Constant MLB.tv ads have featured the following copy:

“Willie Mays, September 22, 1969…600.
Babe Ruth, August 21, 1931…600.
Hank Aaron, April 27, 1971…600.”



Then the screen flips to Griffey, who sits at 599, and he says, “Ken Griffey Jr…. keep watching.”

This ignores, of course, Sammy Sosa and that Bonds guy, who actually reached a rather lofty milestone just last year. (And it really was just last year.) The big question has been how MLB would handle the steroid era, and we're already getting a pretty good idea: Just ignore it. Boy, doesn't Tim Forneris feel even dumber now?

As Griffey Approaches 600, MLB Whitewashes History [Wicked Good Sports]

We appreciated Lone Star Ball's stance on this: "Yay! Now let's call up Jason Botts."

Seriously, though, now that Sammy Sosa has his 600 homers — and still has his defenders, in Chicago and elsewhere — the question arises: Is he going to make the Hall of Fame? Obviously, his numbers say he should be in there ... but so do Mark McGwire's.

Surprisingly, almost everyone at ESPN thinks he should be in, which is odd, we think. The majority of "voters" say that because he's never tested positive for any steroids, they shouldn't be a factor in any decision making. Which doesn't make any sense, because McGwire never tested positive either, and no one's rushing to put him in the Hall. We're not saying Sosa shouldn't be in, or he should, but any decision you'd make on him, you'd have to apply the same to McGwire.

But really: Where's Jason Botts?

Sammy Hits 600, But Will He Go To The Hall? [UmpBump]
Standing Up For Sammy [100 Percent Injury Rate]
Sammy Hits 600 [Lone Star Ball]

In general, we remain confused how to respond to Sosa's quixotic comeback and "drive" for 600 homers. Mark McGwire retired, vanished, and we were all had to deal with what was left in his wake. Barry Bonds keeps hitting eff-you homers and confronts us, daring us to doubt him. But Sammy just plods along, quieter, meeker, happy to be playing the game but still probably pretty much an asshole. One of the three biggest names in the whole steroid mess, remaining out there, plugging away, about to hit a 600th homer than hardly anyone will notice. How Sosa continues to dance between the raindrops is beyond us.

Anyway, yeah: It would have been nice to see how Cubs fans would have treated him. Oh well.

And We Meet Again ... [The Cobra Brigade]
Lonely 600 [Uwe Blog]

We just stumbled across this old video for Sammy Sosa's High Heat, a 2001 video game that's "so reeeeeeal." In light of Sosa's recent resurgence, and his gallop toward his 600th homer, we thought you might find it amusing.

Notes on a day in baseball:

• M-I-C (See If The Bat Is Corked) .... Walt Disney's thoughts on performance enhancing drugs were never recorded, so it's unclear what he would have thought of Sammy Sosa's 597th career home run on Wednesday. Sosa hit the blast at Disney Wide World of Sports Park on the Disney World campus in Kissimmee, Fla., making that the 45th park in which he has homered, extending his record. It didn't help the Rangers, however, who fell to the Devil Rays, 11-8, behind Carl Crawford's bases-loaded triple. Sosa's two-run, opposite-field homer off of Casey Fossum (3-3) was his ninth homer of the year. The ball left the stadium, cleared Critter Country and bounced into Mr. Selig's Wild Ride, where it was scooped up by the ever-vigilant custodial crew. We are glad to be reminded that major league games are being played at Disney World, a magical place of fun and adventure for all. Our only hope is that, somehow, Bobby Cox can break the record for career ejections there.

• A Little Chien Music. Meanwhile, Chien-Ming Wang's pitching salvaged an 8-1 win by the Yankees, who split a doubleheader with the White Sox. Hideki Matsui drove in four runs. Wang (2-3) allowed six hits and a run over seven innings. In the first game, John Danks outpitched Mike Mussina to give the White Sox a 5-3 win. It all happened at U.S. Cellular Field, which has fewer fun rides than Disney World, but, on the bright side, the lines are shorter.

• In Other Sosa News ... Jorge Sosa needed about five hours to beat the Cubs, which he did with a seven-inning one-hitter that led an 8-1 win for the Mets. The game was plagued by a 3:07 rain delay. Sosa, by the way, had started the season 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA at Triple-A New Orleans.

• Meanwhile, In Adventureland ... C.C. Sabathia went eight innings and Trot Nixon drove in three runs to lead the Indians to a 7-1 victory over the Twins.

• Ah, Fantasyland. The Washington Nationals, winners of five of their past six, used seven pitchers in a 6-4 win over the Braves. Ryan Church's three-run double in the eighth was the difference.

Anyway, yesterday, in his First Big Public Move, Mitchell ... asked for the medical records of some old Baltimore Orioles. And some of these names will SHOCK YOU: Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, David Segui, Jason Grimsley ... seriously! Those guys!

