Patton: Sosa, 600 club's newest member, merits Hall of Fame
Random notes, idle thoughts and a pair of unmatching sockers ...
When does 600 not equal 600?
When they are the 600 home runs hit by Sammy Sosa and the 600 that Ken Griffey Jr. is approaching.
Six hundred should be one of those automatic numbers that ensures anyone Hall of Fame election. Not so fast, Sammy.
Texas slugger Sosa hit No. 600 over the weekend, rekindling the debate as to whether he belongs in the Hall.
Griffey is at 584, on pace to reach the milestone before the end of the season. The only debate with Griffey is should his Hall of Fame plaque sport a backward Seattle or Cincinnati cap?
If logic prevails among the voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Sosa will not do his little skip-hop into Cooperstown because he is, more or less, the same guy as Mark McGwire.
The writers rejected McGwire in a big way last winter, based primarily on suspicions that he used steroids to blast a lot of homers in a short period of time. Both McGwire and Sosa appeared before the Senate during its hearings on performance enhancing drugs, and neither did anything to enhance the notion of his cleanliness.
That said, Sosa also displayed, for a large part of his career, a warm and fuzzy side that McGwire did not. And, most importantly, Hall of Fame voters have never displayed a lot of consistency, which leaves plenty of hope for Sosa.
Griffey, for his part, has a squeaky clean reputation, and unless that changes he's a first-ballot lock.
Full disclosure: I am a Hall of Fame voter and I was among the minority who included McGwire on their ballot. The short version of my reasoning is that we don't know enough about this giant iceberg of a problem to keep players with deserving careers out. Baseball -- meaning management and players -- tolerated steroids for at least a decade. Hall voters shouldn't be responsible for cleaning up the mess through guesswork. Unless there comes proof positive Sosa did steroids, he will get my vote.
That's funny, the NBA draft is Thursday and I haven't heard anyone discussing whom the Lakers should take with their No. 19 pick. Not that funny. With everything else that's going on in that three-ring circus, who cares?
Speculation is that the Los Angeles Clippers will go for a point guard with pick No. 14, since Shaun Livingston's devastating knee injury has reopened the position. Clearly his weary tutor, Sam Cassell, can't shoulder the load for 82 games. Frankly, they should be looking for the best player available. The team needs to find a veteran point guard to play with Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Cuttino Mobley and Chris Kaman this year, but someone not quite as veteran as Sam Cassell.
Nothing has changed much since UCLA's Arron Afflalo and USC's Nick Young became eligible for the draft. Sharpshooter Young is projected to go in the middle of the first round, while Pac-10 Player of the Year Afflalo figures to be a late first-rounder or an early second-rounder. It's a not-so-subtle reflection of the differences between the college game and the NBA.
Wimbledon has begun, and if Americans think they have a problem producing Grand Slam-contending tennis players these days, at least we aren't England. The Brits' most recent Wimbledon champ on the men's side was Fred Perry in 1936. It's been 30 years since their last female champion, Virginia Wade, curtsied to the queen.
This is Great Britain's big international sporting season. The British Open comes next month -- without quite as much national angst over their ineptitude in their own events. Scotsman Paul Lawrie won the title, gee, just eight years ago. An actual Englishman, Nick Faldo, last won in 1992.
No one is surprised that the Angels look like a postseason team, just that they are producing so many runs. For the first time ever, the fans and media might not hound General Manager Bill Stoneman to do something he has never done -- pick up a hitter at midseason. It would be a shame for such a hallowed tradition to pass, so we may try to slip a jibe in, just for old time's sake.
Congratulations to Oregon State for successfully defending its NCAA baseball championship. Doubly impressive in a state where the other major university, Oregon, has no program. Yes, the Pac-10 baseball conference really is the Pac-9.
The Chicago Bears released troubled lineman Tank Johnson after he was arrested for speeding in Arizona. Apparently he didn't get his nickname from his driving habits.
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