Grandstand play

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Mention the name "Tom Davis" to a baseball fan and he will recall sweet-swinging Tommy Davis, the Dodgers outfielder of the 1960s. This is not the Tom Davis baseball is worrying about.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., represents Washington's suburbs. He is chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, which has a broad enough mandate to investigate just about anything.
Three things about this are unfortunate for Major League Baseball. One, Davis is a diehard baseball fan who is appalled at the game's steroid scandal. Two, Davis desperately wanted baseball to relocate the Montreal Expos to northern Virginia, instead of the District of Columbia. Three, the ranking member of the committee is Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., who never met a headline he didn't like.
The upshot is that Davis and Waxman have scheduled a hearing into baseball's steroid problems for St. Patrick's Day. The witness list is a Murderer's Row of pumped-up sluggers, some of whom -- including Mark McGwire -- needed a subpoena to appear.
Noted literary figure
The leadoff hitter will be the noted literary figure Jose Canseco, whose new book details his chemically enhanced career.
True, baseball operates under an exemption from federal antitrust laws and lives in mortal fear of it being revoked. True, baseball and its players have, until recently, treated steroid use by studiously ignoring it. Schilling is the rare player and Towers the rare executive who have condemned the problem. And true, millionaire players and owners probably could use a jolt of congressionally-induced fear of God.
But absent any clear legislative intent, it's hard to see what purpose this hearing will have beyond headline-grabbing. If the congressmen want to meet players, let them buy tickets.