It is one of the best classes inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

It was also obvious that as a group, they had tremendous respect for each other. It was reflected in the time they spent together and how they talked about each other.

And well they should. It’s an all-star induction class.

The 2015 inductees include Carlos Delgado, one of the greatest hitters in Toronto Blue Jays history; Matt Stairs and Corey Koskie, Canadians who battled their way through the system to have outstanding Major League careers with several teams including the Blue Jays; Felipe Alou, a player, manager and baseball executive who has been in baseball more than 60 years and led the Montreal Expos to some of their most successful seasons; and Bob Elliott, aToronto Sun newspaper columnist and author who is known throughout the baseball world and respected for his knowledge of the game and trust he’s forged with the baseball community as a writer.

The five were inducted into the Hall Saturday in a formal ceremony on the grounds on the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in St Marys.

It was the culmination of three days of events. Hundreds of visitors invaded downtown St. Marys to take part in the baseball festival. The streets were a sea of Blue Jay blue, with the occasional ripple of a Montreal Expos’ blue jersey thrown into the mix.

Prior to the induction, the five inductees talked about what the day meant to them. It didn’t take long for all them to talk about each other, their memories and how happy they were to be inducted in such a strong class.

“To me the coolest thing is to sit through the weekend going through the events with these guys, is just hearing the stories,” Koskie said. “Everyone has a story about where they came from, what they accomplished.”

There was genuine emotion and more than a few laughs as the players talked about each other.

“I never told Matt this but when we played against him, we called him ‘Softball Sammy,’” laughed Koskie. “He would go up there and swing as hard as he could every time. He was fun to watch play . . . He never got cheated.”

He also said that playing against Delgado “was not a lot of fun . . . You never knew where to pitch him.”

Koskie called Elliott an “icon.”

“You knew he was going to be fair,” Koskie said.

Stairs, signed as a free agent by the Montreal Expos, put together a 19-year career. He had great power numbers and wound up as one of the best pinch-hitters of all time.

“I’ve known Corey since 1989. We shared the same agent,” said Stairs, who has known Elliott since 1984. “And Felipe Alou was my first big-league manager.

“There’s a lot of history with all these guys in the class of 2015. Being Canadian . . . going into the Baseball Hall of Fame . . . one word: honour.”

Led by Stairs, the group took selfies of each other outside as fans looked on. Looking at the crowds along mainstreet St. Marys, it spoke volumes about how far baseball has come in Canada, especially to the two Canadian players.

“I was a hockey guy, a volleyball guy, baseball was something I played to fill the summer,” Koskie said. “I enjoyed playing it . . . Over time I grew a passion for it and I saw the benefit of baseball in society. The one thing baseball has as it relates to the game of life, no matter what you did the day before, you wake up the next day and you are 0-for-0, you get a clean slate . . . It’s really exciting for me to see this game of baseball grow in Canada.”

Alou is a quiet-spoken individual who spent parts of 10 seasons with the Expos. He holds the franchise record for wins, leading the Expos to three second-place finishes. His club likely would have won the pennant in 1994 but a strike ended the season prematurely.

But he delivered the home run on the day.

“This is one of the greatest days in my baseball career,” he said. “I had the chances to play with my two brothers on the same team. That’s something incredible. I managed my son (Moises Alou) on two Major League teams. But this is one of the greatest days.

“Before I felt that was more French Canadian with the Expos, I have a wife and children. Right now . . . I have a feeling that I belong to the entire country of Canada because of this induction.”