Canseco Is Invited to Steroid Hearings

Former slugger Jose Canseco and several players he has accused of joining him in using steroids have been invited to testify before a House committee.

“There’s a cloud over baseball, and perhaps a public discussion of the issues, with witnesses testifying under oath, can provide a glimpse of sunlight,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.

Davis and the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, announced Thursday that they were inviting Canseco and six other former or active players, including the New York Yankees’ Jason Giambi and former St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire, to testify at a March 17 hearing.

A spokeswoman for Waxman, who last week wrote Davis to urge hearings on baseball’s response to the scandal, said they don’t know whether the players will agree to attend. Commissioner Bud Selig was also invited.

Canseco, in a recently released book, acknowledges using steroids and claims that he injected the drugs with McGwire and introduced steroids to other stars, including Rafael Palmeiro, now of the Baltimore Orioles. Palmeiro and others named by Canseco have denied using the performance-enhancing drugs.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported in December that Giambi told a federal grand jury in 2003 that he had used steroids.

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Carlos Delgado was forced to postpone his spring debut with the Florida Marlins because of tendinitis in his left elbow.

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