These Nominees Should Produce Hall of a Class

John Eisenberg in the Baltimore Sun: “The issue with baseball’s annual Hall of Fame balloting usually is over whether certain players are more deserving than others.

“This year, the issue is whether we’re looking at the greatest Hall class of all time.

“OK, OK, it’s impossible for any class to top the original 1936 group, which included Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. The standard was so high that year that Cy Young and his 511 pitching wins didn’t get in. Yikes!

“The Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America balloting for the Class of 1999, which concluded Thursday night, won’t produce that much star power. But it could produce one of the best classes ever.

“Nolan Ryan, George Brett, Robin Yount, Carlton Fisk and Dale Murphy are on the ballot for the first time. Tony Perez, Gary Carter, Jim Rice, Dave Parker and Bert Blyleven are back on the ballot after coming up short last year, when Don Sutton was the only candidate named on at least 75% of the 473 votes cast, confirming his election.”

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Trivia time: Who is the former L.A. Ram quarterback who shares the NFL record for intercepted passes in a postseason game?

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Strange place: Jayson Williams of the New Jersey Nets on one downside of the NBA lockout:

“A lot of people [players] don’t know how to be home. You probably have a lot of marriages on the rocks right now because guys are not used to being home seven days a week.”

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Zzzzzz: It has been reported that San Diego Charger quarterback Ryan Leaf falls asleep in position meetings. He doesn’t deny it, saying, “If I had a dollar every time a player dozed off in a meeting, I’d be a millionaire without a contract.”

A real team player.

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Bad manners: Indianapolis Colt Coach Jim Mora on Carolina Panther running back Fred Lane being suspended for grabbing his crotch in a gesture to New York Jet fans:

“What do you do, have a team meeting and tell guys not to grab their crotch when they make a touchdown?”

It shouldn’t be necessary.

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Zoom: An NFL coach who didn’t want to be identified, on the speed of Oakland Raider running back Napoleon Kaufman:

“He has a rocket strapped to his fanny. He can go from zero to 60 as fast as a race car.”

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Trivia answer: Norm Van Brocklin, with six against the Cleveland Browns in 1955.

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And finally: Jet Coach Bill Parcells showed up at a recent team meeting wearing his Super Bowl XXV ring, emblematic of the New York Giant team he coached to victory over Buffalo in 1991.

A psychological ploy by Parcells? “I just felt like putting it on today,” he said.

It caught his players’ attention. Linebacker Mo Lewis told the New York Times that every time Parcells moved his right hand “my head was bouncing up and down and followed the ring.”