Hazelton finally has an audience

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Bob Hazelton sat in his wheelchair before a House subcommittee yesterday that invited him to speak. Behind him was an attentive hearing room.

It was an overwhelming moment for Hazelton, a former heavyweight who once faced George Foreman. He broke down and cried. Someone was ready to listen to him.

This is Bob Hazelton's time. Steroids are the buzz on Capitol Hill, and Hazelton is an example of the worst that the performance-enhancing substances can do to a body.

The 55-year-old had both of legs amputated 16 years ago because steroids stopped circulation. He began taking steroids in 1970 to get bigger, stronger and better, and instead wound up wrecking his life.

"This is something that will not go away," Hazelton said. "I have to deal with this every day of my life."

It is clear that steroids and the hazards of using performance-enhancing substances will not go away, either. A federal probe of BALCO lab is ongoing and could result in athletes forced to appear in court and testify about their use of steroids.

A week ago, the Senate Commerce Committee had a hearing on legislation to ban over-the-counter sales of such steroid-like substances as androstenedione, which Mark McGwire used when he broke Roger Maris' single season home run record in 1998.

But that hearing turned into an indictment of major league baseball, and the failure of the sport to properly test its players. During that hearing, players union chief Donald Fehr took the brunt of the criticism from legislators for failing to support more stringent testing of its members.

No baseball representatives appeared yesterday before the House subcommittee considering similar legislation, but that didn't mean the game wasn't going to take another beating. Congressman John Sweeney, who introduced the legislation to stop over-the-counter sales of steroid precursors, called the players union's refusal to go along with tougher testing "unconscionable."