An editor's semester-end tour of hot topics in sports

You would think that, since I volunteered to take the last sports column of the year, I had some brilliant idea for a witty and insightful piece about sports in our civilization. That some burning issue in the world of sports so touched my life that I wanted to share it with the Princeton community.

Alas, none of that is true.

I'm just an editor with nothing better to do on Dean's Date.

Actually, the truth is somewhere in between. There are sports topics, tons of them, that have sparked my curiosity recently.

So, as I sit in the office at the 'Prince,' watching the Cardinals put a hurt on the Cubs (poor, poor Cubbies), on what looks like a wonderful day for a ball game in St. Louis, here are the issues that have come to my attention in the last few days. I think they warrant some discussion, and since the 'Prince' is all for fostering discussion, here they are:

First, does Jose Canseco belong in baseball's Hall of Fame?

Well, we know that ESPN's Peter Gammons doesn't think so. Two nights ago on Baseball Tonight, he laid down some harsh criticism of Canseco, essentially calling the retiring former 'Bash Brother' a wasted talent.

I don't know whether I agree with Gammons or not about the wasted talent part — I certainly admire Gammons's expertise, and Canseco pulled some dumb stunts in the interest of keeping himself on SportsCenter — but it probably doesn't matter if he deserves it or not.

I don't think he will get in. In the long run, those dumb stunts, and the career acomplishments of Mark McGwire, will certainly overshadow his own statistics. Canseco will most likely be remembered for his personality, throwing out his arm in one appearance as a pitcher, and heading a ball over the outfield wall.

And the new tell-all book that the former slugger is threatening to publish probably won't help his Hall of Fame potential either. Canseco apparently told ESPN's Dan Patrick that he will "name names" about relationships with women and about steroid use in Major League Baseball.

Great. Thanks, Jose. So sports will now become just like career politics, in which every fallen star redeems himself by publishing a book exposing other members of the inner circle. I love both sports and politics, but the culture of slander seems to be heading in the wrong direction in both cases.

Also, I'd like to apologize to anyone who has ever heard me say that no one in the NBA, even in the playoffs, plays team defense. I'm wrong all the time and this is my first chance to say so in print, so here goes. I was wrong about defense in the NBA playoffs, for some teams, and I'm happy to see that I was. It's about time we got to see a defensive battle in professional basketball.

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The Celtics-Pistons series is the funniest thing I've seen on TV in some time. I admit that I prefer good defense to good offense; I don't like scoring. Pitchers' duels, goalies standing on their heads in the NHL playoffs and... the NBA playoffs?

One of these things is not like the other, but it sure does make for great sports television. Especially when you can change the channel and watch the Kings running over the Mavericks on the West Coast.

Good times. My only complaint about both the NBA and NHL playoffs is that each takes forever. But that's an old complaint and most of you have already heard it somewhere else before. Plus, we all know the reason: TV revenue.

As good as the Celtics defense is, and as likely as it seems that they will make the NBA Finals now, Boston fans have a serious problem. No one wants to acknowledge it, and I'm afraid to bring it up here lest I bring down some baseball karma retribution on my precious Orioles.

Manny Ramirez is hurt. Out for at least a month probably. Granted, it is May, so the inevitable race with the Yankees (sorry O's fans. The Birds haven't really kept up their end of the bargain since they were in first place the last time I wrote) hasn't really started yet.

But here's what the Sox miss for the next month. Ramirez is leading the league in hitting, with a .372 batting average, with nine home runs and 35 RBI. Beyond that, Ramirez offers almost immeasurable protection to the rest of a suddenly-fragile Sox lineup.

Look, I'm probably as big an 'Anybody but the Yankees' fan as anyone, but I'm not sure Boston can hold out against the pinstriped mercenaries without its best hitter. Call me a fatalist, but the Yankees will be in first place by the end of the month.

One last point about sports programming. Why can't ESPN just make Pardon the Interruption a full hour long? Does anyone really want to listen to that former MTV News bobblehead doll Chris Connelly conduct pointless interviews? Yesterday's guest was Peyton Manning, talking about his father and his troubles with former Colts head coach Jim Mora.

It's not football season and everything that Peyton talked about was old ground. Plus, for a show called 'Unscripted,' a lot of the material that Connelly uses seems pretty canned to me.

So that's everything on my mind right now. Hopefully, I said something that some will latch onto and start a conversation about what it takes to make the Hall of Fame, or how good the Red Sox can be even without Manny. That's what I hope, anyway.

It's been a strange year in sports. For us here at the 'Prince,' our first issue was scheduled to — and in fact did — run on September 12. I was supposed to write an article covering women's soccer in that edition and couldn't do it. Even after I knew that my family was safe, I still couldn't bring myself to write the story. I regret it now, because I think it would have been theraputic to focus on sports after such a horrific day.

I bring this up, not to drag everyone back through the events of September 11, but to remind myself — if no one else — that stories about our sports heroes have a redemptive quality of their own. It's something I hope I never forget, and something I hope Jose Canseco keeps in mind when he writes his book.