Hall of Shame.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Mark McGwire's whiffingly inadequate testimony before Congress prompted more than one pundit to dust off the "Say it ain't so, Joe" cliche from the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal.

Big Mac failed not only to say "it ain't so," he said nothing whatsoever that shed light on his alleged steroid use during his Hall of Fame career. Oh, yeah, he did offer to become Major League Baseball's anti-steroid spokesman, an offer that professional baseball is as likely to take him up on as the Justice Department is to use the BTK Killer as its poster child.

McGwire's pathetic performance is a microcosm for the sport he helped revitalize with his record-shattering home runs. He not only balked at discussing his own steroid use, but he even refused to discuss the general problem of steroid use by athletes and its roots in professional sports.

Professional baseball has taken the same approach for years, refusing to acknowledge that steroid use is commonplace in its ranks and, until only recently, resisting calls to put tough drug policies in place.

If baseball had acted earlier to address its steroids problem, then it might have avoided the spectacle of players such as McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling and Frank Thomas appearing on Capitol Hill last week before a battery of justifiably irate members of Congress. It might also have helped prevent the epidemic of steroid use that is afflicting - and, in some cases, killing - young athletes down to the high school level.

Major League Baseball protested that last week's hearings were unnecessary because of its new substance abuse rule. While a significant improvement over the flaccid guidelines of the past, the new policy fails to nail down specifics on off-season testing and requires no testing for amphetamines.

Players and owners made some progress on fixing those flaws Sunday by closing a loophole that allowed first-time violators to avoid suspensions by giving the option of paying fines instead. But more remains to be done.

Unless owners and players move swiftly to fully address the steroids issue, Congress should consider mandating minimum anti-drug policies for the country's professional sports leagues. That shouldn't be necessary, if baseball and other professional sports, along with their respective players, take the tough, common-sense actions necessary to address the problem.

Congress wields the biggest bat in this battle - the ability to eliminate baseball's federal antitrust exemption, a move team owners know could spell the sport's doom. While such cataclysmic action isn't yet warranted, last week's hearings should remind Major League Baseball that it must move swiftly to get its anti-drug house in order.