Left, Barton Silverman/The New York Times; Chris Livingston for The New York Times Some Hall of Fame voters lump Mike Piazza, left, and Jeff Bagwell together with known steroid users. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, eligible to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame for the first time, will almost certainly not be named when the next choices for Cooperstown are announced on Wednesday. Instead, tallies of sportswriters who have publicly announced their ballots suggest that they may only get 40 to 50 percent of the vote, despite having statistical records that rank them as among the best players in history. A player must be named on 75 percent of the ballots to be elected to the Hall of...
Matt Slocum/Associated Press Georgetown is among the Big East’s seven nonfootball members that could thrive in a new conference. A variety of reports suggest that the seven Big East schools that do not compete in high-level football may split off to form their own basketball-centric athletic conference. Georgetown, Villanova, St. John’s, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall and DePaul share a history of relatively successful men’s basketball programs, along with a heritage as Roman Catholic colleges. They have more in common with one another than they do with the other members of the Big East, which has diluted its basketball brand in its effort to remain intact as an elite football conference. A conference composed of these seven teams, along with select...
Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press With his speed and good judgment on the bases, Mike Trout increased his contribution to the Angels’ offense. On Thursday, the American League will announce the recipient of its Most Valuable Player award. The winner is likely to be Miguel Cabrera, the Detroit Tigers star who won the league’s triple crown by leading in batting average (.330), home runs (44) and runs batted in (139). It might seem as if these statistics make Cabrera, the first triple crown winner in either league since 1967, a shoo-in for the M.V.P. But most statistically minded fans would prefer that it go to another player, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels. The argument on Trout’s behalf isn’t all that...
