Mitchell testifies on steroids in baseball

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig (L) watches as former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, author of the Mitchell Report on steroids in baseball, testifies at a House Oversight and Government Reform committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington January 15, 2008. Mitchell told a U.S. congressional committee on Tuesday that everyone in Major League Baseball must crack down on the use of steroids in order to remove the "cloud" that performance-enhancing drugs had created over the sport. (REUTERS/Jason Reed)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell told Congress on Tuesday that Major League Baseball's players and owners must come together "in a well-planned, well-executed and sustained effort" to remove steroids from the national pastime.

Mitchell, who conducted a 21-month investigation that found widespread use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs in the game, said improvements have been made in recent years but far more needs to be done.

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, who asked Mitchell to conduct the investigation, said he has embraced the proposals, including turning over current year-around testing to an independent outside group, much the way Olympic athletes are treated.

But Major League Players Association president Don Fehr said his group needs time to examine the recommendations before reopening the players' contract to allow expanded testing.

Lawmakers warned they would pressure baseball to implement this and other recommendations if it refused to do so.

Testifying before the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Mitchell said, "I urge everyone in Major League Baseball to join in a well-planned, well-executed and sustained effort to bring the era of steroids and human growth hormones to an end and to prevent its recurrence.

"That's the only way this cloud will be removed from the game," said Mitchell, a former federal judge who served as the Senate Democratic leader from 1989 to 1995.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said he was asking the Justice Department to investigate one player, four-time All-Star Miguel Tejada, who told the panel in 2005 that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs and had no knowledge of other players using or even talking about it.

"The Mitchell report ... directly contradicts key elements of Mr. Tejada's testimony," Waxman said, adding he wants the Justice Department to determine who is right.

LONG ERA OF STEROIDS ABUSE

Steroids use became prevalent in baseball more than a decade ago, allowing players to become bigger, stronger and seemingly better, which produced more home runs and higher scoring games. This in turn allowed owners to market a more exciting game.

In doing so, countless youngsters in high school and college experimented with the often-dangerous drugs.

Without the power of subpoena or the cooperation of the majority of players, Mitchell's report cited more than 80 current and former players believed to have used steroids.

One of the biggest names to emerge was pitching great Roger Clemens, who denied taking any illegal stimulants.

Clemens and four others, including his former trainer who claims to have injected him with steroids, are to appear before the panel on February 13. A seven-time Cy Young Award winner, Clemens is to be joined at the witness table by two former New York Yankee teammates, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch.

The committee held a 2005 hearing on steroids in baseball that drew bold headlines about steroids. This prompted the game to toughen its testing program itself, for fear Congress would act if it didn't.

Selig said, "Baseball now has the strongest drug-testing program in professional sports. We have year-round, unannounced testing, including testing on game days."

Fehr fended off calls to promptly accept Mitchell's recommendation that testing be conducted by an independent outside group.

"Respectfully, I hope that you will adopt (another Mitchell recommendation) that the parties be allowed time to discuss, privately and away from the spotlight, what can and should be done," Fehr said in his prepared statement.

Mitchell's investigation found that players and teams have often been given a heads-up before testing, providing players time to try to rid themselves of any illegal substances.

But said Rep. Danny Davis, an Illinois Democrat: "Major League Baseball has failed miserably in policing itself."

(Editing by Philip Barbara)