The e-mails have been pouring in, and some major themes have emerged, aside from the usual major theme of questioning my intelligence, parentage and mental state.

One theme is that I've misjudged the criteria for induction into the Hall of Fame, that it's easier than I think, and some of the guys I'm saying won't make it actually will. This is not so much misjudgment as poor writing on my part: I didn't make it clear that I haven't been trying to predict who will make it; I've been talking about who I think should make it. The world according to me.

Another theme is oh please God no not designated hitters! Several readers wrote impassioned e-mails arguing against career DHs -- Edgar Martinez, Frank Thomas and Jose Canseco were the ones mentioned Monday -- ever being allowed to darken the door of Cooperstown.

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O.J. Simpson went on the "Today" show Tuesday to hype his Internet appearance Thursday at AskOJ.com, where, for $9.95, he'll answer any question from the public, as long as it's not about his kids.

Simpson said he's asked the sponsoring company to donate his profits to three charities. But "Today" host Katie Couric said those charities -- including the Innocence Project (which uses DNA evidence to spring the wrongly convicted) and a summer camp for kids with cancer that Simpson helped found -- were reluctant to accept the donations. That's OK, Simpson shrugged, if they don't want it, some charity will be happy to take it.

Simpson's line is that the American people just haven't heard his story, and that when we do, we'll believe he's innocent. But who doesn't know O.J.'s version of events? That he was framed by the Los Angeles Police Department and various friends of Nicole, especially Faye Resnick, who lied at his trial, and that his wife and Goldman were killed by denizens of the shadowy, drug-infested nightlife world he says they inhabited.

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Baseball showers honors on relief pitchers who rack up a lot of saves -- a statistic that borders on the meaningless. How many times have you watched a "setup man" pitch out of a bases-loaded jam with a two-run lead in the eighth, only to have the "closer" come in and set down the side in the ninth to collect the save?

Victories are just about meaningless for relievers, since they depend on your team coming from behind during the time when you happen to be in the game. Blowing the lead in the top of an inning can lead to your picking up a win in the bottom half.

For starting pitchers, victories are a little better as an accurate measure, but still a bit shaky because they're dependent on things other than the pitcher's performance. The same solid outing can get a pitcher a 6-2 win or a 2-0 loss. A pitcher on a good team will get more wins than a similar hurler on a bad one.

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Today we'll consider position players. Baseball's offensive explosion, which began in 1993 and really went nuts in 1998, may force the voters (baseball writers) to reconsider the "magic numbers" for inclusion. Traditionally, collect 3,000 hits, 400 home runs or 1,500 RBIs and, with a few exceptions, you're in. Will that still be true when players who have spent most or all of their careers in the current rabbit-ball era start to become eligible?

The first test case may be Jose Canseco. He has 439 home runs and 1,331 RBIs, and at 36 he's still hitting when he's healthy. But he's widely perceived as a guy who hasn't lived up to his otherworldly abilities, an indifferent fielder who doesn't really help the teams he plays for. He just hits a lot of home runs.

First, the obvious choices -- guys who, if their careers ended today, would still be a lock: Tony Gwynn, Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Cal Ripken Jr.

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"I fucking knew it, man," he says, stubbing out a barely started cigarette on the tabletop and adding it to a rapidly growing collection under his seat. "Everything's always 'Cool, beautiful, man, we love your work,' but I always knew deep down that I was just a dog to them."

"Them" is the Taco Bell Corp., which announced this week that it's dropping the popular pup from its advertising campaign. The change came as part of a corporate shakeup that also saw the fast-food chain's president, Peter C. Waller, replaced by former Wendy's executive Emil Brolick.

"You know how I found out about it?" the Chihuahua says, lighting yet another. "I heard it on the radio. These 'morning zoo' bozos were joking about it. 'Yo quiero a new job, ha ha ha.' Very funny, assholes. I mean, this is my life we're talking about here, and I have to hear it from these jerks on the radio."

