Congressional umpires to call strike on big leagues

Lobbyists and congressional aides are bracing for former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell’s (D-Maine) report into steroids abuse by Major League Baseball (MLB) players, which is expected to lead to hearings and perhaps legislation on Capitol Hill early next year.

The report, which is expected this week, could pack a powerful enough punch to prompt Congress to take forceful action that would end baseball’s widely criticized efforts to police itself.

{mosads}“We’re going to get the whole steroids abuse issue out of American sports,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who suggested the report could influence hearings his subcommittee will hold on the subject early next year.

“The report will speak for itself and raise the bar,” said Rush, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. He told The Hill new legislation might be on the table to fix the steroids problem.

Mitchell began his investigation in March 2006, shortly after the publication of the book Game of Shadows, which detailed the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs by Barry Bonds, who broke baseball’s all-time home run record last summer.

It’s unclear what will be in Mitchell’s report, but it could name baseball players who have used steroids. It could also implicate a hidden infrastructure behind the sport’s superstars — of trainers and team owners who helped facilitate the use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to observers like Fay Vincent, MLB’s commissioner from 1989 to 1992.

“Was it 30 players over 10 years, or was it 3,030? Were the owners complicit?” Vincent said in an interview. “Potentially, you have hundreds of people who are cheating for a significant period of time.”

Mitchell, chairman of DLA Piper, the multinational law firm asked by MLB to conduct the investigation, has not touched base with lawmakers on Capitol Hill about his investigation, despite prior investigations of steroids abuse initiated by Congress. No documents from congressional investigations have been shared with the former senator, and Mitchell has not briefed key members on his work, according to aides to both the House Government Reform and Senate Commerce panels.

Mitchell and his staff have met almost daily to discuss the investigation, according to John Clarke Jr., a partner at DLA Piper and one of the attorneys working on the report. Charlie Scheeler, another firm partner, has overseen day-to-day operations of the investigation, which Mitchell has led.  

The report was requested by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and is being paid for by the league at a cost that has not been made public. Rich Levin, Selig’s spokesman, said he could not offer an estimate.

Vincent was interviewed by Mitchell and his staff in a telephone conference early on in the investigation, and told them about his decision to ban steroids from the game in 1991.

“They asked me what did I know at the time, what was going on with the issue,” said Vincent about the use of performance-enhancing drugs then.   

The former commissioner talked with Mitchell’s staff about the obstacles stemming from the investigation of baseball great Pete Rose and his gambling addiction, he said. “He asked me for thoughts and advice, and I gave him a lot of advice,” Vincent said.

Mitchell also reached out to another figure associated with Rose’s eventual lifetime ban from baseball: John Dowd. As special counsel to then-MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti, Dowd was tasked in 1989 with investigating Rose after allegations that the Cincinnati Reds manager gambled on baseball.

Dowd said he has been briefed occasionally on the status of the report throughout the past 20 months, and he shared a copy of his own report into the Rose gambling scandal, MLB’s last major investigation before Mitchell’s work commenced last year.

“I was happy to help them, and happy to point them to people who can help them,” said Dowd. “I know when I started, I had no one to help me.”

Both Dowd and Vincent said Mitchell faced a much more complex task than their investigation of Rose, where the two could focus on just one player.

“This is 10 times as big as the Rose investigation,” said Dowd, who is now a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

In addition, both believed the baseball players’ association proved to be difficult in cooperating with Mitchell’s investigation. It could be hard for Mitchell, who did not have subpoena power, to produce an effective report if players refuse to speak to his staff.

Once the report is released, the players’ union can turn to several prominent lobbyists on both sides of the aisle — such as former Clinton administration official Thurgood Marshall Jr. and Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R-Utah) former chief of staff, Kevin McGuiness — to combat it if necessary. The players’ association also has active lobbying registrations with the Glover Park Group and Patton Boggs.

MLB and Selig also have lobbyists at the ready to defend the report. Lucy Calautti, who is married to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), represents the MLB Commissioner’s Office at Baker Hostetler, while Cassidy & Associates advocates for the league itself, according to Senate disclosure forms.

Lobbyists for both sides of the debate contacted by The Hill either declined to comment or did not return messages.

Rush and House Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who has been involved with past congressional work on steroids in sports, said they expect Mitchell to deliver a solid, professional report. Mitchell “works at whatever job he has with enormous diligence,” Waxman said.

During Rep. Tom Davis’s (R-Va.) chairmanship, Government Reform held hearings on MLB’s steroids scandal in 2005. Davis and Waxman also introduced legislation that year that would have reauthorized the Office of National Drug Control Policy Act to establish minimum testing standards for professional sports leagues, but the bill died in committee.  
As Washington prepares for Mitchell’s report, Vincent, for one, is looking forward to its release.

“Let’s put it all out there for the public to know,” said the former MLB commissioner. “It’s very important to get on the other side of this hill.”