Tell the truth and shame the Devil

I have been working for long hours day after day on the Steroids and Baseball web site, assembling ever more facts and probative sources. It thus angers and disgusts me almost beyond expression to see the grotesque farce that our beloved Congress is putting on in the so-called baseball hearings.

There is a nicely put summary of this dog-and-pony act in Derek Jacques' Baseball Prospectus article today, "Stupid Lawyer Tricks". I heartily recommend the article, but one bit I want to snip for especial emphasis is this:

But there was one line of questioning which, almost by accident, pointed out the report's flaws.

Representative John Yarmuth . . . asked a relatively simple question. Citing a recent New York Times op-ed that cast some doubt on whether the players named in the Mitchell report actually enjoyed enhanced performance during the time they were allegedly using PEDs, he asked if Mitchell had found evidence that PEDs are really effective. Mitchell's reply was the one time all day that he had to dance around a bit, emphasizing that, "the subject is more complicated than a simple phrase [performance enhancement] represents" before citing unspecified evidence that PEDs worked for some unnamed individuals.

That is what I have labored literally for years now to emphasize: there is no boost showing in the records: none. George Mitchell can't point to it because it doesn't exist. And I am scarcely the Lone Ranger here. Visit the site I named and linked above and you will find links to numerous other studies reaching the same conclusion, each by a different path.

If you wonder how that can be, just visit the site and read; but take my word for it, there's nothing mysterious about the lack of performance boost.

And that's all I have time for today, because unlike Congressmen and Senators, I invest time and work finding facts before I express opinions.