On Wednesday, finalists will be announced for the inaugural class of inductees to the College Baseball Hall of Fame, which somehow made it all the way to the 21st century without, you know, existing.

The preliminary ballot, currently being considered by some 80 voters nationwide, is a comprehensive list of the predictable suspects such as Will Clark, Robin Ventura, Dave Winfield, former Arizona State coach Jim Brock (a Hall of Fame lock just for putting up with Barry Bonds for a couple of years), and the near mythical collegiate force that was none other than Pete "Inky" Incaviglia.

Bobby Layne -- A fixture with the Steelers of the 1950s Click photo for larger image.

Incaviglia, who would go on to hit 206 big-league homers for six teams, though never more than 30 in any one summer, jacked 48 of 'em in the magical springtime of 1985 for Oklahoma State, drove in 143 runs and flashed an unthinkable slugging percentage of 1.140, all numbers standing even today as Division I records.

Inasmuch as the culture has found a place for such dubious establishments as the Lacrosse Hall of Fame (in Baltimore), the Trap Shooting Hall of Fame (Vandalia, Ohio), and even the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame (Hayward, Wis.), athletic accomplishments like Inky's probably deserve some kind of immortalizing arrangement.

More pressingly, it is a good thing that a College Baseball Hall of Fame might compel us to note some forgotten facet of baseball excellence, such as what was sculpted by a legendary Steelers old-timer, a storied thrower not even Steelers chairman Dan Rooney knew even played baseball -- Robert Lawrence "Bobby" Layne.

The late University of Texas quarterback, who won three NFL titles with the Detroit Lions in the '50s and later carved his Steelers legend as much in taprooms up and down Route 51 as he did drawing plays in the dirt in the team's huddle, won 26 consecutive games as a hard-throwing right-hander for the Longhorns' baseball team in the late 1940s.

"What a man he was," Rooney said the other day. "I don't think he would have made a great coach because I don't think great players make great coaches, and his other activities, uh, might have kept him out of it, too, but I remember like it was yesterday picking him up at the airport when we traded for him.

"He was coming in from Detroit, and I was driving him to South Park, where we practiced. He fired questions at me all the way. He had questions about our players, about everything I knew about them, and I'd question him about some things. It was a phenomenal conversation. I took him into that crazy place where we used to dress, introduced him to the equipment manager and some other people. We used to go down these steps to the field there, and I always say that on that first day, the moment he hit that bottom step, he was in charge."

That was in 1958, and while he quickly impressed his teammates and to a lesser extent management with his ability to stay out drinking all night before a game and still play brilliantly ("I sleep fast," he said), he also coaxed from what was then a pretty sorry organization consecutive winning seasons for the first time in its history.

Coaching legend Paul Brown called Layne the best third-down quarterback he had ever seen, likely the result of a game-winning 80-yard, 69-second drive Layne engineered against Brown's Browns in the 1953 NFL Championship game. When Cleveland beat Detroit in the '54 title game, 54-10, Layne had ready the obvious explanation: "I slept too much last night."

Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967 despite rather ordinary career stats -- 196 touchdown passes against 243 interceptions and a completion percentage of 49.0, Layne isn't the only member of the College Football Hall of Fame with a shot at the new baseball version. Jackie Jensen, a defensive back and punter at the University of California, where he once pitched against and beat Layne in an NCAA tournament game, is also on the ballot. He played 11 seasons in the American League with the Yankees, Senators and Red Sox, and is one of only two men, with Chuck Essegian, to play in the Rose Bowl and the World Series.

Here's hoping both make it, and that one day we'll be able to bring you news of the first member of the Pro Football, College Baseball, Trap Shooting, and Rock 'n' Roll Halls of Fame. Hey, it could happen.