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Well, the long awaited Congressional hearing Day #1 is in the books (at least it seems like it's been a long time and for MLB and anyone mentioned in or affected by the fallout from the Mitchell report ...I'm sure it has seemed like an eternity)...and I'm still looking for some facts to substantiate the allegations contained within the report???

Listen, George Mitchell is a very delightful, highly intelligent, articulate, well connected, extremely powerful gentleman that has earned the enormous respect that I'm quite sure he is given in practically every aspect of his life (personal, social and professional...even though I doubt that Donald Fehr will be inviting him over for dinner any time soon :) nonetheless, even through George Mitchell is arguably one of the greatest men of our time, does this fact preclude him from publishing a bomb shell of a report that he knew would be fully disclosed to the public, void of any hard, verified or independently collaborated evidence against many of the targets mentioned in the document...a report that no longer has just the potential to (as I've previously blogged) but now I feel that I can officially say "HAS" in effect tremendously damaged and in some cases destroyed many lives and long (and before the report was published) sterling careers solely based upon the allegations of a few people with highly suspect or questionable motivations and or motives???

I'm still searching but from the info that I've gathered and watched and heard so far, this statement is just about the extend of the supporting facts or evidence presented to Congress in ref to the players implicated by Brian McNamee: Clemens took a hit Tuesday. Mitchell, who clearly is a star in Congress' eyes, strongly validated McNamee's sworn statements to him, even with Mitchell knowing that Clemens has launched a full-scale defense of innocence since the report came out. "We believe that the statements provided to us were truthful," Mitchell said of McNamee......What else was he going to say..."Over-all, we feel that the statements that Mr. McNamee made to us were truthful or "We had a few concerns since there was no hard evidence to substantiate his allegations, but in the end and since we were being paid 20 million dollars to get the report completed and out we over-looked any concerns that we may have had with some of the statements made by Mr. McNamee or his crebibility and decided to just publish the report and let the chips fall where they may"...yeah right....if Mr. Mitchell said anything other than exactly what he did say he would still be sitting in front of those Congressmen answering questions! Let's not fool ourselves, this is the former Senate Majority Leader.....I'm quite sure he knows exactly how to handle himself (as well as a few Congressmen and Congresswomen) and what to say, what not to say and how to say or not say something without really saying anything......

But THAT'S IT??? Where in the heck is the evidence or a few questions to even ask Mr. Mitchell about some evidence to back up the allegations contained in his report???

Heck, I understand being respectful and all but at least one Congressman or a staffer or someone could have kindly and respectfully asked Mr. Mitchell "Hey George, just as a formality for our records, we know that you have some attachments containing at least some evidence to support the allegations contained within your fine report with you (there's no way that he came unprepared without it just in case he was asked for this information....if any does indeed exist) or some where on a thumb drive or a flash stick or even one hard copy of some interview notes, or investigative reports or something or any thing.... Whatever you have....on the way out would you kindly please give them to my clerk and thank you again so much for taking time from you busy schedule to appear before us and you have a great day"!

Hey...but this is just as always....

JUST ONE MAN'S OPINION!