid use, was the first to enter. He sat at one end of the witness table, with Canseco at the other. Palmeiro, Sosa, McGwire and the players' lawyers were in between.

Schilling took a shot at Canseco, saying the former slugger's claims "should be seen for what they are: an attempt to make money at the expense of others."

All of the players offered condolences to the parents of two young baseball players who committed suicide after using steroids. The parents testified earlier, along with medical experts who talked about the possible effects of the drugs: heart disease, cancer, sterility, depression.

"Players that are guilty of taking steroids are not only cheaters — you are cowards," said Donald Hooton of Plano, Texas, whose son, Taylor, was 17 when he hanged himself in July 2003.

"You hide behind the skirts of your union, and with the help of management and your lawyers, you've made every effort to resist facing the public today," Hooton said.

The group of players included three of the top 10 home run hitters in major league history — McGwire, Sosa and Palmeiro. McGwire and Sosa were widely credited with boosting baseball's popularity in 1998 when they chased to break Roger Maris' season record of 61 homers.

Canseco, the 1988 AL MVP, wrote that he used steroids and that he injected McGwire with them.

But Canseco, who retired in 2001, told Thursday's panel that "because of my fear of future prosecution ... I cannot be candid with this committee."

The panel's first witness was Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., a former pitcher elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. He called the sport's steroid penalties "really puny."

Bunning and others said Congress should impose tougher rules if baseball doesn't.

Wadler told Schieffer: "Well I think baseball needs to get out of the drug business."

There's no pending legislation regarding doping, however; Davis and Waxman set out to shed light on the issue Thursday, but they've said there could be future hearings. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has raised the possibility of pursuing legislation down the road.