Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 30, 2005
Doctor Discrepancies

The New York Times has found errors and exaggerations in Dr. Elliot Pellman's resume. Dr. Pellman is the medical adviser for Major League Baseball and testified before the house committee two weeks ago. I found him one of the more interesting witnesses.

It's another case of baseball not being careful with what it sent to Congress. As much as I was against the hearings, they did serve a useful purpose in exposing the fine language. Whether is was baseball's intention or not, it sure looked like they were sticking a loophole in the contract. Now, the one person they send to testify on their behalf, who came across as reasonable and credible to me, has his integrity called into question. It wasn't a good day for building trust on the part of the lords of baseball.


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Posted by David Pinto at 08:44 AM | Cheating | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I agree - if baseball cannot send a qualified professional who understands what he is doing (and understands steroids as a whole), then their steroid testing policy is questionable. We'll see how this plays out, especially if in light of this Congress takes more action.

Posted by: Jared B. at March 30, 2005 01:04 PM

David-
The "detailed" reports suggest minor errors, not mendacity-- He apparently started his degree in Guadalajara, finished in the SUNY system, and the degree itself was issued from the state educational system rather than a school. Someone didn't feel like explaining all that in a bio and compressed it. If I understood the report correctly the error was not on his resume, only on a precis. There also was a substitution of "Associate" for "Assistant" on his resume, in a context in which the distinction matters. I think that that's an awfully easy typing and editing error to make, but if you want to see it as evil, there were only a few "Associates" and many "Assistants" apparently.

The idea here isn't to impeach his testimony is it? No one listened to it anyway after all. The idea is to demand an explanation-- once you're forced to explain, you've lost. If there were no errors on his resume, I imagine we would be hearing that Manfred once defended a white supremacist or Selig bought his toupee from a guy who hires illegals, or some such... The issue is threatening to shift center to the NFL and neither Congress nor WADA wants to take them on right now, while the press doesn't care as long as it gets attention...

Posted by: john swinney at March 30, 2005 03:51 PM
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