Good Sports

Even if an industry's been granted a permanent anti-trust exemption by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Congress, it's still got to do a bit of lobbying once in a while.

The industry reps of America's favorite pastime (Those would be the Major League Baseball Players Association and the Office of the Commissioner) have filed their end-of-year lobbying disclosure reports. While they're seven-figure spenders in total, neither one seems to have pumped up its spending in response to the Mitchell report's steroids accusations.

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball spent $840,000 on sterioids-related lobbying with Baker-Hostetler, and $200,000 with Cassidy & Associates (the firm also lobbied on immigration and stadium security matters). The Players Association, meanwhile, kept its spending to a minimal $60,000 for the year, far lower than the $400,000 it spent on firms like Patton Boggs and Jack Ferguson Associates as recently as 2005.

But some sporting industries concerned about a prospective steroids scandal seem to have concluded a little more lobbying might help. Even though it hasn't been the sport on the hot seat this year, the National Football League was juicing up its efforts on steroid use.

To lobby on the steroids issue, the league paid a Covington & Burling team of six $380,000 in the second half of 2006. By mid-2007, that figure had risen to $430,000. In the year end report filed earlier this month, the league's spending hit $655,000.