Tony Fernandez joins Canadian baseball hall

Beloved former Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Tony Fernandez will headline this year's inductees to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Winner of five all-star nominations and four gold gloves, Fernandez is the Jays' all-time franchise leader in games played (1450), at bats (5335), hits (1583) and triples (72).

Fernandez will be honoured at an induction ceremony in St. Marys, Ont., in June, along with:

• Late Jays chair Peter Widdrington, a Toronto native.
• Baseball organizer Gladwyn Scott, a native of Hamiota, Man.
• Billy Harris, a native of Duguayville, N.B., and former Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher.

"This is a great privilege, not just to be inducted into another country's baseball Hall of Fame, but also to be inducted at the same time with Peter Widdrington," Fernandez told the Canadian Hall of Fame from his native Dominican Repuiblic.

Widdrington, a former Jays owner, was chair during the 1992 and 1993 World Series championship seasons. He passed away in 2005 at age 74.

Scott enjoyed a long and distinguished career in amateur baseball, coaching on Canada's first national team, which played in the 1967 Pan American Games.

Scott was also president of the Manitoba Baseball Association and a vice-president with Baseball Canada.

"This is a wonderful honour," said Scott from his Manitoba home, "real icing on the cake for my 60-year love affair with baseball."

Harris played the majority of his 15-season professional career in the minors, though he started once for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1957 and played in relief for Los Angeles in 1959.

He amassed 174 wins and 1,373 strikeouts over his career, and is perhaps best remembered for being stuck behind some of the greatest pitchers of all time (including Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen and Johnny Podres) in the Dodgers' system.

"I swear to God, this is the greatest thrill of my life," said an exuberant Harris upon hearing news of his induction.