Another drugs-in-sports hearing on Hill

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Feb 22, 2008

Congress will take yet another look at drugs in sports next week, with a hearing that will feature top names from all four major professional leagues, the NCAA and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA commissioner David Stern and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman are scheduled to testify Wednesday before a House subcommittee that has been working separately from the committee that held last week's high-profile hearing featuring Roger Clemens.

Also on the witness list are players' union executive directors Donald Fehr (baseball), Gene Upshaw (NFL), William Hunter (NBA) and Paul Kelly (NHL).

The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection has scheduled the hearing for Wednesday on "Drugs in Sports: Compromising the Health of Athletes and Undermining the Integrity of Competition."

Meanwhile, the committee that questioned Clemens has yet to decide whether to seek a criminal investigation into the seven-time Cy Young award winner or his former personal trainer for possibly lying to Congress. Clemens denied using steroids or human growth hormone at last week's hearing and previously in a sworn deposition, while the trainer, Brian McNamee, testified that Clemens did use those substances and said the same in a deposition.

MOTORSPORTS

A deal that would unify America's two open-wheel racing series under the IRL umbrella entered the final stages Thursday.

Talks have centered on a proposal in which some teams from the Champ Car World Series would blend into the Indy Racing League. The unification would become one series under the banner of the IRL's IndyCar Series, Champ Car spokesman David Higdon said.

IRL spokesman Fred Nation said there are "four issues they will try to hammer out by the end of the night." He did not identify the issues, but one -- and perhaps the biggest -- is believed to be a conflict between the IRL's race at Honda-owned Motegi in Japan and Champ Car's most important event, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The race in Japan is scheduled April 19, the day before the Long Beach event.

TENNIS

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal lost to Andreas Seppi 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on a day of upsets in Rotterdam, Netherlands, leaving the ABN Amro without seeded players entering the quarterfinals.

Beaten earlier in the day were second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, third-seeded David Ferrer and fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych.

It is only the third time since 2000 no seeded players are in the quarters of an ATP tournament. It previously happened in 2006 in Nottingham, England, and in 2002 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Davydenko lost 6-3, 7-5 to Michael Llodra; Ferrer fell 6-2, 7-5 to Mischa Zverev; and Berdych lost 6-4, 6-4 to Ivo Karlovic.

Australian Open champion and fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova reached the Qatar Open quarterfinals in Doha with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Tamarine Tanasugarn.

Sybille Bammer upset second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 7-6 (8), and Dominika Cibulkova defeated sixth-seeded Venus Williams 6- 3, 6-3.

Top-seeded Ana Ivanovic pulled out of the tournament before her third-round match against Agnieszka Radwanska after injuring her left ankle on Wednesday.

BOXING

WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov (22-0-1, 17 KOs) weighed in at 219 pounds against a svelte 238 for IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko (49- 3, 44 KOs), two days before their heavyweight unification fight, the first such bout since 1999.

The fight is Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

MISCELLANEOUS

ESPN must provide the relatives of George Gipp with any materials it has related to the exhumation of the Notre Dame halfback's body, according to a ruling in a Michigan lawsuit stemming from the exhumation.

The remains of the football star, who died in 1920 of pneumonia, were dug up Oct.4 for DNA testing to determine whether he had fathered his girlfriend's child. The results were negative.

ESPN crews recorded the exhumation for a planned newsmagazine program.