Pierre Turgeon Makes the Hall of Fame ... for Little League Baseball

Q. What do Cal Ripken, Jr., Rudolph Giuliani, Kevin Costner and Pierre Turgeon have in common?
A. All of them have (or will) be inducted into The Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum Hall of Excellence -- and none of them have played (or will play) in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Yes, Pierre Turgeon -- all 515 goals and 1,327 NHL regular season points of him -- will become the first native of Canada to be enshrined in the Hall at a ceremony before the U.S. championship game in Williamsport, Pa. on Aug. 25. In 1982, Turgeon and the Canadian National Champion Rotary Little League came within two wins of the Little League World Series title, according to Little League online:

In that year's World Series Tournament, Canada finished with a 1-2 record. Mr. Turgeon pitched a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts and no walks in Canada's 3-0 victory over the Europe Region champion from Torrejon Air Force Base of Madrid, Spain. Later in the tournament, Canada lost, 10-7, to eventual World Series runner-up Pu-Tzu Town Little League representing Chinese Taipei, then was defeated, 7-4, by the Central Region champion Pinery Park Little League from Wyoming, Mich. Mr. Turgeon finished the tournament with a 1-1 pitching record. At the plate, he went 5-for-9 with three doubles, five runs batted in, and three runs scored.

Turgeon is one of a handful of NHL players who appeared in the Little League World Series. Chris Drury was a pitcher on the Trumbull, Conn. team that won the title in 1989; Stephane Matteau was also in the LLWS, years before Slava Fetisov's inept defense in front of Marty Brodeur cemented his name in New York sports history.

OK, so that's one Hall of Fame for Pierre; what are the chances he'll be enshrined in that other one up in Toronto, a.k.a. Wayne Gretzky's storage bin? The recently retired Turgeon is 27th in NHL history for points scored, with a higher points per game average (1.03) than Doug Gilmour (0.96) and Luc Robitaille (0.97). My FanHouse buddy Jes Golbez believes Turgeon's lack of any significant hardware (sorry, Lady Byng) or Stanley Cup experience shouldn't count against him; I, on the other hand, believe immortality should mean something more than an undistinguished career and having been on the receiving end of Dale Hunter's coping mechanism.