As of this writing, Minnesota Twins designated hitter Jim Thome is two home runs away from reaching a milestone mark in baseball: 600 home runs. Only seven men in the history of baseball have reached the 600-homer plateau, and if 500 round-trippers are no longer an automatic ticket to the Hall of Fame, then surely 600 are. Right? Earlier this year, we saw a good deal of hoopla surrounding the Yankees' Derek Jeter's reaching 3000 hits, another historic milestone, and Jeter certainly reached that hallowed circle in grand fashion, not only going five-for-five during the game that he reached 3000, including hitting a home run for his 3000th hit, but he drove in the winning run with one of those hits. By contrast, Thome's march toward history seems to be a non-event despite the fact that if and when Thome reaches 600, it will be several years before Albert Pujols reaches the same plateau. Where is the love for Thome?

Part One of this series was easy—picking the five recently-retired players who will waltz into the Baseball Hall of Fame once they are eligible, probably during their first year of eligibility. Part Two is not going to be as easy: Yes, these players would, during any other time, be on the express train to Cooperstown. But the Hall of Fame ballot for the next several years is going to be overstuffed with worthy candidates; there are already several qualified candidates waiting for their call to lasting baseball greatness. Will we see surefire Hall of Famers overlooked and even discarded?

Every major sport has them: All-star games: An exhibition game comprising the sport's biggest stars that is essentially a wet dream for fans—the chance to see the best players in the game playing against each other. All the talented eggs in one shiny basket, as it were. But does being chosen as an all-star equate to lasting glory? In other words, how much weight should be given to being chosen as an all-star in determining whether a player is worthy of the Hall of Fame?

Ah! With summer here, thoughts naturally turn to . . . being stranded on a desert island. That might not be such a bad situation if you're marooned with Penelope Cruz (as in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean installment), but for our purposes it heralds that deathless chestnut beloved of writers short on time or ideas: If you were stuck on a desert island, what [music, books, films, etc.] would you want with you?