Mitchell: Look at bigger steroid picture

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell told a Washington hearing on doping in baseball it is time "to bring the era of steroids and human growth hormone to an end."

Mitchell appeared Tuesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The session opened with congressional leaders saying they were calling for a U.S. Justice Department investigation of one of the men named in Mitchell's report on doping in baseball.

Baseball officials commissioned an investigation headed by Mitchell, D-Maine, to look into allegations of use of performance-enhancing substances. Mitchell's report, released last month, alleged widespread use of steroids and human growth hormone by baseball and named some 90 players as having used the substances.

Mitchell said the public should shift focus from individual players and look at the larger implications, such as the "hundreds of thousands" of high school-age people using such substances.

"It is now time to look to the future. I urge everyone involved in Major League Baseball to join in a well-planned and well-executed and sustained effort to bring the era of steroids and human growth hormone to an end," Mitchell said.

Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said Mitchell's report was "damning" and that "everyone in baseball is responsible -- the owners, the commissioner, the (players') union, and the players."