Scrutiny, stories make stars melt

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Each member at a congressional committee hearing gets five minutes to listen to himself talk. California congressman Tom Lantos made the most of his time at the House Committee on Government Reform hearing on steroids in baseball.

First, Lantos laid out baseball commissioner Cadillac Bud Selig's medical advisor, Dr. Elliott Pellman -- who seemed clueless about the very steroid testing policy he supposedly offered advice on -- so bad he nearly needed smelling salts to recover.

"I found your testimony pathetically unpersuasive," Lantos said -- an accurate portrayal.

Answering the critics who said Congress had no business holding hearings about steroids in baseball, Lantos said, "Baseball is not on the moon. It is subject to oversight."

I'll bet Dr. Pellman wished he was on the moon yesterday instead of getting roasted by Lantos and other committee members.

Lantos then put the hearing into the perspective its critics had failed to grasp: This was not about nailing superstar hides to the wall. It was about a national health issue facing parents with young children who are athletes. It was about baseball's slow response to the steroid problem. It was about baseball's failure to face up to its responsibility.

"When young men are dying ... baby steps are not enough," Lantos said.

The players -- Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling and Jose Canseco -- were the stars of the show.

But the hearings drew credibility from the parents of Rob Garibaldi and Taylor Hooton, two young men who committed suicide after steroid use.

Donald Hooton told how his son, a high school baseball player, took his own life 20 months ago after doing what major league players have done to get bigger and better: use steroids.