e. "Our teams playing probably its best hockey this year right now," Julien said, "

NEW YORK -- Mark McGwire is getting another swing at the Hall of Fame. Cheap NCAA Jerseys .The former slugger who admitted using steroids joins Bud Selig, George Steinbrenner and seven others on the Todays Game Era ballot to be considered for election to Cooperstown in December.The announcement was made Monday by the Baseball Hall of Fame. The ballot is part of changes to the election process announced by the Halls board of directors in July. It includes five players, three executives and two managers who made their biggest impact from 1988 on.Its flattering. Its fantastic. I mean, thank you, McGwire told The Associated Press in a phone interview. Its very flattering to have another opportunity to possibly get into the Hall of Fame. Its exciting.McGwire said hed heard of the committee, but didnt think his name would come up for a long time.I didnt know it was going to be this year, considering last year was my last year on the (writers) ballot. Its very flattering.Harold Baines, Albert Belle, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Davey Johnson, Lou Piniella and John Schuerholz round out the class of 2017 candidates on the new ballot.All are alive except for Steinbrenner, the bombastic and successful owner of the New York Yankees from 1973 until his death in 2010.Selig served as baseballs acting commissioner from September 1992 to July 1998 and then as commissioner until January 2015. He oversaw an era of immense change that included expansion, wild cards and interleague play.It is Seligs first appearance on a Hall of Fame ballot, and the third for Steinbrenner. He fell short on 2010 and 2013 Expansion Era ballots.Voting is Dec. 5 during the winter meetings in Maryland. To be enshrined, candidates must receive votes on at least 75 percent of the ballots cast by the 16-member Todays Game Era Committee.Those voters, appointed by the Hall of Fame board, will be announced this fall.McGwire ranks 11th on the career list with 583 home runs. Tainted by performance-enhancing drugs, however, he never came close to getting elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America and dropped off that ballot this year after his 10th and final chance.Numbers-wise, what Ive done, I truly believe they are Hall of Fame-worthy. For what I did hitting home runs, 583, Im the only guy in history averaging one in every 10 at-bats, he said. If you look at how many games and at-bats I did it in, it was a lot less than most guys in the Hall of Fame. Im proud of that. I truly believe I was born a home run hitter.Yet McGwire, who spent this past season as bench coach for the San Diego Padres, never received more than 23.7 percent of the vote from the BBWAA -- far short of the 75 percent required for election. He garnered 12.3 percent in his last appearance.He was asked whether he thinks his steroids admission and subsequent apology will sway this particular committee.Its obviously up to them. Theyre obviously up to speed with that. The writers felt the way they did. I truly respect how they felt. I did admit to it, and you know, theres nothing else I can say. I did what I did and I apologized for doing what I did, McGwire said.The Era Committee process provides an avenue for Hall of Fame consideration to managers, umpires and executives, as well as players retired for more than 15 seasons -- like McGwire. Todays Game Era was one of four Eras Committees outlined in July when the Hall detailed its latest set of election changes.Finalists on the ballot revealed Monday were selected by the Historical Overview Committee appointed by the BBWAA, made up of 11 veteran historians.Any candidates elected Dec. 5 would be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 30 next year along with any players voted in by the BBWAA. Those results will be announced Jan. 18, 2017.---AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson in San Diego contributed to this report. Wholesale NCAA Jerseys . Defencemen Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and forward Ryan Getzlaf also scored for the Canadians, who started their gold-medal defence 2-0. Goalie Roberto Luongo, getting the call in place of Game 1 starter Carey Price, was solid when needed in making 23 saves for the shutout. NCAA Jerseys Outlet . There was no hesitation from the 40th-ranked Pospisil, from Vernon, B.C., who admitted that he cut back on his training sessions over the last few days to conserve energy as the long ATP season finishes next week at the Paris Masters. https://www.chinajerseysncaa.us/ . Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russias Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006.BOSTON -- Sidney Crosby and the potent Penguins have been punchless. Pittsburgh led the NHL in scoring in the regular season. It averaged 4.27 goals per game in the first two rounds of the playoffs. And it poured in 13 goals in the last two games of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Since then? No addition necessary. The Penguins have just one goal in two losses on their home ice to the Boston Bruins. To play there again this season, they must win Wednesday or Friday and avoid what seemed so improbable just a few days ago -- being swept in the best-of-seven conference finals. "Right now, were not liking the picture, down 0-2. Theyre in control," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "I dont think were frustrated by the fact that we havent scored as much as (the fact that) theyre getting up leads, especially in Game 2." The Bruins won the opener 3-0 but led just 1-0 after two periods. The second game was much different. They rolled to a 4-1 lead after one period and remained aggressive in finishing off their 6-1 rout. The Penguins effort waned as the game went on. "I didnt do anything, didnt change anything. It felt like every time we had a puck that was bouncing, we ended up giving it away," Crosby said. "We gave them the game. We didnt really do anything to give ourselves a chance to win." Combine that with the Bruins high level of play -- disciplined on defence, organized on offence -- and the pre-series chatter about the Penguins being favourites seems like so much nonsense. But any talk that Boston will have an easy path to the Stanley Cup finals is just as premature. "Were going to have to play even better than we did because theyre going to be desperate," Bostons David Krejci said. With a day off to ponder their problems and work at eliminating them, the Penguins offence could resurface. "Its about what we do in the next game," Boston defenceman Andrew Ference said, "not about patting ourselves on the back for whats already happened." Winning the first two games is a good start but doesnt always lead to a good finish. Both teams have overcome 2-0 deficits and gone on to win Stanley Cups. In 2009, the Penguins dropped two games at Detroit by a combined score of 6-2 then took four out of five to clinch their first championship since 1992. In 2011, the Bruins lost two games of the opening round at home against Montreal, then won the next two on the road and captured the series on an overtime goal in Game 7. In the finals, they got off to the same poor start, losing two in Vancouver, but then won their first title since 1972 with a 4-0 road win in Game 7. But in the previous season, the Bruins won the first three games of the Eastern semifinals over Philadelphia then lost the next four. "We have a large group of guys that have gone throuugh this and been in that situation on both sides of the coin," Ference said. Clearance NCAA Jerseys. "You can really lean on your past experience and not just talk about what could happen, because weve done it all. I think with this team, whether its coming back or having teams come back on us, weve all seen it together and we all know certain lessons that weve learned." Theyve also seen how powerful Pittsburghs offence can be. James Neal, Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis and Crosby were among the NHLs top 17 in goals per game this season. Crosby was the leader in assists per game. And Crosby and Kris Letang were the top two in points per game. "You dont have a choice but to respect that team that youre playing against, because they are a pretty potent team. Things can change pretty quickly in this game," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "I dont think theres any comfort level in our team right now." The Bruins have stymied the Penguins offence with pressure the length of the ice. A puck carrier gets past one forward then must contend with another, then a defenceman and, finally, Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask. "I think its pretty obvious that we have layers," Julien said. "Our guys are committed to come back and just making sure that theres layer after layer that make it hard for them to get to our net." Its been relatively easy for the Bruins to get to the Penguins goal, whether Tomas Vokoun or Marc-Andre Fleury is trying to protect it. Fleury replaced Vokoun after Krejci, the NHL post-season leading scorer, gave Boston a 3-0 lead at 16:31 of the first Monday night. "We gave up the first goal both games and, from there, everyone is trying to do it on their own," Vokoun said, "its just not going to work." Bylsma hasnt said who will start Wednesday. "I think theres going to be some changes to our lineup," he said, "and some of our combinations, our lines." No need for the Bruins to change anything. All four lines have been productive. The defensive pairings have been strong. And Rask has been outstanding, stopping 55 of 56 shots in the series. Overall, the Bruins have won seven of their last eight games with a 30-15 scoring advantage. "Our teams playing probably its best hockey this year right now," Julien said, "but so is Tuukka. I think hes been unbelievable so far in this series." The Penguins also have been unbelievable -- the other way. Who would have expected an offence with Crosby, Letang and Evgeni Malkin to be so awful? "We know that were looked upon to score and produce," Crosby said. "We have to find ways to create chances and put the puck in the net. Im not going to sit here and say its Rask or anything theyre doing. We have to get better. "Thats the way it is." ' ' '