Old Our Friend Sammy Sosa Wants To Return To Baseball...

Reading the information super-highway the other day, I caught that Sammy Sosa -- a member of the 600 home run club -- was looking for a return to the Major Leagues.

The slugger who excited the world of baseball with his home run hitting ability, unabashed love for the game, and his infectious smile brought joy not only to Cubs fans in the 1990's, but to the world of baseball.

Furthermore, many credit him and Mark McGwire for rekindling the interest of the sport to fans and admirers alike; however, all the goodwill he had built up went pretty much down the toilet after his appearance on Capitol Hill years ago.

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Barry, Mark and Pete - Mr. Bonds Give His Two Cents on McGwire and Rose

Well, Barry has given his two cents on his thoughts pertaining to the Hall of Fame. He’ll be there one day, but the announcement of this amphetamine use came the day after Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn were elected to the Hall of Fame

Barry Bonds opines: "I congratulate Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn for their induction to the Hall of Fame because they were great ballplayers," Bonds said Wednesday in the Dominican Republic. "But I also think McGwire and Pete Rose should be in Cooperstown."

Huh? Well, Cal and Tony are a given. Those two men are class acts & who played the game right.

Lying is always the easy way out of not facing up to your misdeeds. Too often, we see it happen in America.

As I have said in the past, Mark McGwire should be in the Hall for his exploits, numbers and his contribution to the game. He only got 23.5% of the vote and a lot of it was due to his drug allegations and performance on Capitol Hill in March 2005. Merit-wise, he deserves to get in; however, now perhaps I’d feel comfortable if he’d let the skeletons of out the closet, admit if he did anything, and keep his word about speaking out against drug use.

Pete Rose? Sorry, but no way in hell. The only way I see him getting in the Hall of Fame is either on his death bed or posthumously. Yes, McGwire did perhaps use performance enhancing drugs, but baseball had no rules against it and furthermore it has not been proven he did so.

However, there is no doubt Rose gambled on baseball. When you gamble on your own team while managing it, you have destroyed the integrity of the game.

America is a very forgiving society, and unless you have committed murder or ruined the lives of many people, most do forgive celebrities for their misdeeds. In the case of Peter Rose, no matter what he says or does now, he won’t get in. People will forgive those who have sinned, but not those who continuously lie and only find repentance when it’s convenient for them.

Furthermore, he has capitalized on his infamy by selling baseballs inscribed “I Bet on Baseball” and selling it for a tidy profit, as well as a book that garnered him numerous media interviews.

And he wants in on the Hall of Fame while making money off his misdeeds?

As we know, he was given a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 for betting on the sport and spent time in prison for tax evasion. Although he is the hits leader with 4,256, his name will never be on a ballot as long as he is banned from the game.

Being truly sorry is showing you are and taking steps towards forgiveness. Pete Rose has done anything but, and for that he’s paying the price.

It’s funny that Barry Bonds decided to chime in on the topic, as for he too is accused of compromising the game via the use of drugs and will face the voters to decide whether he’s part of the Hall of Fame club. Although, I don’t consider Barry’s misdeeds as grave as Pete Rose’s, if he wants to get into to Hall of Fame and truly relishes the honor, he, like Pete Rose need to admit their wrongdoing and make amends for it.

My Thoughts on Big Mac Breaking His Silence

As we are a week beyond the Hall of Fame announcement of Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Mark McGwire in an interview recently with the Cal State-Fullerton school news paper that he’s proud of his career, in spite of the spector of steroids and drug use hanging over him.

Although much of the media sees him as a pariah, still fans and the media flocked to see him, and in many cases, to get an autograph as well.

And Mark did sign for fans.

Well, Mark McGwire fell well short of a chance of getting into the Hall of Fame this year, with only 23.5 of the voters placing him on their ballot. Much of debate centered on his Hall of Fall candidacy is with his Capitol Hill testimony in March of 2005 along with allegations of drug use in the media.

McGwire asserts:

"I had an absolutely wonderful career that I am very proud of," McGwire said Friday as he signed autographs at a charity event benefiting the Orange County Abuse Prevention Center. "I'm not in control of what happens -- I was in control of hitting the ball."

He’s right. Steroids will not help you to go from a .200 hitter to a .300 hitter. Performance enhancing drugs are mostly used in the conjunction of athletic training, (i.e., weight training, bodybuilding, running, etc.) and are not used, let’s say before a game. These drugs assist in the recovery time, and therefore, speed up recuperation rate after a workout, and help athletes train harder and longer.

Thus, an athlete may or not may be tired as they would be otherwise, and obviously in conjunction with training, the muscles are stronger, and you have a an athlete whose performance will most likely improve due to training.

With the increase in strength, players are stronger and faster.

