Arizona Senator John McCain Comments on Mitchell Report on ESPN

December 14, 2007

The infamous Mitchell Report was released yesterday by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. The 20-month investigation dug deep into baseball’s dark past in regards to illegal steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Over 80 players were implicated in the released document, including now-uncertain future Hall of Fame locks Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. Commissioner Bud Selig called this a time to act…and that baseball “will act” on the findings.

Being a huge baseball fan myself, this report really doesn’t surprise me after 2005 Congressional hearings in which 2 of my favorite sluggers, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, completely refused to acknowledge their role in taking steroids during their careers. This report confirmed a lot of what many people, fans, and purists of the game already thought — that steroids is more of a widespread issue than we all originally thought.

I was watching Mike and Mike on ESPN this morning, and Arizona Senator John McCain chimed in on the entire situation. The sports enthusiast was quoted as saying that the “integrity of the game has been compromised,” and that he hopes baseball gets “serious about the penalties — and serious about steroids.” McCain went on to say he was most surprised and “disappointed” by the addition of Roger Clemens on the Mitchell Report. Inside officials that McCain has spoken to on this issue have also said that steroids are a bigger problem than what the general public may know right now.

It is unclear whether Senator John McCain will dedicate a lot of his future political work into developing some type of government doping agency to study and regulate the problem of steroids in sports in general - not just baseball.

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