The Chihuahua speaks softly, and his streetwise accent isn't as pronounced as it is on TV. Though obviously fit in that gym-buffed, Southern California way, and just as cute in person as he is on the tube, he looks like he's been up for two days.

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The New York Post is reporting that the state of New York will look into whether the electric-haired boxing promoter illegally lobbied Democratic assemblymen to vote against a gambling bill that would have blocked a new Indian-owned casino in the Catskills.

New York state law requires that those who do more than $2,000 worth of lobbying be registered with the state Lobbying Commission, which records show King was not. Several members of the Assembly told the Post they'd received calls from King urging them to vote against the bill, although Assemblyman Herman "Denny" Farrell of Manhattan, the head of the Ways and Means Committee, admitted, "I was very confused as to what side he was on." If you've ever heard King speak, you know what he means.

Sources told the Post they believe King made the calls at the behest of his friend and frequent business partner Arthur Goldberg, whose Park Place Entertainment, the largest gambling company in the nation, has a deal with the St. Regis Mohawk Indian nation to build the Catskills casino. King frequently promotes boxing events at casinos.

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The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet will decide by Aug. 3 whether to accept the recommendation, which was made to accommodate a 31st conference getting an automatic bid for its champion this year. The number of automatic bids has been 30.

Here's hoping they don't do it. Think of the National Invitational Tournament, whose winner each year can boast of being the 65th best team in the nation. Think of the hardworking kids from some scrappy midsize school winning the NIT and having to settle for saying, "We're No. 66!" Where's the satisfaction in that?

It says here that expanding the Tournament is just another example of the namby-pamby, "let's let everyone have a chance, even if they don't deserve it, so nobody goes home disappointed" attitude that's cutting a wide and destructive path through our culture.

The Big Dance is plenty big enough with 64 teams. Adding a 65th would cheapen it unnecessarily.

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Actually, it was an extremely rare 1909 Honus Wagner card that has been traded around at jaw-dropping prices for a few decades. Wayne Gretzky used to own it. It's like the Hope Diamond of baseball cards. It sold through an auction on eBay.

The card was put out by the American Tobacco Co. The problem was, Wagner, the star shortstop of the Pittsburgh Pirates and one of the greatest players of all time, didn't want his name associated with smoking. He was way ahead of his time on that one. He still would be today: Can you imagine current players turning down an endorsement on principle?

Anyway, the tobacco folks withdrew the card, but a few got out, and now if you could manage to hold one of them in your hands, you'd be holding some of the most valuable material on the planet -- about $211,000 per square inch.

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The pre-game introductions for baseball's All-Star Game are inherently dramatic, with the game's best players, introduced one by one, taking their place along the base lines while the crowd boos the home team's rivals and showers the hometown stars with cheers and adoration. Not good enough for NBC, or whichever Major League Baseball official designed the pre-game "festivities" for Tuesday night's All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Gone was the traditional stately jog from the dugout to the base line. Instead the players started out standing on an infield crowded with their families, skittering camera crews and various and sundry other random unworthies, and upon being announced looked like they were picking their way through a bus station at rush hour as they led their toddlers on a wandering path toward home plate, high-fiving two lines of red-T-shirt-clad youngsters no doubt bred specially for the occasion along the way.

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Bill Guthridge retired June 30, three years after replacing his old boss, Dean Smith, who spent 36 years on the Tar Heels bench and won more games than any coach in NCAA history. The pro and college coaching ranks are riddled with Smith's former players and assistants. But so far they haven't been chomping at the bit to succeed Guthridge.

North Carolina's first choice was Roy Williams, an assistant of Smith's for 10 years before he took over as head coach at Kansas in 1988. Williams, who played on the freshman team at UNC in the '60s, has the highest winning percentage among active coaches with at least five years' experience, and he has led the Jayhawks to 11 straight NCAA Tournament appearances. He'd always said coaching at his alma mater was his dream, but when the job was offered, he agonized. Thursday night he sent a crowd at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence into a frenzy with the simple words "I'm staying."

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