Bunning seeks crackdown on baseball steroids

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The only member of the Baseball Hall of Fame elected to the U.S. Congress disagreed on Friday with the recommendation of the Mitchell report that no player identified as a steroid user be penalized.

"That's a flaw in the report," Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky told Reuters in an interview on Capitol Hill.

The 76-year-old former pitcher said those proven to have used performance-enhancing drugs should have their records expunged and be denied induction into the game's shrine.

"I don't think they deserve to go (to the Hall of Fame) if they cheated," Bunning said. "They did not compete on a level playing field."

The Mitchell report, requested by baseball and conducted by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, has prompted plans to hold congressional hearings on efforts to clean up the game. They are set to begin next month.

The report recommended that rather than punish suspected users, game officials should moved forward with the help of unannounced, year-round steroid tests.

Bunning said if baseball fails to adequately respond to the report, which identified scores of suspected steroids users -- including strikeout artist Roger Clemens and home run king Barry Bonds -- Congress would take action of its own.

The white-haired senator declined to say what lawmakers may do, but he believes drug testing should be conducted by an independent outside group instead of the game.

"I'm going to watch and see what Major League Baseball does," said Bunning, who retired from the game in 1971 after a stellar career that featured tossing a no-hitter for the Detroit Tigers and a perfect game for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Bunning noted a major difference in the game between when he played and the current "steroids era," which has seen many players become bigger and stronger as they have gotten older.

"When I played, when you got to be 37 or 38 you didn't get better, you got worse," Bunning said. "When I got to be 38 and 39, my skilled started to shrink. I was embarrassed how I pitched. So I got out."

Bunning praised the report and agreed with Mitchell that players, owners and commissioner's office must share the blame for helping create a culture that allowed steroid use to grow.

"However, there is one glaring hole in the Mitchell Report, and that is the failure to address how to handle the records of those players who not only cheated by using steroids, but also broke a federal law that has been on the books since 1991," he said in a statement late Thursday.

(Editing by Chris Wilson)