CYBERSPORTS SAY IT AIN'T SO: THAT'S REALLY THE BAT OF ``SHOELESS'' JOE?

Byline: - Tom Hoffarth

It's a crooked, beat-up piece of hand-whittled hickory, a brown stick with some black tape and deep black indentations left by batted balls - and rocks. That's because Joe Jackson used to let the neighborhood kids play with it after he retired from baseball.

And, if you've got about $3 million, you can have it.

``Shoeless'' Joe Jackson, maybe the greatest player other than Pete Rose not to make the Hall of Fame (because of his connection to the 1919 Black Sox scandal) used other bats during his 13-year major-league career. But somehow, this one, called ``Black Betsy,'' became the most famous. He used it more probably during his barnstorming days when he was banned from the game, which adds even more mystery.

The auction for ``Black Betsy'' remains on eBay.com through Aug. 7, with a minimum bid of $500,000 sought. The company consigned to selling it, Real Legends Inc., thinks it can squeeze at least $3 million out of it.

There are also sites for some background on the company (www.reallegends.com) and detailed info on the life of ``Shoeless'' Joe (www.blackbetsy.com).

--SportsLine.com, which recently took over production of the NFL's official Web site, announced a $26.4 million loss in its second-quarter financial report, but it also says it has $74.1 million remaining in cash.

Earlier this year, SportsLine.com said it planned to break even by the end of the year, but now it is forecasting the fourth quarter of 2002 as that point.

--Major League Baseball Advanced Media has launched something called ``Custom Cuts,'' which offers users the ability to create their own video highlights at MLB.com.