In Baseball and Politics, Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

This afternoon, George Mitchell, the former US Senator in charge of Major League Baseball's independent, no-holds-barred probe of the steroids controversy, delivered an ultimatum (of sorts) to baseball owners at their annual meeting in Arizona: "Help me, help you... or else." Essentially, Mitchell told the owners that if they didn't help his investigation to the fullest of their ability, he would wink-wink nudge-nudge his friends on Capital Hill enough to get a few legitimate subpoenas.

Serious?

Look, I'm all about baseball being the national pastime, and I love the fact that baseball has it's antitrust protections (it's kind of quaint, in a sepia-toned kind of way). But when you think about it, Congress has better things to do during the day, like, say, calling in billions of dollars worth of oil royalties, or sunsetting college loan interest rates. Baseball really needs to grow a set of stones and clean up It's own house.

The obstacles to trying to clean up the game are hidden in plain sight. The MLBPA would never in a million years let someone from the Commissioner's Office have their way with players accused of doing steroids, and the owners definitely would not want to see their cash cows prematurely put out to pasture.

Unfortunately, there's little likelihood that Selig or his compadres are going to try and force the issue unless they're mandated by Uncle Sam. So, if it's cleaning up the game everybody's worried about, I guess we really don't have much of a choice (poor though it might be) taking a vote and hoping it sticks.

Hey, at least we know Bush wouldn't veto it.