Willie Mccovey

Willie McCovey, the Hall of Fame slugger who remains among baseball's all-time home run champions 16 years after retiring, was sentenced in New York to two years probation for evading taxes on baseball memorabilia. "It's one of those things that was overlooked at the time and I do accept responsibility for it," McCovey, 57, told U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman yesterday in Brooklyn. He entered the courtroom with the help of a cane, still recovering from an 11-hour back operation last fall.

Hard to believe, Harry. When living legend Rich Ashburn broadcast the Phillies' opener in Denver Monday, he was beginning his 50th year of association with professional baseball. To mark the event, we asked Ashburn to pick major league and Phillies all- star teams composed of players he played with and against and covered as a broadcaster during a career spanning 15 years as a player and 35 years as a radio and TV broadcaster. "This wasn't as easy as I thought it would be," Ashburn said.

San Francisco's Matt Williams hit his 226th career homer in yesterday's 7-6 loss to Chicago, tying him for fourth in Giants history with Orlando Cepeda. The top three - Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Mel Ott - all have more than 500. The reconstructed Oakland Coliseum will host its first major-league game tonight when the A's play the Chicago White Sox. The A's played their first six home games of the season at Cashman Field in Las Vegas, then embarked on an eight-game road trip.

It isn't quite true that Nolan Ryan has struck out every hitter who ever lived. But it's close. He never got Ruth. He missed a shot at Cobb. He never fanned Hornsby or Speaker or Wee Willie Keeler, either. But as Ryan blazed down the highway that would lead him to his 5,000th career strikeout Tuesday night, he didn't miss many. After his historic start in Texas against the Oakland Athletics, the 42- year-old living legend had blown third strikes past a staggering 1,074 men - who span the equivalent of four baseball generations.

The greatest righthanded pitcher in Phillies history understands that his name always will be linked with that of Willie McCovey, just as Ralph Branca forever will be known as the man who served up a pennant-winning home run ball to Bobby Thomson in 1951. Robin Roberts, who won 20 or more games six consecutive seasons with the Phillies in the 1950s, was on the mound the afternoon of July 30, 1959, when a rookie named Willie McCovey made his major league debut for the host San Francisco Giants in old Seals Stadium.

Ryan Howard has seen Barry Bonds hit countless baseballs into McCovey Cove, which sits just past the right-field wall at AT&T Park. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Oh, no. Howard took an early exit from last night's Home Run Derby when he hit just three home runs in the first round. Major League Baseball had invited Howard, who won the derby last year in Pittsburgh, to defend his title, despite the fact that he did not make the National League all-star team. Vladimir Guerrero of the Los Angeles Angels hit three home runs in the final round to pass Toronto's Alex Rios and win the derby.

Barry Bonds is approaching Willie McCovey as the most prolific lefthanded slugger in National League history. Bonds hit home runs Monday and Tuesday against Arizona, raising his career record to 517. McCovey and Ted Williams are tied for 11th on the career list with 521 homers, providing Bonds with his next target. McCovey, who played for San Francisco and San Diego, is the NL career leader in home runs by a lefthander, but Bonds is closing in. The Giants were at Arizona last night.

The reaction of fans was much different for Barry Bonds in front of the home crowd. Bonds received a standing ovation when he stepped to the plate for the first time yesterday in the San Francisco Giants' 6-4 win over the Atlanta Braves. Bonds saw all of eight pitches to hit, and 14 total. He drew his first two intentional walks of the season, struck out and grounded weakly to first. After the game, he made his way through the locker room to the trainer's table, saying, "Go get iced up. " He didn't address close to 50 media members at his locker.

John McHale, whose name is synonymous with class in National League circles, was once the general manager and later the owner of a Milwaukee Braves team that featured Henry Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Del Crandall, Joe Adcock, Johnny Logan, Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette. Those were the days when the Los Angeles Dodgers had Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale and the San Francisco Giants had Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, the Alou brothers, Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry. "Those were the days when it was possible to pick the contenders before the season," the Expos' president was saying last night.

Some came close and many others didn't. But only Willie McCovey managed to stretch into the Baseball Hall of Fame last night. McCovey, the National League's all-time leading lefthanded home run hitter, received 346 of 425 votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. His election placed him in an elite group of 16 players who have been voted into the Hall in their first year of eligibility. Following McCovey in the balloting - but not into Cooperstown - were outfielder Billy Williams, who missed by only four votes; pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter; and former Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning.

