Just three months after becoming the first Venezuelan to win the World Series MVP award, Pablo Sandoval is celebrating a new feat, the championship win of his team in Venezuela.

Sandoval helped lead his team, the Navegantes del Magallanes, to an 11-9 win on Wednesday night in the final game of the championship series over the Cardenales.

The Mets are reluctant to sign Michael Bourn as they would have to surrender a first-round draft pick as compensation for the free agent.

"The blueprint here is to rebuild the farm system at the same time that we try to be competitive. For us to lose a first-round pick would be counter to that approach," Sandy Alderson said during an interview Sunday morning on SiriusXM Radio.

Jeff Katz wants everyone to know that Cooperstown will be OK, according to an ESPN.com report on Wednesday.

The mayor of the small village in upstate New York that houses the Hall of Fame and Museum says not having a living inductee this summer won't put his town's stores out of business.

"The idea that this will seriously hurt our town is just not true," Katz said.

Pete Rose hopes he can provide a few lessons in patience to the rest of his sport's tarnished superstars who failed to be elected to the Hall of Fame, according to an ESPN.com report on Thursday.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes," Rose said over lunch in Sherman Oaks. "I'm in no hurry, unless you know something I don't know. You just have to try to be a productive citizen and live your life, and hopefully someday somebody calls you and says, 'Hey, we want to give you a second chance.' I won't need a third, and believe me, nobody is going to find me betting on baseball. What's that old cliche? I don't bet on baseball because I know too much about it."

Craig Biggio thinks he might have been bypassed for the Hall of Fame because he was on the ballot for the first time with several player's linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

Biggio received the highest vote total in a year that produced no electees to Cooperstown on Wednesday. 

"I think it's kind of unfair, but it's the reality of the era that we played in," he said. "Obviously some guys are guilty and others aren't, and it's painful for the ones that weren't."

Roger Clemens, named on 37.6 percent of 569 ballots, far short of the 75 percent he needed, expressed a mixture of disappointment and resignation that he was not elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

"After what has been written and said over the last few years, I'm not overly surprised," Clemens wrote via Twitter. 

The next group of players eligible for the first time to be elected into the Hall of Fame is loaded with talent, according to an MLB.com report on Wednesday.

Pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine join Frank Thomas to lead a group of newcomers with the types of accomplishments of which Hall of Famers are made.