Quick Hits: Tuesday, July 28

- I’m glad to see Bud Selig is continuing to resist reinstating Pete Rose for admission to the Hall of Fame, despite reports that Selig was reconsidering. I’m sorry, Rose was a great player, but exactly what part of what got Rose banned from baseball for life has become less illegal over the last twenty years? Hank Aaron and Joe Morgan have spoken out on Rose’s behalf, and while I know Selig holds Aaron in the highest regard, there’s a reason guys like Aaron and Morgan don’t vote on HOF admission. If writers can be slammed for a lack of objectivity when it comes to things like this, then other players sure as hell could too. Steroids were illegal too (albeit not tested for), and I think it’s telling that far more guys were willing to break the law of the land than the cardinal rule of the game. Inducting Rose into the Hall isn’t going to change how he’s remembered, and the rules are bigger than any one man, no matter how many hits he’s tallied.

- Josh Willingham of the Nationals hit two grand slams in Washington’s 14-6 win over Milwaukee. He’s the first to knock two slams since Bill Mueller did it almost six years ago to the day for the Red Sox, and the first in the National League since Fernando Tatis hit two in the same inning of Chan Ho Park in 1999. The fact that Park was still in the game when Tatis came up the second time remains the record for “Stupidest God-damned Thing I’ve Ever Heard.”

- In trade deadline news, Ryan Garko goes from Cleveland to San Francisco, while Brian Anderson changes footwear, going from the White Sox to the Red Sox for Mark Kotsay and a sack of money with a dollar sign on it. The Pirates, meanwhile, remain determined to trade any player in their clubhouse you may have heard of before.

- Two deadline related sentences without mentioning Roy Halladay? Suck on that! What’s that? Boston’s jumped in and made an offer centered around Clay Buchholz? Where, oh where, have I heard that before? ANALYSIS, BITCHES!!!