Investigators have looked deeply into the Orioles, among other organizations. Mitchell's staff has interviewed at least nine members of the Orioles' front office and training staff, and has searched at least six of their personal computers for evidence relating to performance-enhancing drugs, the official said.

You know, at this rate, by 2011, Mitchell could end up getting a hold of a guy who once glanced at Barry Bonds' medical records while waiting in line to pee in a cup. Go get 'em, George!

Sosa And Palmeiro Cited In Steroid Investigation [New York Times] (via Steroid Nation)

Among the worthless — but muscular! — heap of relics from the 1998 Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase? The priceless Slammin' Sammy: The Sammy Sosa Story, an animated "feature" about Sammy Sosa and "how a hero became a legend."

We found it apropos, considering Sosa is looking like he might make the Rangers' roster. They've got all kinds of fun clips right here, including the revelation that Sosa grew up speaking English before forgetting it, of course. That'll happen.

Say It Ain't Sosa [The Greatest Blog In The World]

"I'd love to have him hit fifth behind Mark Teixeira if he shows he can hit Major League pitching," manager Ron Washington said. "As we get into Spring Training, his performance will show what we can do with him.

We suspect the Rangers' AL West rivals would also like to see Sosa hitting fifth behind Mark Teixeira. By the way ... steroids are still illegal, right? Just checking; we wanted to make sure to have all the facts.

Rangers, Sosa Agree To Deal [Rangers.com]

According to an interview in Chunichi Sports, an unnamed player personnel official with the Yokohama Bay Stars called a recent attempt by Sosa's agent to get him a roster spot with the team for a $500,000 salary as endeavoring "to perpetrate fraud on us." In addition, the bigwig expressed strong doubts about the former Cub's character. Alluding to the still unproven rumor that Sosa took steroids as well as the corked bat incident, he smirked, "guys who use performance enhancing drugs and break the rules aren't real sportsmen."

He then elaborated, "besides, he's fat now. Where would we play him? He would probably go home in two months."

We sympathize with Sosa; the process of aging can work depressing wonders on the complex physical construction that is the human body. Now that no MLB or Japanese teams want Sosa, we would like to respectfully extend an invitation to play on the Gawker Media bowling team. They certainly do not test for illicit substances there, thank heavens.

Yokohama Bay Stars Official Blasts Sammy Sosa [Japan Baseball Daily]
Sammy Sosa-San Could Rack Up The Yen [Deadspin]

Japanese sports papers linked the former major-league slugger with the Yokohama BayStars, and there is no doubt a player with Sosa's name would be a huge draw here. A proposed salary figure mentioned in the press articles was 500 million yen (about $4.2 million) for one season. If the 'Stars, or another Japanese club, go ahead and sign Sosa, the team would naturally be counting on the fact he would play every day and provide huge interest that would mean increased attendance, such as the Yakult Swallows enjoyed when major-league superstar Bob Horner joined them in 1987.

The best part about this is that if they ban steroids and Sosa is called in front of the Japanese Parliament to testify, he can say he doesn't speak Japanese and totally not be lying.

Sluggin' Sammy Sosa To Japan? [Steroid Nation]

"I'm not retired. I'm young and happy," the Dominican told the station in Santo Domingo.

Orioles fans may not be thrilled with the news: Sosa hit.221 with 14 homers and 45 RBI in 102 games for Baltimore in 2005. But hey, if Sammy times it right, he'll be just in time to replace Barry Bonds as the target of federal investigators.

Sosa Says He'd Return To MLB For Right Offer [ESPN]

How reliable are these names? We feel pretty confident in them, but we can't go 100 percent, since the information is secondhand. We'll say this: If Bud Selig issuing a press release naming the names is a 10, and picking a player at random out of the Baseball Encyclopedia is a 1, we're at an 8.

So. Let's do it then. Remember: Betting lines are for entertainment purposes only.

First: The person who told Grimsley about the positive test in 2003. That's former Royals general manager Allard Baird.

As many people have guessed, one of the "former players" who were sold out by Grimsley: Sammy Sosa. Our source(s) couldn't confirm if the other was Rafael Palmeiro.

Nothing new or exciting about that name. Then it starts to get interesting. We've heard amphetamine rumors of Miguel Tejada, but we can't confirm that. What we can confirm? The doozy.

Grimsley says that a former employee of [redacted] and personal fitness trainer to several Major League Baseball players once referred him to an amphetamine source. Later, this source — not the trainer — provided him with "amphetamines, anabolic steroids and human growth hormone." This trainer? His name is Chris Mihlfeld, a Kansas City-based "strength and conditioning guru." (And former Strength And Conditioning Coordinator for the Royals.)

Does Mihlfeld's name sound familiar? If it doesn't, he — and we assure you, this gives us no pleasure to write this — has been Albert Pujols' personal trainer since before Pujols was drafted by the Cardinals in the 13th round of the 1999 draft. We have no confirmation that Pujols' name is in the affidavit ... but Mihlfeld's is. If you read the document, it doesn't say the trainer/Mihlfeld supplied all the HGH and what-not; it just says the trainer was the referrer.

