Congress to get Palmeiro records this week
House considers getting involved in wake of Orioles star's suspension
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RALEIGH, N.C. - A House committee chairman said Sunday he expects to have all of Major League Baseball’s drug testing records for Rafael Palmeiro by the end of the week as the panel steps up its perjury investigation of the Baltimore Oriole’s star outfielder.
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said committee attorneys and investigators will begin interviewing potential witnesses once they’ve reviewed the documents, which Palmeiro has agreed to turn over voluntarily.
Palmeiro, who swore under oath before the committee earlier this year that he had never taken steroids, was suspended for 10 days by Major League Baseball last month after he tested positive for steroids. Palmeiro has said he does not know how the steroids got into his body.
“I don’t think it was inadvertent in terms of getting in,” Davis said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “I know he knew he was taking something.”
Davis declined to say whether he thinks Palmeiro committed perjury.
“We’re a long way from that at this point,” he said. “But there are certainly some incongruities in his statement and we have a duty to investigate.”
Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., a former pitcher who’s in the baseball Hall of Fame, said the Senate will hold hearings this fall on legislation that would mandate two-year suspensions for any professional athlete in a team sport who tested positive for steroids.
“The hard line is for the good of the kids,” Bunning said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We don’t want children, high school or college players, trying to boost their ability to make it into the major leagues.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said Congress may feel compelled to get involved in testing major league players for banned substances.
“At this point I think (the chances are) getting better and better because of baseball’s inability to police their own players,” Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said Saturday on the ESPN program “Outside the Lines.”
The quality of the players under suspicion raises the importance of assuring that baseball is clean, McHenry said on the program.
Palmeiro is one of four players in major league history with 500 homers and 3,000 hits. A celebration of his 3,000th hit — which came after the positive drug test but before the results were released — was planned for this week but canceled at his request.
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“The reality is this: This Palmeiro situation, we wouldn’t be talking about it if it were some second-string left fielder from the Colorado Rockies,” McHenry said. “We’re talking about the Hall of Fame and whether or not you can be there with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.”
McHenry was dismayed by some of the March 17 testimony, specifically that of retired slugger Mark McGwire. McGwire has denied using steroids but repeatedly dodged the question while testifying under oath, saying: “I’m not here to talk about the past.”
“I walked into that hearing a fan of Mark McGwire and walked away greatly disappointed,” McHenry said. “His reactions to the questions that day just seemed to be stonewalling.”
Palmeiro, he said, made a more favorable impression at the time.
“It turns out that maybe the reason why he was so good is that maybe he wasn’t telling the truth,” McHenry said.
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