My Untold Story About the Games People Play By Bill White, with Gordon Dillow Grand Central. 303 pp. $26.99 Reviewed by Tim Bross Bill White's memoir is a lot like one of his line drives, solid and direct. White, whose major league career included eight seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and three with the Phillies, spends no time rhapsodizing about the game. Even if he had liked Fay Vincent (he did not), White never would have been included in the former commissioner's oral history, We Would Have Played the Game for Nothing . White approached the game as a job and believes he was a better player for it. In Uppity , he writes: "Being analytical, and emotionally detached, I was never nervous in the batter's box or on the field.

Gary Sheffield joined the 500-homer club, and Luis Castillo drove in the winning run with a two-out single in the ninth inning that gave the New York Mets a 5-4 victory over visiting Milwaukee last night. Ryan Braun hit a three-run homer to give Milwaukee a 4-3 lead in the sixth before Sheffield tied it the next inning off Mitch Stetter, who was facing his first batter in relief of starter Dave Bush. Sheffield, a nine-time All-Star, was on as a pinch-hitter and sent a 3-2 pitch an estimated 385 feet for his first hit of the season.

Jackie, Campy and Newk Lost in the hoopla over Yankee Stadium, which hosted its fourth and final All-Star Game last night, was the fact that the Big Apple's National League parks also have hosted four midseason classics. The Polo Grounds hosted the game in 1934 and 1942, Ebbets Field hosted it in 1949, and Shea Stadium hosted the 1964 game. The 1949 game was, perhaps, the most historic of the entire series, since it was the debut of African American players in the game.

Looks like a one-game suspension was just what Jim Thome needed to put some life back into his bat. Thome broke a prolonged power drought with a three-run homer and a double, leading the visiting Chicago White Sox past the skidding Baltimore Orioles, 3-1, last night. Jose Contreras (1-1) pitched seven innings of four-hit ball for Chicago, which has won nine of 12. Thome was forced to sit Tuesday after being suspended for inappropriate actions during an April 11 game against Detroit.

Lamenting the home run The career home-run chart was so much easier to follow 40 or so years ago. The names and numbers were burned into your brain more clearly than that latest high school math equation. There was Babe Ruth at the top with the magical 714. He was followed by Willie Mays (still active in '68), Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Eddie Mathews, Mel Ott and Lou Gehrig. Yes, that's right - Gehrig's 493 was good for eighth place. When Boston's Manny Ramirez slugged a home run Monday night against Cleveland, Gehrig slipped into a tie for 24th place (24th!

Ryan Howard has seen Barry Bonds hit countless baseballs into McCovey Cove, which sits just past the right-field wall at AT&T Park. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Oh, no. Howard took an early exit from last night's Home Run Derby when he hit just three home runs in the first round. Major League Baseball had invited Howard, who won the derby last year in Pittsburgh, to defend his title, despite the fact that he did not make the National League all-star team. Vladimir Guerrero of the Los Angeles Angels hit three home runs in the final round to pass Toronto's Alex Rios and win the derby.

The reaction of fans was much different for Barry Bonds in front of the home crowd. Bonds received a standing ovation when he stepped to the plate for the first time yesterday in the San Francisco Giants' 6-4 win over the Atlanta Braves. Bonds saw all of eight pitches to hit, and 14 total. He drew his first two intentional walks of the season, struck out and grounded weakly to first. After the game, he made his way through the locker room to the trainer's table, saying, "Go get iced up. " He didn't address close to 50 media members at his locker.

For kids growing up in the Philadelphia area, the summer of '64 belonged to baseball. We played baseball in the park, in the street, in backyards. And when we weren't playing baseball or some variation of the game - Wiffle ball, porch ball, wire ball, curb ball - we were trading or pitching baseball cards. Baseball was king. So were the Phillies. I was 9 during that Popsicle summer of 1964. And, like most youngsters who were addicted to baseball, I somehow felt I could control the destiny of my beloved Phillies if I watched or listened to their games.

Barry Bonds' path to 700 home runs wound through the desert last night and brought him 60 feet, 6 inches from a longtime rival, Arizona Diamondbacks ace Randy Johnson. Bonds and Johnson, the lefthanded power hitter and the lefthanded power pitcher, have battled each other for more than 20 years, dating back to their college days in the Pacific Ten. Bonds was a star at Arizona State; Johnson at Southern California. Last night's meeting came with Bonds needing two homers to join Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron in the 700 Club.

They lined up, superstar after superstar, immortal after immortal. Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Frank Robinson and Mark McGwire. Harmon Killebrew, Reggie Jackson, Sammy Sosa, Mike Schmidt and Rafael Palmeiro. Willie McCovey, Ernie Banks, Eddie Murray and Ken Griffey Jr. It's an impressive list of incredible baseball players from the past and present, and it made an even better photo opportunity yesterday at Minute Maid Park. "A lot of people would love to be in that picture," Schmidt said.