To know list: 5 guarantees it wasn't Flip Saunders fault

[1] HALL OF A QUESTION

Is Mark McGwire a Hall of Famer?

Not long ago, the question would have been preposterous. But no more.

Let's say Jose Canseco's accusations against Mark McGwire aren't simply the rantings of a baseball outcast who is trying to sell books.

Let's say more credible information emerges before McGwire becomes eligible for Cooperstown in 2007, indicating that he indeed used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Chances are, we'll never know the truth about which players used drugs or the influence the drugs had on their performances. But McGwire will be the first prominent slugger under suspicion to draw consideration from voting members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

At this point, I'm disinclined to vote for any recent sluggers on the first ballot, given the uncertainty surrounding their accomplishments. If solid proof emerged about a player's use of performance enhancers, I could not ever justify voting for him for the Hall of Fame.

This is the world that Major League Baseball and the players union created by failing to legislate against performance-enhancing drugs until 2002--a full 12 years after Congress banned all anabolic steroids known then.

McGwire broke Roger Marls' single-season home run record, which stood for 37 years. He finished with 583 career homers, sixth on the all-time list. But his position is vulnerable nonetheless; his case for the Hall is based almost entirely on his prodigious power.

Power that, if augmented by performance enhancers, would tarnish an image that already has lost luster.

Barry Bonds faces similar questions, but his all-around game separates him from McGwire, and many viewed him as a likely Hall of Famer even before his late-career power surge. Call that a rationalization, but the lingering ambiguity likely will force voters into such corners.

It's virtually impossible to judge these players against those of yesteryear. It's even difficult to judge them against one another, without knowing who did what.

The Hall's rules list integrity, sportsmanship and character among the criteria for election. Don't tell me that players who used performance enhancers before 2003 broke no major league rules. In seeking a competitive advantage, many broke U.S. laws.

All players--even the clean ones--bear responsibility for this mess. They could have lobbied their union to begin testing earlier, knowing they all would eventually be cast under suspicion. But like the owners, they preferred to cash in.

A borderline Hall of Famer such as Jim Rice, dominant in the pre-steroid era, never has looked so good.

I don't know who used performance enhancers. I can't tell you who's a Hall of Famer.

Wonderful sport.--Ken Rosenthal

[2] CHARGED UP

Hewitt jumps on Telfair book

Jose Canseco's Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big isn't the only new sports book featuring explosive allegations of misbehavior. In The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High Stakes Business of High School Ball, Ian O'Connor writes that the preps-to-pros point guard was offered $250,000 by a Georgia Tech booster to sign with the Yellow Jackets.

Unlike Mark McGwire, who has been silent about Canseco's charges, Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt has passionately defended his program. He fired back last week with host Tim Brando on Sporting News Radio.

On the allegations made by O'Connor:. "It's absolutely false. The author knows it's false."

On why Telfair didn't sign with Georgia Tech: "Bottom line is, if the kid's good enough to make money, he's going to go pro."

On the allegations feeding a racial stereotype: "It makes it more believable that some poor black kid from Brooklyn was offered some money by some middle-aged white man from the South. It's a stereotype. It's a stereotype that needs to die."

[3] COLD CASE

There's no joy in Puckville

The pens still were in the lawyers' pockets on Sunday, and that meant the season wouldn't be salvaged and the Stanley Cup would stay in its case through the summer. The last time the Cup wasn't awarded was in 1919 when an influenza epidemic wiped out the end of the season. This time, the silver goes unpolished because of a frustrating labor dispute that has fans wishing for the flu.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and Players' Association executive director Bob Goodenow are helping the NHL make unfortunate history--by being the first major North American professional sports league to cancel a full season.

The repercussions of this move will be severe. According to the Sports Business Journal, a lost season will cost players more than $1 billion in salaries and owners a similar amount in gate receipts. The publication estimates league owners' total losses at $300 million to $450 million if no games are played.

But the financial hit could be the least of the game's troubles. Several veteran players--including future Hall of Famers Steve Yzerman and Mark Messier--might have played their last games. Other players have lost a season in their prime. The fan base will drop to its core, which in the U.S. isn't enough to sustain the 24 teams south of the Canadian border.