Congress shoves A-Rod over the shark

Who didn’t see this one coming? Per Jim Baumbach:

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) plans to recommend to the head of the congressional committee that has previously hosted baseball players that A-Rod receive an invite to testify about his steroid use, Cummings told Newsday last night.

“I think we’re going to have to see what Rodriguez will tell us,” Cummings said in a phone interview.

“He is in a confessing mode, so maybe he needs to put his apology into some meaningful action by cooperating with the committee so we can see if there are things we need to reopen to make sure baseball is doing all that it can to rid itself of this kind of practice.”

[snip]

Cummings said last night that he is pleased Rodriguez admitted his steroid use in the wake of the Sports Illustrated report that he failed a steroid test in 2003. But Cummings said he was troubled when he heard Rodriguez’s reasoning for taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs beginning in 2001.

“When he says in his admission that he knew he was viewed as a top player making all this money but he needed basically some backup so he can make sure he reached his goals, it sounded like somebody who was trying to catch up with a reputation that had preceded him,” Cummings said.

“When I heard that, I could not help but think of the scrawny kid who doesn’t have a reputation. What about them? Or the kids that are very talented. They see a Rodriguez who commits a crime — it is illegal to do what he did — and who basically violates policies of the game and gets rich.”

Oh, please. Talk about a self-serving politician. Elijah Cummings is sooooo concerned about the kids that he wants to get on TV when A-Rod comes to Washington. Think of his reputation the children.

Remember: Cummings would be quizzing A-Rod on a failed drug test from 2003 and PED use from 2001-2003. If Congress gets to revisit baseball’s bad decisions from seven years ago, can we revisit Congress’ bad decisions from the same time period?

This is grandstanding at its finest, and while A-Rod will appear before a House committee if he is subpoenaed, it will simply allow a bunch of politicians to have their day in the A-Rod spotlight and nothing more. Are we done now that Congress has yet again poked its nose unnecessarily into baseball’s business?