Selig, Fehr questioned by Congress on steroid usage

WASHINGTON – Concerns about Barry Bonds’ personal trainer should have been reported by the San Francisco Giants to Major League Baseball, commissioner Bud Selig told Congress on Tuesday during a hearing about the sport’s steroids era.\nEven though no players were present, unlike the theatrical session in the same wood-paneled room in March 2005, the names of career home run leader Bonds, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and 2002 AL MVP Miguel Tejada all were raised during the 4-hour, 15-minute proceedings prompted by last month’s Mitchell Report.\nSelig and union leader Donald Fehr sat side-by-side before a House committee friendlier in tone than three years ago, yet still concerned about how serious baseball is in dealing with its doping problem.\nCommittee chairman Henry Waxman opened the proceedings by calling on the Justice Department to look into whether Tejada lied to committee staffers when questioned in connection to Rafael Palmeiro’s perjury case.\nLater, he asked Selig whether the Giants should have reported their concerns about Bonds’ trainer, Greg Anderson, and the slugger’s alleged steroid use to the commissioner’s office.\n“Of course,” Selig responded.\nPressed by Waxman about whether Giants general manager Brian Sabean violated baseball rules by not doing so, Selig said the matter was under review, hinting that Sabean or other team officials could face discipline.\nEarly in the hearing, Waxman turned the focus to former Senate majority leader George Mitchell’s report on baseball’s steroids era.\n“The illegal use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs was pervasive for more than a decade, Major League Baseball was slow and ineffective in responding to the scandal and the use of human growth hormone has been rising,” said Waxman, a California Democrat.\n“The Mitchell Report also makes it clear that everyone in baseball is responsible: the owners, the commissioner, the union and the players.”\nAfter Mitchell’s two-hour appearance, Selig and Fehr went before the panel. Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings said to Selig and Fehr: “This scandal happened under your watch. I want that to sink in. It did. Do you accept responsibility for this scandal or do you think there was nothing you could do to prevent it?”\nFehr paused for several \nseconds.\n“Did we or did I appreciate the depth of the problem? ... The answer is ‘No,’” Fehr replied. “It’s a failure that we didn’t and it’s a failure that I didn’t.”\nSelig then followed, starting by saying he’s agonized over the question.\n“Do I wish we could have reacted quicker? Should we have? One could make the case,” the commissioner said. “All of us have to take responsibility, starting with me.”