Lie of the Day: "I didn't come here to hit 600."

There's just something slippery about this guy.

After belting a grand slam against the Reds last night, Sammy Sosa is just one home run shy of the rarified air of the 600 home run club.

Everything feels wrong about this.

After the game, he was quoted as saying, "Everybody's thinking about 600. I didn't come here to hit 600. Believe me, I want to get it done. I want to get it over with. But I'm not going to stop at 600."

Of course you came back to get #600, Sammy!

Are we supposed to believe you came back because you thought you'd win a pennant with the Rangers? Not likely. Because you thought your best days were ahead of you? Clearly not.

I think we'd be more likely to believe Sammy if it wasn't for other slippery or just plain ridiculous statements made earlier in his career:

• Sosa told Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly in 2002 that he'd bulked up so much because "When I first came to Texas [in 1989], I had a bad wisdom tooth. The doctor discovered this, and he fixed it. After that, I start to eat much better." Hmmmmmm. Sosa later cussed Reilly out when the writer suggested he volunteer for a urine test.
  
  
• Always worth a chuckle when considering Sosa's career is the corked bat incident, which he was quick to attribute to an honest mistake. "I use that bat for batting practice," he said. If you use a bat in batting practice that would be considered cheating if you use it in the game, you better be able to identify it before going out there and slugging a home run for the record books. No one is that stupid.
  
  
• In Mr. Sosa goes to Washington, Sosa hid behind his lawyer and stated that he'd never used "illegal performance-enhancing drugs." At least there was no finger waggling.

Everyone knows you came back to baseball for the sole purpose of getting to that hallowed number, and until it's proven that you were indeed a steroid user, no one is blaming you for that. So please, Sammy, shoot straight with us for once.

MLB: Who's Hot, Who's Not

Who's Hot

• The Yankees - The Rocket's back, A-Rod is hot again, that Giambi problem looks to be going away, and oh yeah, the Yanks have won nine straight. New York is still eight games out of first place in the East, though.
  
  
• Ichiro and the Mariners - They've dropped two tough ones to the Cubs, but Seattle is playing better than anyone could have expected at this point of the season. In the last month, Ichiro is hitting almost .400 with 13 SB. He must have finally realized that this is a contract year.
  
  
• Billy Beane - The A's are playing only average baseball, but the man who helped bring Money Ball to your libraries will be staying around for a while, as Oakland signed him to a seven year extension.
  

Who's Not

• Michael Barrett - After getting tangled up in altercations with teammates Carlos Zambrano and Rich Hill, Barrett has been notified by the club that he will be getting some more time off in the coming weeks. He also needs to take a chill pill, but I'd like to see him take another shot at A.J. Pierzynski first, when the Cubs play the White Sox next weekend.
  
  
• Dan Wheeler - Wheeler lost the closer's job to a head case (who promptly blew a save in his first opportunity), and he has seen his ERA double in the last two weeks. Also discouraging is the fact that I have him on my fantasy team.
  
  
• Eddie Murray - The Hall of Famer and owner of over 3,200 career hits has gotten no love from the Dodgers, who fired him as their hitting coach. They hired Bill Mueller, the one-time all-star, in his stead. For the record, Mueller batted over .300 exactly twice in his career. Murray? Eight times. Perhaps Mueller will prove the better teacher, though.

Is it a Sport: Figure Skating?

Admit it.

If you're a guy, you probably think figure skating is about on par with the opera, more suited for women and children than any man with an ounce of testosterone.

I'm right there with you; the only riveting storyline I can remember that's related to figure skating is when Tonya Harding took out Nancy Kerrigan's knee with a sledge hammer.

But let's not allow our biases to get in the way of a healthy discussion on figure skating's merits as a sport.

Why Figure Skating might be considered a sport

While one could argue that figure skating is more of an art form than a sport (see below), you can't tell me that figure skaters don't have to train pretty hard to be able to pull off the moves they do. In fact, I would argue that the better your conditioning -- jumping, endurance, balance, etc. -- the greater your chances of success.

As for competitiveness, figure skating can get pretty intense; just ask Tonya Harding.

Why Figure Skating might not be considered a sport

For most people, Disney on Ice and other ice capade-like performances have helped ruin any notion that figure skating is anything but an art form. The frilly, sequin-heavy outfits that real figure skaters -- male and female alike -- don't do anything to detract from that assumption.

