Making a federal case out of it

Mark McGwire wouldn’t talk about the past. Sammy Sosa wouldn’t talk at all. Rafael Palmeiro talked, about how he never used steroids.

They’re all stained now. But Congress didn’t haul baseball players to Washington two years ago to embarrass them. That was reserved for two men who ran the sport, the leader of the owners and the leader of the players, the ones who could answer for a feeble drug policy. They were shamed on national television, and warned: Clean up your sport, or the government will do it for you.

Turns out Bud Selig and Donald Fehr can’t do it all by themselves, no matter how many drugs they might test for, or how often. They can’t clean up the sport without the government. They need testing, of course, but they also need federal agents, raids and investigations.

Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets employee, pleaded guilty last month to distributing steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs to “dozens” of players through December 2005. By that time, baseball had tested for steroids for three seasons.

The drug policy didn’t trip up Radomski’s clients, so far as we know. The feds caught the dealer.

Selig asked former Sen. George Mitchell to determine how steroids infected baseball, but he can’t compel players to talk to Mitchell. The feds forced Radomski to talk to him.

As commissioner, Selig would love nothing more than to march back to Congress and say, “Thanks, guys. We’ve got our drug problem under control.” He can’t. He needs help from Washington.

“We can’t say we have it under control by ourselves,” said Rich Levin, the spokesman for Selig. “I don’t know if we could ever say that.”

The feds caught Jason Grimsley receiving a package of human growth hormone last year. They ran the BALCO investigation, in which Barry Bonds reportedly told a grand jury he unknowingly used steroids.

The NFL brags about its drug policy, but the feds caught the doctor who prescribed steroids and HGH to players on the Carolina Panthers, none of whom tested positive.

The International Olympic Committee brags about its policy too. Yet the IOC last month banned six Austrian skiers for life for doping violations -- based not on positive tests but on evidence gathered in Italian police raids.

Gary Wadler, a New York physician and advisor to the World Anti-Doping Agency, criticizes baseball for running an in-house testing program and failing to suspend first-time offenders for two years, in line with international standards. But even the most stringent regimen of testing and punishment, he says, must be complemented by government investigations.

“It’s not one or the other. It’s both,” Wadler said. “Like any war, you not only need good technology, you need good intelligence. The technology is the drug testing. The intelligence is what you’re talking about.”

If Gary Matthews Jr. were using human growth hormone today -- he allegedly received a shipment of HGH three years ago but has denied ever using it -- baseball would have no way of knowing. The sport does not test for HGH; no commercial test is widely available.

That’s where the feds come in, breaking up supply channels for drugs either undetectable or unknown, at least to authorities. After all, you can’t test for a drug you don’t know about.

“We are not the police,” Levin said. “We are not an investigative body. We don’t have the authority to go out and look for distributors.”

If the feds keep pushing, the players might squirm. The headlines might not be positive for the sport, particularly if players are named as users.

But if baseball must pay that price to clean up the sport, so be it, said National League player representative Tony Clark of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“I think it’s good to have people who are cheating get busted -- selling, distributing or using,” Clark said. “It calls into question the integrity of the game. How deep it goes, don’t know. How many guys, don’t know.

“The hope is simply to have the game be as clean as possible. In whatever fashion that can happen, I’m not opposed to it. I would like to think we’ve taken steps, with respect to our drug policy, to aid in that happening sooner rather than later.”

Jeff Kent isn’t so sure. That’s why he wants the feds involved.

“I think the game needs to have some pressure put upon it,” the Dodgers second baseman said. “When those guys are making busts of suppliers, that keeps the pressure on baseball to do more, because more needs to be done.”

Kent said owners and players “have just done enough” to get Congress off their backs. He won’t say what else he would do, preferring for now to work within the system.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), one of the congressmen who lectured Selig two years ago, suggests baseball could eventually police itself.

“Any time major league players violate federal substance abuse law, they will remain subject to federal investigation,” Waxman said. “But I hope that, as baseball becomes more effective in enforcing its policies, there will be less need for the federal government’s involvement.”

Recent sporting history suggests otherwise, in the U.S. and around the world. Stay in the game, Washington, and spare us another hearing.

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com