“With the baseball season underway and the NBA gearing up for the playoffs, it’s a shame that most of the national sports topics have revolved around negative controversies. 1. Pacman’s verdict: Adam Pacman Jones was suspended for the entire season NFL season and Chris Henry will sit out half of the Bengals season for personal conduct, commissioner Roger Goodell announced Tuesday.”
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With the baseball season underway and the NBA gearing up for the playoffs, it’s a shame that most of the national sports topics have revolved around negative controversies.

1. Pacman’s verdict: Adam Pacman Jones was suspended for the entire season NFL season and Chris Henry will sit out half of the Bengals season for personal conduct, commissioner Roger Goodell announced Tuesday. The suspension, which is without pay, will cost Jones his base salary of $1,292,500. Henry will lose a little over $230,000.

Goodell made the right call on Jones. Police interviewed him for 10 separate incidents, including the $81,000 trip to the strip club where a man was shot and paralyzed.

Henry’s suspension may have been a little light. Four arrests in 14 months is inexecusable.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis should take the next step and suspend Henry for the rest of the season. He clearly needs to send a message to the rest of his team. They’ve had nine players arrested in as many months.

2. Don Imus: Speaking of doing stupid things, Don Imus’ remarks about the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team – he called them nappy headed hos – earns him the Rush Limbaugh Award for being ignorant, offensive and possibly intoxicated while on the air.

Imus was dropped from NBC News yesterday, and his talk show on the network was canceled effective immediately.

In the players’ defense, I’d rather be called a nappy headed ho than a brain-dead bigot.

3. Duke lacrosse: Another case of athletes being wronged was the Duke lacrosse team, who lost their season last year, and specifically three members, who were charged with rape. The charges were dropped against David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann Wednesday, but the damage will probably last the rest of their lives.

From the beginning of this case, it was apparent the prosecution didn’t have very concrete evidence against the three, yet Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong pursued the case with remarkable fervor, probably just to make a name for himself. But in doing so he unrightfully tarnished the reputation of three men.

4. Cavs playoff push: On a lighter note, it’s no secret that the playoff success of the Cavaliers is primarily dependent on what seed they will have at seasons end. Right now, the Cavs are a half game behind the Chicago Bulls for the No. 2 seed. If they get to No. 2, they will have a virtual cakewalk to the conference finals, facing the New Jersey Nets in the first round and the winner of the Toronto-Washington series in the next. They have to go through Miami and Detroit if they remain as the No. 5 seed.

A lot of people think that the Cavs won’t be able to secure the two-seed but I’m not one of them. Of their remaining four games, three are at home and none are against teams with winning records. They are 8-3 combined against their remaining opponents while the Bulls are just 4-4 against their final three opponents, two of which are away games.

5. Lofton’s historical HR: Kenny Lofton, the former Indians centerfielder, hit his first homerun of the season on Tuesday for the Texas Rangers, making it the 10th different team he has homered with in his career. Only three other players have ever done that. Two are in the Hall of Fame.

The mention of Lofton’s name made me think about those great Indians teams of the 1990s. Three players are locks for the Hall: Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez will both hit their 500th career homeruns this season, and Omar Vizquel is the best fielding shortstop since Ozzie Smith.

Lofton isn’t a lock for the Hall, but he should get some consideration. He was the catalyst of the one of the best offenses in the last 25 years. He has stolen 601 bases in his career (17th most all-time) and led the league in steals his first five seasons, which only two other men (Louis Aprocio and Vince Coleman) have ever done. His career batting average is .299. He is just shy of 2,300 hits and has scored 1,446 runs in 1,975 games. I would say that is a mark of a great, not a good, leadoff hitter.

He played in six consecutive All-Star games and won four consecutive Gold Gloves.

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