Music lost one of the legendary composers/songwriters with the passing of Burt Bacharach, who passed away at the age of 94.

Bacharach is considered one of the greatest songwriters of all-time, having written or cowritten staples in the Easy Listening genre.  His fingerprints were all over 73 U.S. top 40 hits which included these songs:

“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (Gene Pitney)

“Only Love Can Break a Heart” (Gene Pitney)

“Don’t Make Me Over” (Dionne Warwick)

“Blue on Blue” (Bobby Vinton)

“Close to You” (The Carpenters)

“Walk On By” (Dionne Warwick)

“What the World Needs Now Is Love” (Jackie DeShannon)

“What’s New Pussycat” (Tom Jones)

“The Look of Love” (Dusty Springfield)

“I Say a Little Prayer” (Dionne Warwick)

“Do You Know the Way to San Jose” (Dionne Warwick)

“This Guy’s in Love with You” (Herb Alpert)

“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (B.J. Thomas)

“Arthur’s Theme” (Christopher Cross)

“That’s What Friends are For” (Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick)

“On My Own” (Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald)

Bacharach also won six Grammy Awards and three Oscars for his work.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Burt Bacharach.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022 revision of our top Houston Astros.

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Houston won their second World Series, and they are blessed with young talent, two of which make their first appearance on this list.

As always, we present our top five, which was not impacted by last season:

1. Jeff Bagwell

2. Craig Biggio                        

3. Jose Altuve

4. Lance Berkman

5. Cesar Cedeno

You can find the entire list here.

Despite his good year, Altuve was unable to pass Biggio for #2.

Justin Verlander, who won the Cy Young, and is now with the New York Mets, jumped from #19 to #11; an impressive feat considering the relative brevity of his Astros career.

Infielder, Alex Bregman, moved up two spots to #14.

Yuli Gurriel also moved up by two, with a new rank of #35.

Designated Hitter, Yordan Alvarez, makes his debut at #37 and Outfielder, Kyle Tucker, comes in at #45.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

The Fifth Overall Pick in 2015, Kyle Tucker worked his way in three years to the make it to the Astros, but he only batted .141 in his brief stay.  2019 was a little better, batting .269 in 67 At Bats, but the shortened 2020 season was when Tucker was there to stay.

In 58 Games in that COVID-plagued year, Tucker led the AL in Triples (6), batted .268 with 9 Home Runs.  The Astros made it to the World Series, albeit in a losing effort, but it looked like Tucker was on the verge of a breakout; and he was.

The Astros won the Pennant again (though again lost) and Tucker was a much bigger contributor.  Powering 30 Home Runs, with a .294 Batting Average, Tucker was 20^th in MVP voting, was named an All-MLB Team 2 Selection, and had an even better 2022.  Tucker matched his 30 Home Runs, but had more RBIs (107), won a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger, and again was named to the All-MLB Team 2 squad.  The Astros and Tucker won the World Series in 2022, but there was so much more for teh RIghtfielder to accomplish in Houston.

In 2023, Tucker had his best season to date, finishing fifth in MVP voting, smacking 29 Home Runs and leading the AL in RBIs (112).  Tucker also added his third All-MLB Team 2, second All-Star and first Silver Slugger.  After another strong year in 2024 that was cut short by injury, he still added his third straight All-Star, but that is where his productive stay in Houston ended, as he was traded to the Cubs after the season.

With the Astros, Tucker had 615 Hits with 125 Home Runs.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our post 2021 revision of our top Texas Rangers.

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Texas signed some talent, but was not able to do much in regards to the standings and were basement dwellers.  There was a returnee, that allowed a new entrant to the Top 50, but that did not impact the upper tier.

As always, we present our top five, which was not impacted by last season:

1. Ivan Rodriguez

2. Rafael Palmeiro

3. Juan Gonzalez

4. Adrian Beltre

5. Frank Howard

You can find the entire list here.

The only new entrant on the list is All-Star and Starting Pitcher, Martin Perez, who debuts at #45.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.