[vincesanity82]

Sammy Sosa just hit his 600th home run versus none else but the cubs, the crowd was going wild chanting his name over and over...
Gotta throw some love towards the guy..

[Gotham Dark Knight]

So are they going to snub this guy come Hall of Fame time again? I mean where do you stop when you have 3 of the top 10 homer hitters lend outside the Hall?

[Lefty Noob]

Sosa will be an interesting case in that, as I heard pointed out on ESPN the other day, he's never really been strongly implicated in the steroid investigation. Never mentioned in Canseco's book. Not part of the Balco investigation. Yes, there was the stunt in Congress where he suddenly forgot the English language, but on the whole Sosa doesn't seem to be under the same kind of scrutiny as Bonds or McGwire. So I think he gets in.

[ThePundit]

I don't know. Let's wait until the names come out that the trainer gave in....Not that it would be proof...but this is why this steroid era has been so damaging to baseball....

70 homers in a year? What else are we supposed to think?

[bears9]

congrats Sammy

[MVB]

Sammy will make the Hall, no doubt... He's a much nicer guy, a much more baseball-friendly player the McGwuire or Bonds, and less hated by Selig and the bigwigs.

[legend]

Face it, none of these guys were going to say anything at their hearings, lest they risk throwing other players under the bus. 600 homers is 600 homers. If juicing made it that easy, where's the rest of the guys with his numbers? They all deserve to go into the Hall.

[ThePundit]

Great column in today's NY Post by Phil Mushnick about Sammy and ESPN.

Sammy Sosa hit his 600th home run Wednesday night. And, first on "SportsCenter," and then throughout "Baseball Tonight," viewers who didn't know better - a lot better - would have been led to believe one of the finest sportsmen ever to wear a big league uniform had achieved the extraordinary for all and only the right reasons........Baseball Tonight, without providing so much as a suspicious comment, showed Sosa's first big league homer in 1989, when he appeared as a 160-pound (maybe) stick figure. They then showed numbers 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600, as if we couldn't notice how Sosa had, er, filled out to resemble an anvil with muscles.

SLAMMIN' SAMMY NOT ESPN'S GAME By PHIL MUSHNICK - Sports - New York Post Online Edition

[ThePundit]

I guess this is what Musnick was talking about:

[azrael492]

I think the writers will try to make the same point with Sosa. They will not vote for him the first ballot.

They need to make a decision. Either let them all in or keep them all out. I vote for letting them in. If it is that easy to hit HRs because they are stronger, get a body builder and throw him a 98 MPH fastball and see him hit it over the wall.

[EmpireWF]

Exactly azrael...none of these guys (safe for Palmeiro) won't be voted into the HOF...eventually.

Sosa is just as much an abuser of illegal substances as McGwire, Bonds, Giambi, Sheffield, Canseco, etc.

Sosa with 600 HRs will definitely get into the Hall, it's just a matter of how many years will it take him to get in.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by ThePundit

I guess this is what Musnick was talking about:

That is the 1990 Topps Rookie Card...

Almost as interesting in contrast is the 1987 McGwire and Bonds cards...you can clearly see the differences.

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by legend

Face it, none of these guys were going to say anything at their hearings, lest they risk throwing other players under the bus. 600 homers is 600 homers. If juicing made it that easy, where's the rest of the guys with his numbers? They all deserve to go into the Hall.

I might agree with that if they visit the hall of justice first. Illegal is illegal no matter what "record" is achieved.

[legend]

Check out what Manny and Thome looked like in thier rookie years. Not what they look like now.

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by legend

Check out what Manny and Thome looked like in thier rookie years. Not what they look like now.

Manny might be bigger but it surely isn't the same as Sammy or Mark.