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Tonight is big night for four very deserving men.

Sal LoCasio, Johnny Mouradian and Tony Resch will be inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame, while my colleague at The Canadian Press - Neil Stevens - will be honored for all his hard work and column inches of print covering the league over the years.

Personally, I’ve not spoken to Sal or Tony during my time covering the NLL but Johnny has always treated me with great respect and made himself available to talk shop or provide quotes whenever I called.

And while some may feel media folk deserve no honor associated with the Hall, trying to convince editors that the NLL deserves main-stream coverage and fighting for it, as Neil did, is often tougher than dropping the mitts with Geoff Snider or trying to go one-on-one with Brodie Merrill.

Tonight marks the third year of Hall-of-Fame festivities for the league. So, time for a quick history lesson. Skip ahead if you already know all this.

In 2006, the inaugural and likely greatest-ever-when-all-is-said-and-done class was inducted. Gary and Paul Gait were joined by Russ Cline, Chris Fritz and the late Les Bartley as the league finally formed a shrine to honor the greatest players, coaches, builders and, to a lesser extent of course, media who helped shape the league and make it what it is today.

Last year, Darris Kilgour, Tom Marechek and Mike French joined the list along with another scribe, Tom Borelli of the Buffalo News.

Hall of Fames can be tricky business for pro sports leagues. Baseball has easily the most political one of them all. It takes years to get in and sports writers, who vote on the inductees, often make players wait several years as they slowly acrue enough votes to earn their way in.

The NHL, on the other hand, gets critisized for letting too many players in and cheapening the honor.

The NFL makes a production of its honorees but you’re more likely to hear someone described as a perennial Pro Bowler than a potential Hall-of-Famer.

And as for the NBA - do they even have a Hall of Fame?

So far, the NLL has done things the right way. The league has maintained control of naming who goes in and kept the classes small. Defining what a Hall-of-Fame career entails is always open for debate but some element of exclusivity does give more prestige and merit to those who make the Hall, as it should.

That said, I want to congratulate Sal, Tony, Johnny and Neil. Take a bow gents, you deserve it.

TOTH SITS, YOU KNOW WHAT HITS THE FAN

There’s been plenty of talk since Calgary’s coaching staff opted to sit Kaleb Toth in Sunday’s win over Colorado.

The bugaboo spread from the confines of the Saddledome - were there was a noticable buzz about it - to message boards everywhere.

Toth, who has been having a subpar season, to put it mildly, has been the face of the franchise since Day 1, done more off the floor to promote the team that can fit in this column, and had yet to miss a game in Roughnecks silks since the club’s inaugural tilt, the infamous 32-17 whitewashing at the hands of the Montreal Express.

Oh, and he played through some painful injuries and nasty bugs more than a few times to try and help his team and no doubt keep the streak alive.

His popularity in Calgary has made for a nasty debate on Wingszone.

Folks have formed two lines on this matter - The ‘you have to be kidding, the coaches are jerks-idiots-losers (insert some nastier terms here) for sitting him out’ faction and the ‘this is pro sports, if a guy is playing bad he sits’ camp.

At the root of this, though, is a ‘you can’t have it both ways’ story.

What I find funny is that many fans had a problem with former coach Chris Hall ‘playing favorites’ and ‘sitting on his hands’ when the team played poorly. Now, it’s Troy Cordingley and Terry Sanderson getting heat for making a decision to try and halt the skid.

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

ALL-STAR TALLY
So, the league released the all-star starters this week. No major surprises but some interesting picks. Glad to see guys like Zywicki and Iannucci getting their just rewards. I wouldn’t say I’m against any of the picks, although I choose a few different names:

EAST DIVISION STARTERS
F Athan Iannucci, Philadelphia (check)

F John Tavares, Buffalo (check)

F John Grant, Rochester (Voted for Jake Bergey. Read my past column for reasons why).

T Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo (check)

D Ryan Cousins, Minnesota (check)

G Nick Patterson, Minnesota (Went with Bob Watson. Think Patterson is future of league but Whipper has been stellar this season given his supporting cast).

WEST DIVISION STARTERS
F Jeff Zywicki, San Jose (Check)

F Dan Carey, Colorado (Check)

F Gavin Prout, Colorado (Went with Colin Doyle. Prout has a ton of assists but his shooting percentage has been terrible).

T Brodie Merrill, Portland (I voted for Jeff Shattler. Did I have any doubt it would be Merrill? Not one).

D Eric Martin, San Jose (I went with John Gallant but can’t argue this pick).

G Gee Nash, Colorado (Check).

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