Also, David Arnott (from Sportszillablog) and Chris (from 110%) think that the subjective nature of competitions such as figure skating exclude them from membership in the category of sports. David says "competitions that require subjective judging to directly determine a score are not sports."

Final Ruling: Is a sport. I don't care to watch it, and you may not either, but by my original criteria (requires physical fitness to excel and involves competition), figure skating qualifies.
Certainty: It's a close call, but figure skating makes it -- by an "edge." (Pun intended)

Hong-Chih Kuo Hasn't Read Unwritten Rules

It may be time to grab a pen and start writing down some of baseball's unwritten rules.

As if coughing up a third consecutive home run (on three straight pitches) to a pitcher wasn't bad enough, John Maine had to watch Hong-Chih Kuo watch his first big-league home run Tuesday night. (You can check it out here on the Dodgers web site.)

It was an amazingly majestic swing -- long, smooth, and powerful -- but the bat flip at the end and the delayed jog to first were unnecessary.

I'm sure Kuo was just as surprised as anyone else at his 412-foot blast, and he probably isn't as well-versed in the unwritten rules as most major leaguers.

Just the same, if I'm John Maine I drill him on his next at-bat.

Is it a Sport: Table Tennis?

So you had a ping pong table in your basement in high school, and you spent hours playing every night. You got so amazing, you could beat the next best guy you knew 21-7.

Now you're wondering if you can retroactively be called an athlete.

Not quite.

Why Table Tennis might be considered a sport

Table tennis is certainly a very competitive game, as evidenced by the large number of balls that are dented or broken altogether by ferocious swings taken out of anger. There is strategy, and you can even work up a sweat doing it.

At the Olympic level, the table tennis players stand five or even ten feet behind the table swinging away as if they were playing tennis. They run up and back, side to side. I'm willing to bet they even do aerobic conditioning in order to stay on top.

Why Table Tennis might not be considered a sport

It's debatable whether physical fitness is required for excellence. After all, you didn't have to cut the Cheetos from your diet to beat all your friends left-handed, did you?

Also, except for the Olympics, where does organized table tennis take place? I haven't heard of many tournaments, leagues, etc., where the best of the best go to duke it out.

Final Ruling: Not a sport
Certainty: If you're one of those dudes that plays in the Olympics, you could probably change my mind. Otherwise, grab a ball, a couple of paddles, and a bag of cheetos, and go enjoy an evening in the basement.

Debate: What is a Sport?

It's time for one of my favorite debates of all time: what defines a sport?

This post is going to cover my arguments for what I believe determines what is and isn't a sport, and I'm hopeful that your comments will shed additional light on the subject. Then, in ensuing posts, I will be discussing various sports/ activities/games individually to determine whether or not they qualify as a sport.

Okay, so moving right along to the criteria that determine whether an activity is a sport.

1. Competition - There has to be something at stake. A leader board, standings, playoffs, a championship, whatever. If the activitity you're participating in has no way to measure whether you or your team is better than the other guy, then chances are it isn't a sport.

2. Physical fitness required for excellence - Just about any sport can be played by some slob that just got off the couch, but to be the best at a sport, you have to be in pretty darn good shape. In games and activities, that slob very well may be the best around.

That's it. Those are my only two stipulations, and I'm sticking by them -- unless you can convince me otherwise with your comment.

The sports/activities/games that I'm planning to discuss in future posts include, but are not limited to the following: poker, NASCAR, figure skating, bowling, table tennis, darts, golf, billiards, and competitive eating. Got any more suggestions?

Federer a Huge Disappointment in French Open

Well, I suppose even Superman had his kryptonite.

Rafael Nadal has beaten Roger Federer once again in the French Open finals (6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4), extending his streak there to three and preventing Federer from completing the career Grand Slam.

As I wrote yesterday and at the beginning of the tournament, this final was an opportunity for Federer to establish himself as the greatest of all time. Instead, he was lackadaisical and seemed disinterested much of the match.

Federer had plenty of chances to take control in the match, but the silent Swiss converted only one of his 17 break chances. Nadal, meanwhile, put 77% of his first serves in and kept Federer on the defensive with his heavy topspin groundstrokes.

Quite frankly, the match was a huge disappointment.

Most enjoyable to me was looking for the ball boy who looked like a young Ben Stiller. A little more goofy looking, though, and with a huge wedgie every time I saw him.

Did anybody else notice this gomer?