It's plus-six in Calgary, let's play some baseball.

Let's talk a little baseball. Lots of news there in the past few days, starting with Andre Dawson's Hall of Fame election. A healthy congrats to Dawson, and despite his claims he'd choose to wear a Cubs hat on his plaque, I hope for all Expos fans that he goes into the Hall as an Expo. And I hope Youppi! is on hand for the event. Not making the Hall, a player just about everyone in Canada believes should have been a first-ballott Hall of Famer, was Roberto Alomar. Sure it's possible that Blue Jays fans have overvalued Alomar's career, just as it's possible the Blue Jays won't miss Roy Halladay this coming season. Alomar was far and away the best second baseman of his generation, and at least in my mind belongs in a category with only Joe Morgan ahead of him on the list of all-time greats. Alomar ushered in the era of hard-hitting second baggers that put up big power numbers, and took the athleticism required to play second base to a whole new level. It's flat-out wrong that Alomar wasn't inducted. Another guy making headlines this week was Randy Johnson, who officially announced his retirement. Belonging to the age group I do, Randy Johnson was one of my favourite players growing up. As the staff ace for the Griffey-era Mariners, as the first really popular athlete outside of basketball to approach 7-feet tall, Johnson was unmistakable, as was his dominance. He'll go out with more than 300 wins under his belt, putting him in a club most feel will never accept another member. He also belongs to a club with Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, and Cy Young, for pitchers that have won 125 games or more in both the American and National Leagues. A tip of the cap to Johnson, a truly class act that always played the game the right way (revisionist history allows me to forget that time in New York). Batting clean-up today, Mark McGwire. He's all over the sports pages for his announcement yesterday that he did in fact use steroids and human-growth hormone. Thanks for coming clean Mark, and while I'm not here to talk about the past, it's important for your future that you've taken steps to make this right. The cover-up is almost always worse than the crime, and that is very certainly true with McGwire. This news comes nearly 12 years too late, and while it changes his magical summer in 1998, historically, it can't change the way he made people feel that year. Though his record-breaking home run wasn't the 500-foot blast we'd come to expect that summer, I'm sure most baseball fans recall it very easily and can tell you where they were when it happened. It was an important moment, and it was an important summer, and it's not fair for fans and writers to turn their backs on McGwire now. Thanks for the memories Mark, and thanks for setting the record straight.