The Thursday Show Prep

the Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2018 will contain six new members, including Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffmann and Jim Thome. All four of them were inducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America with more than 75 percent of the needed votes for induction. Jones, who received more than 97 percent of the vote, as well as Thome, who received nearly 90 percent of the votes needed, were both elected in their first year of eligibility. 

Also announced were veterans committee inductees Jack Morris and Alan Trammell in entering the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 29 in Cooperstown, New York.

And let me also state for the record that justice, once again, has been served up to cheaters like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and in particular, guys like Sammy Sosa.

Bonds and Clemens received more than 50 percent of the vote, but were well short of the required 75 percent. And while it remains possible both these men could find their way into the hallowed Hall someday, I do feel better knowing there is still a strong resistance to allowing players who knowingly and brazenly thought their individual accomplishments were bigger than the business in which they chose to participate.

It's a pretty good bet that you don't know what you’re doing the next couple of years.

Hell, there are some who would suggest -- and I won't disagree with them -- that I don't know what I'll be doing a couple of hours from now.

But I know what former United States gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar is doing for the next 175 years. And it won't be pretty.

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who presided over the hearings and sentencing yesterday, spared no emotion when delivering the sentence.

After hearing from numerous victims whom Nassar sexually abused during his time as an athletic trainer, Aquilina told Nassar, "I just signed your death warrant" in sentencing him to 40 to 175 years in prison. At one point the judge told Nassar, "I wouldn't send my dogs to you." 

And she didn’t stop there. 

Judge Aquilina also called for further investigation into how Nassar’s abuse was ignored for so long and why so many people in positions of authority chose to remain silent echoing the sentiments of 3-time Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman who -- during one of the most passionate speeches in court -- accused USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee of ignoring the complaints against Nassar.

"There has to be a massive investigation into why there was inaction, why there was silence," Aquilina noted.

Let’s hope there is.

The following video is chilling. There is no other way to describe her words. The final 3 minutes, in particular, are a person-to-person account of this woman's anger and shock towards the people who not only participated in her abuse, but also acted willingly and complicit against her. It is NSFW and is uncomfortable.

But as you've heard me say before, sometimes being uncomfortable is the path towards finding comfort.

The above video is from the final moments of yesterday's sentencing hearing. At the 8-minute mark of the video, Judge Aquilina begins to read excerpts from a letter Nassar wrote two months after agreeing to plead guilty to 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. 

In his letter, Nassar came off as defiant and wrote as if he was still somehow innocent, which prompted Aquilina to read it to prove that Nassar had not yet reckoned with what he’d done.

UPDATE: Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon will finally resign today, less than a week after MSU’s board of trustees voted to stand behind her. Trustees attempted to downplay Simon’s role in the Nassar sexual abuse scandal and vouched for her fundraising abilities, but multiple sources are reporting that Simon will step down.


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