Summers of the Long Ball Frauds

This chapter examines the congressional hearings conducted on March 17, 2005, to probe drug use in Major League Baseball (MLB). On March 17, 2005, the Steroid Era crisis hit critical mass as a handful of players sat before the House Government Reform Committee to answer questions about drug use in professional baseball, among them Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling, Jose Canseco, and Frank Thomas. Conspicuously absent was Barry Bonds, the man who had by then become the Steroid Era's public enemy number one. At the time, Bonds was the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO). The committee wanted to know if McGwire indeed used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, who else in the league used them, and when the use of such drugs began. This chapter considers what the hearings accomplished and the drug scandal involving BALCO.