How long before the casualties will be losing their careers, not just their good names?

While Bud Selig and Donald Fehr were once again the guys at the congressional witness table Tuesday, the day’s biggest losers were Miguel Tejada, San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan and Giants general manager Brian Sabean. Oh, you probably didn’t want to be Ed Wade either.

Wade is the new general manager of the Houston Astros. He traded five players to the Baltimore Orioles for Tejada on Dec. 12, one day before Tejada was named in the Mitchell report as a purchaser of testosterone and human growth hormone.

It has not been the best month for Wade, though it might have been a lot worse if Roger Clemens wasn’t doing everything he could to wiggle out from under the rap former trainer Brian McNamee hung on him in the Mitchell report.

Wade’s latest moment of discomfort came when he had to inform Astros owner Drayton McLane that the feds were asking hard questions about Tejada.

You probably will remember that Tejada, the 2002 American League most valuable player, was implicated indirectly in the scandal that led to a 50-game suspension for Baltimore teammate Rafael Palmeiro. Palmeiro blamed his positive steroids test on a tainted vial of a substance he believed to be vitamin B-12, which he said Tejada had given him.

Because Palmeiro had wagged his finger notoriously at members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at a hearing in March 2005, saying he’d never used steroids, he was investigated for possible contempt of Congress after the positive test. The FBI investigated Tejada during that probe, which resulted in no charges.

But information on Tejada included in the Mitchell report, including copies of two checks he wrote to former Oakland teammate Adam Piatt, allegedly for steroids and HGH, have some congressmen wondering if Tejada lied to them in the Palmeiro investigation. The two ranking members of the House committee, Henry Waxman and Tom Davis, jointly asked Tuesday that the Justice Department study the matter.

Suddenly Tejada, like Barry Bonds, is waist deep in an effort not just to stay on the field but, more importantly, to stay out of jail. Tejada was not under oath when he met with the FBI, but he could find himself in the same trouble that caused Martha Stewart to serve five months in the tank.

If Clemens isn’t telling the truth with his loud denials of his inclusion in the Mitchell report, he could find himself in the same cellblock as Bonds and Tejada. He and McNamee remain on a collision course to repeat their stories when they appear before the committee Feb. 13.

Somebody’s lying, and McNamee is the guy who would seem to have nothing to gain by telling stories.

With Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, taking a far less combative stance than in previous appearances before Congress, Tuesday’s hearing lacked the drama of the 2005 tour de farce.

Former Sen. George Mitchell, who headed baseball’s internal study of the steroid issue, testified alongside Fehr and the commissioner, answering questions about his recommendations and the techniques behind his report. He was praised for his work, which detailed the links of 87 players to banned performance-enhancing substances, and left the hearing room with the report given more credibility than ever.