Slammin' Sammy hit 600

I have been reflecting on Sammy Sosa and his 600^th hundredth home run for a while now, and I have some mixed feelings about.

1. He is a proven cheater. He used a corked bat, and I find it pretty damn hard to believe that the one time he got caught was the one time he used it.
2. A bunch of people continually harp on the fact that it was never proven that he took steroids. I am not a court of law he isn’t innocent until proven guilty in my eyes. He also all but admitted by claiming he didn’t understand the questions during the original senate meetings. Plus I remember an interview he gave before when someone asked him about steroids, and his reply was, “Do you want me to get into trouble?”
3. I am impressed though that he missed and entire season of baseball, and he is one of the best players on the Rangers. Of course that may not say much about the Rangers club this year (last in MLB).
4. I couldn’t get over all of the ding-dongs going crazy at the ballpark. It is should feel like a hollow stat for the fans around here. He hit all of 13 of his 600 home runs in a Ranger uniform.
5. After the home run, the announce on the TV said, “ How would you like to be Frank Catalanotto? Trying to follow up Sammy’s 600^th.” Catalanotto then hit a home run himself. I loved it.
6. I liked the fact that the home run landed in the bullpen. There was no mad scramble by the fans to get it. No one getting trampled. No litigation from 2 jerks over who “owns” the ball so they can turn around and sell it.
7. All of that being said. It was still kind of cool watching that live. How often does someone get to watch that? I didn’t see Barry Bonds’ 600^th live. This one I did, and watching all of those flashbulbs go off was a really cool sight.

Ultimately, after processing this all in my head, it feels like such an empty stat. Because I just know he probably hit half of his home runs, if not more, by cheating. Why should I, you or anyone celebrate cheating?