Michael Strahan retired Monday. Strahan was a very, very good defensive end, but were he not to play in New York we'd have heard less about him. He had a great year when he set the sack record, but was given the last sack when Brett Favre fell down at his feet. It was cheap. The past year Strahan's divorce was very ugly and very public. Look, Strahan was a very good defensive end. Had Favre not fallen down, he'd have still had an excellent season without the sack record. Love to have had him on the Browns. But his value and worth were inflated by the fact he played in New York.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run Monday. In an age of Bonds and McGwire and Palmeiro and Sosa and Clemens all helping themselves and their performance with steroids and HGH and the like, Griffey seemed to be the one guy who did not juice. He fought injuries, yes, but he never appeared to cheat. He merely swung the bat, honored his contract (nine years is a long one) and played the best he could — as this story and this story relate.

Griffey had this to say about what is important to him prior to the season in a story on cbssportsline.com: "Not embarrassing your family, not embarrassing your teammates, not embarrassing the organization, I think that's very important. Other than being at my house, I'm Ken Griffey Jr. the baseball player. That's all people really know me as, other than my friends and family. Not giving any more fuel to the fire, that's what I try to do. Having my family never being in the papers. Not having my teammates or the organization answer questions. Because it gets tiring. I feel bad for the guys going through it (the steroid scandal), but more so for their teammates, because they're the ones having to answer all of the extra questions."

It wasn't real pretty when Griffey wrangled his way out of Seattle to get more money in Cincinnati, but since he's been there he's been the one star who's never been questioned. In this day and age, an accusation is just around the corner. But with Griffey those accusaions have never surfaced. At least we can look at this one guy and feel his 600 home runs — a Hall of Fame number — are legit.