Congress to Call Players

A congressional committee intends to subpoena Major League Baseball and seven current or former players as early as today as part of its investigation into steroids.

Rebuffed by baseball and the majority of the players invited to testify in a March 17 hearing in Washington, the House Committee on Government Reform on Tuesday drafted and sent a subpoena to Rob Manfred, MLB executive vice president.

The subpoena, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, requested copies of documents in 11 areas, including results of drug testing since 2003 with names redacted, all drug testing policies for steroids or addictive drugs since 1970, copies of drug-testing proposals made by Major League Baseball to the Players’ Assn. in 1994, and documents detailing the names, disciplinary action taken and reason for suspension for all drug-related violations since 1990.

The deadline for the seven players -- Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa, Frank Thomas, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling -- to notify the committee of their intentions was Tuesday. Canseco, whose book described rampant use of steroids and accused many of its stars of taking them, has accepted. Of the others, only Thomas has publicly said he would comply.

McGwire’s representative, Marc Altieri, said Tuesday night that McGwire, through his attorney, had declined.

Those subpoenas, first reported by the Baltimore Sun, could go out today.

Stanley M. Brand, the attorney representing baseball and the players’ union, Tuesday questioned the House committee’s jurisdiction on several fronts in a five-page letter hand-delivered to committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis (R-Va.) and ranking member Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles). A copy of the letter was obtained by The Times.

Based on “constitutional and institutional interests,” Brand declined the invitation of six of his players and Commissioner Bud Selig to testify at the hearing. Canseco was excepted. He advised the committee that Manfred and union chief Don Fehr would attend, but only to “address the current and prospective application of the industry’s new drug testing policy.”

On Tuesday night, the committee answered with a letter to Selig that stated it was “disappointed” with baseball’s response, given the recent steroid “allegations have raised questions about the integrity of the game,” and summarized baseball’s failure to provide drug-related documents. Signed by Davis and Waxman, the letter concluded, “In light of these developments, we have issued a subpoena for these documents.”

In his letter, Brand called the committee’s actions “uncommonly intrusive” and a threat to collective bargaining agreements between private parties. He also argued against providing such a forum to Canseco, “who has publicly endorsed the use of illegal steroids.” The players, Brand wrote, view the invitation to testify “as an effort either to embarrass them or their peers.” He also cited the potential damage to the continuing federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, in which Giambi reportedly told a grand jury that he had used steroids.

Giambi, who has $82 million remaining on his contract with the New York Yankees that could be voided, could invoke the 5th Amendment and not testify.

The subpoenas could arrive four days after Selig predicted a new steroid policy would “effectively rid our sport of steroids in the coming season.” He said evidence of performance-enhancing drugs was found in less than 2% of the 1,183 players tested in 2004, down from 5% to 7% the year before. Baseball and the players’ union have since negotiated a policy stricter in frequency and punishment, testing for which began nearly two weeks ago.

The House committee intends to proceed. On Tuesday, it announced it added five parties to its list of witnesses: three experts in the field of drug abuse and the parents of two athletes -- former USC baseball player Rob Garibaldi and former high-school baseball player Taylor Hooton -- who committed suicide “after steroid abuse.”

Selig has defended baseball’s recent policy and said he was unaware of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball before 1998.

“When you look back on it, we’ve addressed it, the Players’ Assn. has addressed it,” Selig said Sunday. “Go back on all the history, what they did and what they didn’t do, it’s not relevant. It’s been addressed. We’ve moved ahead.”

A year ago, as the disciplinary phase of the previous drug policy was going into effect, baseball officials were called into a congressional hearing. Manfred, who led negotiations for the new policy, on Sunday protested Congress’ continued involvement.

“Congress is a policy-making body,” Manfred said. “We were very forthcoming a year ago when we had an unaddressed policy issue. We felt the pressure from Washington helped move the institution forward. What’s a little different about this situation now, we feel like we have addressed the policy issue and the question comes, what are we trying to accomplish? What is the point of this activity? We’re going to have to sort that through over the next few days.”