Yeah. Sigh. We just report what we're told, folks. Ever hope your source is wrong? This is one of those times.

(UPDATE: OK, we've taken our head out of the microwave long enough to update you a bit. Here's a "diary" Grimsley wrote about his quick recovery from Tommy John surgery. (At MLB.com!) He thanks Mihlfeld for helping him with his recovery.

We repeat: We are not claiming that Pujols has taken HGH. We are simply pointing out that Milhfeld is reportedly mentioned in the affidavit, and that he has connections to be Grimsley and Pujols. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to go back to our silent screams of pain.)

Speaking to ESPNDeportes, Sosa says that he's considering retiring rather than having to compete for a roster spot with the Nationals. A source "close to Sosa" (that is to say, a guy who doesn't forget how to speak English the minute he has to answer tough questions) told ESPNDeportes, "Sammy doesn't think of himself as someone who has to beg for a spot on a big league roster. ... Sammy wants to get to 600 home runs, but he's not willing to humiliate himself to keep playing. He feels that the lack of interest in his services this winter constitutes a humiliation."

The collapse of Sosa's career happened so quickly, you almost expect him to end up in a failed drug deal with Alfred Molina as a cabana boy tosses firecrackers at his feet. That he is now feeling disrespected because no one wants to pay seven figures for a guy who hit .221 last year is typical of the hubris-drained last years of Sosa's life in baseball. He's now considered one of the biggest frauds in baseball, a guy nobody wants to touch.

He has never done steroids, though, and they have nothing to do with the sudden, drastic loss in power and bat speed in the last two years. Just making that clear.

Sosa Humiliated [Baseball Musings]
Source: Sosa Considers Retirement [ESPNDeportes]

In 1993, I was staying at the team hotel and had a run-in with several Chicago Cubs players in San Diego. At the time, I was 8 years old. Three players stuck out on this trip: Willie Wilson, Sammy Sosa and Turk Wendell. I approached Willie Wilson and asked him for his autograph in the lobby; he stared at me for a minute and said, "Sorry kid, I don't sign autographs." My dad was pissed that a professional athelete would say that to an eight-year-old kid and mumbled something to Willie about how much he sucked.

A few feet away stood Sammy Sosa, who at the time was virtually unknown. Apparently observing what had just taken place, Sammy walked over to me and asked me for my autograph. I was sort of surprised and didn't really know what to do, so I nervously gave it to him on a piece of paper he was holding. Sammy started chuckling and said "hang on a couple of minutes kid, I will be right back - stay down here for a minute." Ten minutes later, Sammy came back down the elevator with several other Cubs players, including pitchers Jim Bullinger and Turk Wendell. These guys sat down on some couches in the lobby and proceeded to talk with my dad and me for several minutes, and of course they all gave me autographs.

The next day, my dad and I attended the Padres game, and Turk Wendell happened to pitch for the Cubs. The following morning Turk was pictured on the front of the San Diego sports page jumping over the baseline, as he was always known to do. I spotted Turk in the hotel lobby and approached him with the newspaper. Turk said to me, "Hey look at that, its me! Kid, can I keep this?" Thrilled that I could actually give something to a professional athlete, I told him yes, but before I walked away, Turk reached into his pocket and pulled out a $5 bill and told me to go buy myself a new newspaper and to come find him and he would autograph it. Long story short, I still have the autographed newspaper by Turk Wendell, and the autographed baseball by Sammy Sosa and Jim Bullinger.

A story where Sammy Sosa is a nice guy, and a Turk Wendell sighting to boot. Tough to beat that.

• Fascinating to watch Sammy Sosa suddenly struggle with english and Mark McGwire struggle with any moment of time that might have proceeded the exact moment he was speaking,
• Scary to watch Bud Selig think, "You know what? Eff this. I should have stayed a car salesman."
• Befuddling to watch the MLS Commissioner wonder why the hell he was there.

Now that we have a union-MLB fight about steroid suspensions preceding tomorrow's next round of Congress/Commissioners Gladiators, we can't help but get revved back up again. Sure, it will mostly be old white men speechifying in front of people who they'll surely be begging for tickets as soon as the cameras are off, but isn't that the fun of it? Who doesn't get tired of Congressional steroid hearings? Who's with us?

Congress Ready To Play Hardball [KC Star]
Union Offers Harsher Bans [NY Daily News]

We're clueless as to which Orioles teammate that Palmeiro didn't know very well — perhaps even might have just met him — and might have had access to steroids (or even, we dunno, cork), but we are certain, no matter what, that baseball has been very, very good to him.

Teammate Linked To Palmeiro [Baltimore Sun]
Congress Leaves No Steroid Unturned [Deadspin]

Sosa To Japan? [Chicago Sun-Times]