Doug Doughty

Doug Doughty's College Notebook Plus is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Fridays.

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As I was driving to work and listening to XM-radio host Tony Kornheiser talk to Larry King about Roger Clemens, I was struck by a recurring thought:

How will the continuing allegations against Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds affect the baseball hall of fame chances of all-time hit leader Pete Rose?

In my lifetime, I have had three favorite baseball players – Mickey Mantle, Rose and Toby Harrah. I’m sure that Harrah will never make the hall of fame but, after growing up in the Washington, D.C.,  area, I followed his career long after the Senators left Washington.

In any case, we all know that Rose hasn’t made the hall of fame because he bet on baseball (he has admitted that, right ?) but what’s the hall of fame going to look like if all of the currently tainted players are excluded?

If Bonds and Clemens and Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro don’t make it, what kind of hall of fame is it going to be?

In the end, I think that helps Rose, but I don’t have a vote and never will. But, we’ll let that lead into this week’s poll question.

Who would you be more likely to put in the baseball hall of fame first: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Pete Rose?

I HOPE TO MAKE these poll questions a regular staple of the UVa Insider, which begins its summer vacation this week, and Notebook Plus.

In this week’s UVa Insider, we asked if people liked Mac McDonald as voice of the Cavaliers. It was announced earlier this week that McDonald was resigning to pursue other interests.

I was surprised, when I looked at the vote this morning, to see that it was so close. After more than 360 responses, McDonald had 57.3 percent of the vote, up from 52.1 when I logged in earlier in the day.

This week’s UVa Insider also raised the question of a Bruce Springsteen’s appearance at Virginia’s Memorial Gym predating Wednesday night’s show at John Paul Jones Arena.

Numerous readers have placed Springsteen’s appearance on Nov. 17, 1974. I received more than a dozen e-mails on the subject, roughly half from people who were at the concert.

“The Boss definitely played Mem Gym,” Barry Hollar, a former UVa baseball pitcher who once threw a no-hitter for the Cavaliers, wrote. “I can’t tell you the year. The [Daily Progress] this week said ’74. I would, like you, have guessed earlier.

“I remember it so well because I was an usher for PK German. I was a baseball player but most of the ushers were southern frat guys. I remember folks complaining about having to usher a concert for this unknown guy. Somebody said that it had sold out in a few hours and that New York and Jersey kids had bought up the tickets. That made the frat guys dread the show even more.

“I was assigned to the front row. What luck! I remember, five minutes into the show, realizing that this guy was clearly the best performer I had ever seen. I seem to remember him playing some songs accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar and a violinst.”

Various e-mailers say that ex-James Gang and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh was in the crowd that night. Nobody gives the slightest suggestion of an earlier appearance by Springsteen, although I keep thinking there had to be an earlier one because I had moved to Roanoke by the fall of 1974.

IT IS A RARE Division I-A football program that hasn’t had walk-ons fill a major role at some point, but name a walk-on quarterback who has had a major impact. I can’t remember one at Virginia or Virginia Tech.

That’s the challenge facing Kyle McCartin, a 6-foot-4 quarterback from Fauquier High School who has accepted an invitation to walk on at UVa. However, McCartin is a little different from the typical walk-on. He passed for 1,296 yards and nine touchdowns, and he had more than 1,900 yards in total offense as a junior.

McCartin already had passed for two touchdowns against Liberty-Bealeton when he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the opening game of the 2007 season. In an  interview he did with Virginia Preps, McCartin said he considered Fork Union and Hargrave but was looking for a Division I-A program that would give him an honest look.

All he had to do was look at Virginia’s quarterback depth chart to see that the Cavaliers’ QB situation was in a state of flux. It was a potential win-win situation for UVa, which is taking a hard look at McCartin’s younger brother, Connor, a 6-4, 215-pound linebacker prospect for the Class of 2009.

 IT WAS PREMATURE to think that Virginia Tech’s fall recruitment of guard Tyshawn Taylor from St. Anthony’s Prep in Jersey City, N.J., would provide the Hokies with any advantage when Taylor was released from the basketball letter-of-intent he signed with Marquette.

Taylor ended up accepting a spring offer from Kansas, which not only had the euphoria of a national championship working for it but also could show where Final Four standout Mario Chalmers had placed his name in consideration for the NBA Draft.

On top of that, because Kansas had not been involved with Taylor in the fall, coach Bill Self and his staff could bring Taylor to campus for an official visit. That’s something that hindered the Hokies, who, because Taylor had visited officially in the fall, were limited in the contact they could have with him in the spring.

WHEN I SAW on Virginia Preps that 16 Virginia juniors already had made football commitments to Division I-A programs, I figured I had missed somebody and was eager to pull up the list.

Actually, I was familiar with all 16 commitments, but I imagine that Virginia Tech fans are a little anxious when they see that only David Wang, a September 2007 committement, currently is headed to Blacksburg. I wouldn’t read too much into that.

At least for the moment, the Hokies are looking at a small class and, given their recruiting prowess over the past decade, you can assume the Tech staff knows what it’s doing.