COMMENTARY

By Tim Dahlberg

updated 6:35 p.m. ET March 11, 2005

Mark McGwire, here’s your chance.

Go ahead, Sammy Sosa, step up there with Big Mac and proclaim your innocence.

And you, Barry Bonds? Well, for some reason you weren’t invited but isn’t this really the best place to say it wasn’t steroids after all?

Talk about perfect timing. Just as the major league season seemed destined to open under the black cloud of steroids, someone is giving baseball’s gargantuan sluggers a chance to finally speak the truth about those nasty rumors about performance enhancing drugs.

No, it’s not those pesky reporters, the ones Bonds last week called the real liars in this whole muscular scandal. Listen to Barry and he’ll tell you that reporters envious of his $20 million salary are really to blame.

“It’s almost comical, basically,” Bonds said. “Are you guys jealous, upset, disappointed, what?”

No, Barry. We’re not.

Like most of America, we’re just wondering how you, Sammy and Big Mac suddenly grew so big and strong and started hitting every other pitch you saw out of the park. We’re wondering how you hit 37 home runs in 552 at-bats in 1998, and three years later hit 73 home runs in 76 fewer at-bats.

There’s probably a reasonable explanation for it. Good nutrition, maybe. Some extra time in the weight room probably helped, and it didn’t hurt that pitchers couldn’t pitch you inside because of the body armor you wear.

But here’s the great thing, Barry. Now you have a chance to set things straight so that America can celebrate with you when you pass Babe Ruth this year and take aim at Hank Aaron’s home run record.

RON BORGES ON BASEBALL This won't go away easily Bonds, Selig, Giambi can't just wave away steroid controversy Getty Images

A guy named Tom Davis is offering the opportunity of a lifetime — and just in time.

You probably don’t know Tom Davis. He’s not the outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers who played in your father’s day, nor the clubhouse attendant who makes sure your recliner is properly set up next to your locker.

This Davis is a Republican congressman from Virginia who just happens to be the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. Just what government reform has to do with steroids in baseball is somewhat of a mystery, but that’s not really the point.

Like you, Davis wants to set things straight. He and some others on his committee want to air out a story largely told before now behind closed doors.

Oh, yeah. Two more things before you decide to go, Barry.

He wants to do it March 17 in front of America. And he wants to do it with everyone under oath.

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