A Slight Disgression From Hockey

I hope you'll excuse this digression, but...as most of you are aware, I cover other sports. And as most of you are probably aware, my first love is baseball. Today was the day the Baseball Hall of Fame selections were announced, and my all-time favorite Houston Astro, Jeff Bagwell, was on the ballot for the first time.

In my humble opinion, Bagwell is the great player to have ever won the Astros uniform. Better than Craig Biggio. Better than Nolan Ryan. Better than Joe Morgan, Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt, Cesar Cedeno, etc. And his numbers are those of a Hall of Famer -- trust me, do the research and you'll discover he's up there with Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Fox, and Albert Pujols. So he should be an easy vote. And lots of great baseball writers, and members of the Hall of Fame voting group, like Peter Gammons, agree.

But there's this very loud group who feels, though they can't prove it and have no real reason for thinking it, that Jeff Bagwell used steroids, and is thus unworthy of a vote. So today, in the mothership, I went after the logic being applied by these people to Bagwell.

And while Bagwell didn't make the Hall of Fame, my piece went national and here, you can read about it being discussed in the same breath as the writing of some nationally respected writers with the New York Times and U.S.A. Today.

So excuse the baseball digression. I just wanted to share some of my writing, and show off that I do, indeed, have a serious side. I hope you'll read it.

Now back to the hockey