Mark McGuire, who broke baseball's single-season home-run record in 1988, conceded that there is a problem with steroids in baseball. "What I will not do, however, is participate in naming names or implicating my friends and teammates," he said. McGuire, now retired, did not discuss whether he had used steroids during his prime seasons in the 1990s.

Like other baseball stars who took part in the House Government Reform Committee hearings this week, McGuire criticized former player Jose Canseco, who recently published a book admitting his own steroid use and implicating other players. "It should be enough that you consider the source of the statements made in the book," McGuire said.

Former Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa, now with the Baltimore Orioles, denied ever using steroids. So did Orioles first-baseman Rafael Palmeiro, accused of steroid use by Canseco. "Everything I have heard about steroids and human growth hormones is that they are very bad for you," said Sosa. "I would never put anything dangerous like that in my body."

Added Palmeiro: "I have never used steroids. Period. I do not know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never."

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chair of the committee, opened the hearings by noting that "there's a cloud over the game that I love" because of the steroid allegations.

"Our hope is that a public discussion of the issues ... will provide a glimpse of sunlight," he said. The hearings included statements from the parents of two teens who committed suicide after taking steroids.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig defended the league's recent efforts to crack down on steroid use, including beefed-up drug testing. "The positive rate for performance-enhancing substances in the 2003 testing was in the range of 5-7 percent," said Selig. "This disturbing rate triggered a more rigorous disciplinary testing program in 2004. This more effective program resulted in a decline of the positive rate to 1-2 percent."

Baseball Hall of Famer Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), who also testified at the hearing, said that players who test positive for steroids should be punished severely and have their records stricken.

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