WASHINGTON - Baseball's drug problem grew thornier yesterday as Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate former American League MVP Miguel Tejada for possibly lying about steroid use and cited a sudden spike in the number of major leaguers who have received medical exemptions to use banned amphetamines.
Both developments unfolded during a wide-ranging congressional hearing in which commissioner Bud Selig said he is considering punishing baseball officials, including San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean, and players who may have contributed to the game's steroid crisis.
While former Senate majority leader George Mitchell defended his blockbuster allegations that Roger Clemens abused illegal steroids and human growth hormone, leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform raised the stakes for Tejada by seeking a criminal investigation into whether he knowingly made false statements in 2005 to the committee, an offense punishable by up to five years in prison.
Tejada, who played for the A's and Orioles before he was traded last month to the Astros, "told the committee that he never used illegal performance-enhancing drugs and that he had no knowledge of other players using or even talking about steroids," said Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, the chairman.
But Mitchell's 409-page report on the proliferation of steroids in baseball "directly contradicts key elements of Mr. Tejada's testimony," Waxman said.
He joined the committee's top Republican, Representative Tom Davis of Virginia, in asking Attorney General Michael Mukasey to order an investigation of Tejada. Should Tejada be indicted, he would join home run king Barry Bonds as the only baseball stars to face criminal charges in the steroid scandal so far.
Tejada's older brother, Freddy, died yesterday in a motorcycle accident in their native Dominican Republic, and Tejada could not be reached for comment, said the Associated Press.
Selig, meanwhile, was pressed by Representative John F. Tierney of Massachusetts to explain an abrupt increase in the number of major leaguers last year who received "therapeutic use exemptions" to take amphetamine-like substances that were banned by Major League Baseball in 2005.
Of the 111 major leaguers last year who received exemptions to use banned medications, 103 were diagnosed with attention deficit or hyperactivity disorders, which are treated with amphetamine-like products such as Ritalin and Adderall.
The previous year, only 28 of the 35 total exemptions were granted for attention deficit or hyperactivity, according to figures Major League Baseball provided the committee.
Tierney said he found it perplexing that nearly 15 percent of the 700 major leaguers received exemptions for attention deficit and hyperactivity diagnoses when less than 1 percent of the adult population in the United States copes with such disorders. Tierney said Major League Baseball did not provide the names of the players who received exemptions or their teams.
Though Selig and Donald Fehr, executive director of the Players Association, acknowledged that amphetamines are performance-enhancing drugs, neither could explain the sudden spike in exemptions. Selig vowed to investigate and report back to Congress.
The House committee sought the exemption figures after baseball officials declined to provide them to Mitchell.
"The question is, were the players using the [exemptions] as a loophole to get around the ban on performance-enhancing drugs?" Tierney said in an interview.
The figures suggested to Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, that Major League Baseball "needs to tighten up" its protocols for granting exemptions and ensure that players who receive waivers for legitimate health reasons use only enough medication to become "normal, not super-normal."
The exemption figures also showed three players in 2006 and two players in 2007 received waivers to take banned medications for androgen deficiencies. One treatment for androgen deficiency is testosterone replacement.
The figures also indicated that four players in 2006 and five players in 2007 were granted exemptions to take hypertension medications.
Selig and Fehr were put on the defensive by another Massachusetts congressman, Representative Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston, who urged them to create a deterrent to the burgeoning use of human growth hormone among major leaguers by requiring players to provide blood samples that would be frozen until a commercially available test is developed for HGH.
By warning players that their blood will be tested retroactively, said Lynch, "I bet you will see the incidence of use drop just like you did with steroids when you started testing for that."
Wadler said WADA scientists have concluded that blood samples can be frozen and tested retroactively for HGH.
Selig expressed little interest in the proposal, however, saying his medical experts considered the proposal impractical.
Fehr also dismissed the idea, citing the controversy surrounding samples of Lance Armstrong's urine that allegedly tested positive for a performance-enhancing product after they were stored for more than five years.
The hearing, a 4-hour-15-minute affair attended by the parents of two youths whose suicides were linked to steroid use, posed the latest opportunity for lawmakers to press baseball officials to clean up the national pastime. The committee members focused only momentarily on Clemens, who is scheduled to appear before them Feb. 13, and turned the spotlight instead on baseball executives who may have enabled suspected steroid users.
Citing Mitchell's report, lawmakers recounted several incidents in which team personnel purportedly failed to take steps to curb steroid abuse. They included a trainer for the Florida Marlins returning a bag containing a dozen syringes and six vials of anabolic steroids in 2001 to a player, Ricky Bones; an MLB security official not launching an investigation after the Canadian Border Service confiscated steroids from a bag in 2001 belonging to Juan Gonzalez of the Cleveland Indians or a member of his entourage; and the failure of former Orioles general managers Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie to report to baseball investigators David Segui's statement in 2004 that he was using HGH.
"If there were club personnel guilty of what people said they were doing, they will face discipline and very significant discipline," Selig testified.
Sabean and the Giants came under considerable scrutiny for their handling of allegations surrounding Bonds and his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, who was convicted in 2005 of conspiring to distribute steroids and money laundering. Waxman cited numerous occasions when Sabean or Giants president Peter Magowan purportedly learned information about Bonds or Anderson they could have reported to investigators.
Asked point-blank if Sabean should have informed the commissioner's office, Selig said, "Of course."
The alleged inaction by Sabean and Magowan occurred amid a federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, which to date has led to the convictions of six individuals, including track star Marion Jones, and the indictment of Bonds.
"It's possible the BALCO scandal could have been averted if Brian Sabean and Peter Magowan acted in a responsible manner," Waxman said. "Instead, they seemed more intent on protecting Bonds."
Selig said he is reviewing whether the Giants executives should be disciplined.
Numerous committee members also made a point of holding Selig and Fehr accountable for the steroid crisis. The scandal evolved for nearly two decades before Congress pressed baseball owners and players in 2005 to significantly strengthen their anti-doping programs and beef up the punishment for cheaters.
"This scandal happened under your watch," said Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland. "I want that to sink in."
Selig and Fehr each said they should have acted more decisively and much sooner to curb the problem.
Mitchell's report linked nearly 90 players to performance-enhancing drugs, though Mitchell acknowledged that he was able to identify only a fraction of the major leaguers who have used illegal steroids or HGH. He did not investigate the abuse of amphetamines.
Several lawmakers also criticized Fehr and the players for refusing to cooperate with Mitchell's investigation. The only player who agreed to voluntarily speak with Mitchell was Frank Thomas, an outspoken opponent of steroid use.
"We could not prosecute any drug abuse in America if Americans followed the pattern of the baseball players," said Representative Mark Souder of Indiana.
While many committee members praised the progress baseball has made in its fight against illegal performance-enhancing drugs, Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota was generally unswayed, accusing players who continue to flaunt the rules of "cheating for profit."
"Every fan who has bought a ticket to see a game in the past 20 years has witnessed a fraud," she said.
