TGIF everyone, here's my Top 5 for July 23, 2010 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
* Alex Rodriguez hits career home run #599.
* Major League Baseball will begin random testing for Human Growth Hormone in the minor leagues. You have to wonder how widespread HGH use is in baseball and football?
* Iconic Brewers announcer, 75-year old Bob Uecker, returns to the broadcast booth tonight following heart surgery.
* New Orleans star guard Chris Paul wants to be traded. The Knicks reportedly top his wish list.
2. Milestone
So are you excited by A-Rod closing in on 600 homers? He is now one shy. He'll become the 7th member of the club. Apparently some fans are stoked. They're paying extra to sit in the section of Yankee Stadium where they think the homer will land. Visions of a big pay day dancing in their heads with their valuable souvenir. But how big exactly? Isn't this milestone tainted by his steroid admission? Sure he'll be the 7th, but only 4 of them are clean. The other 3 will always carry an "Asteroid" in the record book. That's the wonderful creation of a Top 5 subscriber: asterisk + steroid.
3. Three Way
So with the news that Chris Paul wants to be traded comes this scenario. Paul supposedly wants the Knicks, and he wants Denver's Carmelo Anthony to join him to create the Knicks version of the Miami fearsome threesome. I can hear it now. Knick fans who have been deriding LeBron and the Heat for creating a mini "dream team" would be ecstatic that they've got one too.
It's a truism in sports. Things only suck when they involve some other team.
4. Friday eMailbag
R.C. wanted to share her feelings about attending the first Yankee game after the death of George Steinbrenner. "I had the privilege of attending Friday night's game with my husband and the tributes were very moving. The absolute silence during the moment of silence was as deafening as the thunderous applause that followed it."
Subscriber J.B has a request. "Please do me a favor and print what Barkley said about LeBron. It is spot on."
Editor's Note: Here ya' go. "He'll never be Jordan. This (his move to Miami) clearly takes him out of the conversation."
D.T. from Virginia plays golf late in the evening, and the other day he saw no other golfers on the course. He writes, "This is why so few Americans are on scoreboards at men's or women's tournaments these days. Our kids are not playing til dark the way my friends and I did. In this town, the public course shut down from lack of use, and the private course is $50G just enter the locker room."
Editor's Note: Anyone else buying this theory?
5. Spanning the World
Here's this week's Spanning the World Highlight. It's the wackiest pitch of the year. And listen to all the play-by-play versions.
Are you surprised that Vin Scully had the best description?
Have a great weekend everyone.
Happy Birthday: Former major leaguer Nomar Garciaparra. 37.
Bonus Birthday: Same day, same year. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. 37.
Today in Sports: The Red Sox release a guy who didn't make a pretty big play in the previous year's World Series, Bill Buckner. 1987.
Bonus Event: Good times. The longest rain delay in history, at Shea Stadium. 3 hours 39 minutes. After all that the Giants beat the Mets 4-2. 1994.