Re NHL players in the Olympics: Just to chime in with my two cents' worth, I agree with Mike M. Why not have the best hockey players from the U.S. and Canada represent their countries? Most every other country's do/does. I suspect the Eastern bloc countries got quite a charge out of old Avery Brundage's snobbish insistence on "pure amateurism" all those years the West in general and the U.S. in particular were putting their third- echelon athletes up against the Warsaw Pact powerhouse products. And, as several on the list have noted, unlike the NBA (which still obviously has seized on the Olympics as a great opportunity), the NHL would REALLY benefit from the exposure. Baseball and hockey may be the only events left in which some countries are not sending their best due to the "amateur" idea. And guess which countries those are? The way I see it, this year's Olympic basketball competition is boring, all right, because the Dream Team is so much more talented than the others (even though, BTW, several of the other teams also have NBA players this time). But that's OK--it's like the Chinese domination over us in table tennis. We aren't holding back our best potential participants, we simply haven't chosen to develop talent in that sport. As it is, we know it's a miracle when the U.S. wins a medal in hockey because we're deliberately sending our less-qualified athletes against most other countries' best. I mean, Americans love an underdog, but really . . . *********************************** * Steve Christopher, NMU * * "Go 'Cats!''Goin' for it again in * * '93--With a little less "O" * * and a lot more "D"! * * [log in to unmask] * ***********************************