Simply, the drugs work and work well. That is nothing short of a lure for professional athletes fall into temptation to try to increase their stats or battle for the next contract.

Until I saw this interview, he’s been nothing short of a hermit, even a recluse. A few weeks back, Wright Thompson of ESPN tried to get in touch with him and wrote an article about him, but was unsuccessful.

If you have read the Oriole Post enough, you know that I think McGwire should be in the Hall of despite his drug allegations. Not to beat on a dead horse, but baseball I feel was a party in allowing the proliferation of drug use to explode in the sport.

Personally, I think McGwire, if he did do drugs should just say that he did. America is a very forgiving society, and unless you have committed murder or ruined the lives of many people, most do forgive celebrities for their misdeeds. If he does want to get into the Hall of Fame, or perhaps get the rain cloud off his head, he should start by admitting what he did and not lie about it.

If he in his mind know he did nothing wrong in terms of using performance enhancing drugs, he should say so. Honestly, if I knew I didn’t do something, I’d be adamant against what allegations, and perhaps would even take legal recourse.

Right now, in the court of public opinion, McGwire is facing nothing short of exclusion.

If he does care about his legacy, and as well as the sport, he needs to speak out against drugs in sport, like he said he’d do in the congressional hearings of 2005. As well, since athletes in his stature have such influence, he should speak out and warn against the supposed dangers of performance enhancing drugs, as inform those who are impressionable that should be no shortcuts to hard work and success.

More Keith Law...

Wow, has Keith Law of ESPN given me a world of content to critique on in this slow period of the baseball universe. I was going to give myself a break for the afternoon, but I felt the need to once again write.

Once again, he criticizes the O’s, this time with Cal Ripken, Jr. and his Hall of Fame credentials. While he’s not voting at all, as he’s not a part of the BBWA, he gives his take on who should be in the Hall of Fame class of 2007.

Here’s what he says:

“I do agree with the criticism of Ripken's streak -- he probably hurt his team at a few points by his refusal to take a day off -- but he's also one of the five best shortstops in history and changed the way people in baseball think about who can stay at shortstop. (Let's hope that Ripken prominently thanks Earl Weaver in his acceptance speech, as it was Weaver who put Ripken at short, contradicting the conventional thinking that shortstops needed to be small and slight.)”

Again, I agree with Law’s logic, but disagree with his implication that Ripken hurt the team. We all know Ripken is renowned for the Streak, but for me what made it amazing is that whether he was struggling or on a tear, he played and tried to contribute, whether he got the big hit or struck out. Yes, he had some MVP worthy seasons, and some he struggled to hit .250, but what made him great in my eyes was that he went to work everyday and never seemed to dog it out. He was the consummate professional and played the game with pride.

The parable of working at any job and lessons from Ripken’s career should be spread to kids, whether they are a superstar or riding the pine.

Whatever you think, going to work everyday for 16 years plus without taking a day off is hard, and that’s what makes Ripken great.

Let’s forget Ripken, this is where Keith Law is dead wrong.

He’s dead wrong when it comes to Tony Gwynn.

This is what he says:

“Also a player who's a bit overrated by conventional thinking, but clearly worthy of enshrinement. Younger fans may not realize what a quick, athletic player Gwynn was when he came up, before he started to pack on the pounds."

Mr. Law, I don’t care if Tony Gwynn has a body of a greek god or had a gut. Yes, he looked more like an everyman than a perfect human specimen, but you don’t have a lifetime batting average of .338 without having skill or being an expert at the game. Sorry, if you have a lifetime average of .338, and are in the top of 10 of that category, you are surely not overrated.

It sort of sounds like Gwynn got slighted by law because of his appearance, and that’s stupid on his part. An athlete is one who has a discernable skill and from what I remember Gwynn was a hell of a player, and not because of his physique.

He also mentions that he’d include McGwire, Bert Byleven, Alan Trammell and Ron Santo on his list for those to be inducted.

Before I go, I’ll list what he has about McGwire.

"One great reason to vote for him: If he gets in, then all of the insufferable sanctimony on the part of voters who want to tell you they didn't vote for him on moral grounds (sorry, doesn't make you a good person, and probably just makes you pompous) will stop, since the next likely target (probably Sammy Sosa) won't be eligible for a few years. Until someone shows me that McGwire broke a rule that existed at the time and had any kind of defined punishment, I see no reason to apply the ex post facto logic more commonly seen from third-world dictators."

Plain and simple, he’s right. Baseball became rich and rebounded off him, so unless the St. Louis Cardinals & baseball want to refund the fans for a tainted product, whether proven or not, I’d say vote him in; however, the court of public opinion has spoken about McGwire and the issue and no one can beat that sentiment, whether he’s in the Hall of Fame or not.