Sports: June 2009 Archives

Tuesday was Olympic Day in the U.S. so The Hound drove to Wadsworth to see if the village, home of the planned equestrian events if Chicago is awarded the 2016 Summer Games, was holding a special celebration. There was a lot of water standing around, but no folks standing around marking Olympic Day in the "Village of Country Living."

Chicago celebrated the Olympic movement, as did another 158 cities in 43 states. But not Wadsworth, which will host actual Olympic events, if Chicago gets the games. Maybe Wadsworth Mayor Glenn Ryback didn't get the memo from fellow Democrat, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

In Chicago, 30,000 kids took part in fun runs across the city. Another 20,000 people attended the Olympic Day celebration at Chicago's North Avenue Beach. Past Olympians were on hand to mark the event. Not even a Wadsworth toast to the Olympics was heard at the Duck Inn.

Thinking that rural folk are a little slow or maybe the party line from Chicago wasn't operational, The Hound traveled up to Wadsworth the next two days in a row. Still nothing. Guess they don't have the Olympic spirit yet in Wadsworth.

But Waukegan did celebrate Olympic Day --- on Friday, with two past Olympians taking part at happenings sponsored by the Waukegan Park District. Better late than never, but that can also be said for a casino and a minor league ball team.

If former Chicago Cub and White Sox Sammy Sosa tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, is anybody really shocked? From all the cries of, "Sammy, say it ain't so!" you'd think people weren't paying attention back in 1998 when Sosa and St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire chased Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in a season.

To The Hound, both those guys looked pretty bulked up back then. McGwire eclipsed the Maris mark, while Sosa finished with 66 round-trippers that season. The next year Sammy blasted 63, then 50 in 2000, 64 in 2001 and 49 in 2002. Remember the "Cork Bat Affair" in playoff year of 2003? He hit 40 that year.

Sosa testified before the House Government Reform Committee investigating steroid use in Major League Baseball in 2005 stating, "I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean. To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs." The New York Times report of Sosa testing positive for the drugs said it happened in 2003. Heck, if he was taking them then, he should have hit 60 homers and led the Cubs to a World Series berth, right?

Instead he did a salsa dance before the congressional committee, choosing his words and dates carefully. If he took 'roids back then, it's history. The idea is to stop current players from using them.

And, if a handful of names have leaked from this anonymous survey some government bureaucrat has, let's see all of the names. The Hound wants to know who are all the 104 players who allegedly used performance-enhancing drugs. Let's get beyond this latest taint on Major League Baseball and give us the names.