Shameless, indeed. One of the cheapest publicity stunts even my devious mind can imagine, not to mention incredibly inconsistent and downright moronic.

As many of you know, I do think Pete belongs in Cooperstown, and wouldn't exclude him from St. Mary's because of "character" issues, but this plan is ridiculous. Babe Ruth isn't in the CBHoF, and he hit his first professional HR into the lake off Hanlon's Point! I heard that Sadaharu Oh once changed planes in Vancouver, and he's not a member either.

They've inducted Gary Carter, so Dave Stieb is a glaring omission. Gillick and Gaston and Beeston are in, so why not Tony Fernandez, Tom Henke, Youppi and BJ Birdy? The mascots may not be more worthy than Joe Carter or Robbie Alomar, but they're far more deserving than Rose.

He won't get in... unless the nominating committee members really want to ingratiate themselves with the money people. And Kirk McCaskill, who does everything he can to disclaim his Canadian connection, certainly shouldn't get in either. I would certainly support Carter.

Having inducted eight bajillion guys per year for the last few years, the CBHoF is starting to run out of potential inductees. Maybe it's just me, but they really should have put a few of those inductions off.

Sparky Anderson and Tommy Lasorda are strange potential candidates (I doubt either of them will get in). Those two, along with Pete Rose, are just famous Americans who happened to play in Canada for a while. Roger Clemens would be a better choice for the CBHoF.

An amusing story from last year: When Paul Beeston was inducted, Donald Fehr was at the ceremony in support of him, but no one from MLB's head office showed up.

Ryan, I saw Sparky play in Toronto (I was 10; the whole world was still black-and-white) and he got his start as a manager here. The only reason he didn't stay longer was the Maple Leafs changed affiliations; when they became a Red Sox farm team, we got another great skipper, Dick Williams, who won two IL pennants. I guess neither one is as deserving as Cito Gaston, who's already in the Hall, but they were up here a lot longer than Charlie Hustle.

There were some great Leafs players (Jim Lonborg, Reggie Smith, George Scott...) who won titles in Toronto, then moved up to Boston and helped them win the AL flag in 1967; all of them are worthy of consideration if they open the doors any wider, but as Craig suggests, the standards may already be low.

Lasorda's playing career was before even my time, and those of you who know him only as Don Rickles' pasta-loving pal may be surprised at this, from Baseball Library.com:

Lasorda compiled a 98-49 record in nine years with Montreal of the International League, the Dodgers' top farm club, 1950-1955 and 1958-1960. His best records were 17-8 in 1953 and 18-6 in 1958, when he led the league in victories, complete games, and shutouts. Lasorda helped Montreal to the International League championship five times.

Considering where he went from there, and how long he was in Canada, Tommy should be a lock. Why isn't he enshrined already?

Thanks for the info. I hadn't realized Lasorda spent that much time in Montreal. I guess we can thank the reserve clause for that one. In my lifetime, just spending three years with the same minor league team has been rare.

According to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, they normally don't release the names of the nominees, but in this case the person who nominated Rose (Tony Riviera, Chairman of the Canadian Baseball League) was going to make his nomination public. The CBHoF is claiming that this wasn't a publicity stunt. Here's their press release.