Beyond the sheer entertainment value of watching athletes and commissioners and union bosses squirm under the bright lights, there has been an oft- stated reason for the congressional hearings looking into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports.
When the latest group of sports executives is trotted out tomorrow before a legislative panel, be sure to count the number of times kids or high school athletes are invoked as the rationale for probing steroid consumption.
The theory goes that by exposing this conduct among big-time athletes, it will become less attractive to the younger, impressionable set. Nice theory, but in the real world, where these kids live, platitudes and pronouncements from the hot-air crowd in Washington have no bearing.
And besides, there is little hard evidence beyond the anecdotal horror stories that have been repeated in these hearings that steroid usage is up in high schools.
If congressmen, such as Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, are serious about protecting the health and safety of high school athletes, perhaps the focus should be taken off steroids and placed on practical issues, such as improving poor field and gym conditions, employing trainers and making physical exams more extensive.
Cummings has especially taken hold of the steroid issue and attempted to relate it to youth and high school athletics, when there's very little, if any, evidence, that kids who play sports in his district, which cuts a wide swath through Baltimore City, western Baltimore County and Howard County, are affected.
The cost of steroids is prohibitive for the overwhelming majority of high school athletes in Cummings' district, as coaches and administrators will tell you.
You could count on one hand the number of high school athletes in Baltimore City, Baltimore County or Howard County who have been caught using steroids in recent years.
Yet Cummings is taking a victory lap for adding the head of another high-profile athlete to his mantel. You'll recall that the congressman famously and pointedly questioned Mark McGwire at those St. Patrick's Day hearings nearly three years ago.
Just two weeks ago, Cummings applied the third degree to Roger Clemens, saying that though the seven-time Cy Young Award winner was one of his heroes, he found Clemens' denials hard to believe.
Now, Cummings has grabbed an athlete with local ties, Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts, and recruited him to talk to high school students about the ills of steroids.
