McGwire among those receiving subpoenas from House committee

NEW YORK -- Major league baseball responded with outrage to congressional subpoenas for Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi and other top stars, vowing to fight them all the way to court.

Curt Schilling, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Frank Thomas also were summoned Wednesday to testify at the March 17 hearing of the House Government Reform Committee. Also called were players' association head Donald Fehr, baseball executive vice presidents Rob Manfred and Sandy Alderson and San Diego general manager Kevin Towers.

The committee, which has no interest in hearing from Barry Bonds, also demanded a variety of documents and records of baseball's drug tests.

Stanley Brand, a lawyer for the baseball commissioner's office, said the committee had no jurisdiction and was interfering with the federal grand jury by trying to force testimony from Giambi and others. He said the committee wanted to violate baseball's First Amendment privacy rights and was attempting to "satisfy their prurient interest into who may and may not have engaged in this activity."

"The audacity, the legal audacity of subpoenaing someone who's been a grand jury witness before there's been a trial in the case in California is just an absolutely excessive and unprecedented misuse of congressional power," Brand said.

Canseco, Fehr and Manfred have agreed to testify, with Manfred speaking on behalf of baseball commissioner Bud Selig. Before the subpoenas were issued, Brand told the committee the other players were declining invitations. Thomas said Monday he would testify.

It remained unclear whether the hearing will take place as scheduled.

"It's impossible to predict the exact course that this is going to take," Manfred said. "Players have individual decisions they're going to have to make, the union has decisions it's going to have to make."

Bob Cohen, McGwire's agent, questioned, "What's the ultimate purpose of the hearings?"

"It is important the American people know the facts on baseball's steroid scandal," Rep. Tom Davis and Rep. Henry Waxman said in a statement. "Consistent with our committee's jurisdiction over the nation's drug policy, we need to better understand the steps MLB is taking to get a handle on the steroid issue, and whether news of those steps -- and the public health danger posed by steroid use -- is reaching America's youth."