Coming soon to a newspaper near you.

Every now and then something in the newspaper strikes me as odd and I dash off a letter to the editor. I'm sure they enjoy hearing from me, a loyal reader and all. I've written to the sports page before, but they generally ignore me. I guess I don't have enough vitriol for the typical Philadelphia sports fan. They usually run stuff about how this guy "sucks" or that one should be deported.

A tiny piece in Tuesday's paper got me to open up the e-mail. The 2008 baseball Hall of Fame ballot was announced, and there are no clear cut choices for the Hall. There are two first-timers on there, but neither of them I would deem worthy of induction. If the Hall and their voters do the right thing, they will elect no one, but the ceremony is hugely tied-into the local economy, ESPN and baseball itself that they will be forced to elect a player who has appeared on the ballot several times before and has not gotten the requisite number of votes.

The likely victor will be Jim Rice, who has fallen short every year since 1995. He may or may not be worthy, but why now? Because they need somebody for the party. Rich Gossage could go too, if they wanted to make a big deal out of it. He has failed to be elected since 1999.

In my opinion, Rice should have been in the Hall by now. What will likely happen this year is, in the long run right, but for the wrong reasons. Jim hasn't played a game in almost 20 years, yet his vote totals will change based on ... what exactly?

So, check your Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, as I have been promised that my brief missive will appear in the sports section:

Tim Raines and David Justice are the top two first-timers on the 2008 Hall of Fame ballot [Sports in Brief, Nov 27] and neither of them are worthy of induction. That leaves other players (notably Jim Rice and Rich Gossage) to be elected after failing several times, by virtue of the fact that the Hall has a weekend reserved for the ceremony, and a large part of Cooperstown's tourism money comes from it.
How much guts would it take for the Hall and its voters to say that none of these players are worthy of induction? It would take guts that they don't have, which is why Rice may finally be a Hall of Famer in 2008, even if it is not on merit.