The continued growth of Notinhalloffame.com continues, as we have added three new names to our 2024 Hockey Futures; the former hockey players who are eligible for the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2024.

The three new names are:

Braydon Coburn:  Coburn was a Defenseman for many years who won a Stanley Cup with Tampa in 2020.

Patrick Marleau:  A San Jose Shark for the bulk of his career, Marleau logged a record 1,779 Games with 1,197 Points.  The Forward went to three All-Star Games, and won two Olympic Gold Medals representing Canada.

Pavel Datsyuk:  Datsyuk played his entire NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings, winning two Stanley Cups, four Lady Byngs and three Frank J. Selke Trophies.

They join:

Carl Gunnarson, David Backes, Jussi Jokinen, Mikko Koivu, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Pekka Rinne, Ryan Miller and Travis Zajac.

The entire 2024 Hockey Eligible Section can be found here.

As always, we thank you for your support!

We have not done a great job looking at the Metal Hall of Fame, but that changes today!

Yesterday, it was announced that Twisted Sister will be inducted to the Metal Hall at the sixth annual gala.  It will take place on January 26, 2023 at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California.

Honored will be Twisted Sister’s original lineup of Dee Snider, Jay Jay French, Eddie Ojeda, Mark Mendoza and the late A.J. Pero.  Formed in the early 80s, Twisted Sister broke through with their third album, “Stay Hungry”, which yielded the hits, “I Wanna Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, the latter remaining a protest anthem to this day.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Twisted Sister for their impending honor.

Shin-Soo Choo was the MVP of the 2000 WSBC U-18 World Cup, an event won by his native South Korea, but he did so as a Pitcher.  The Seattle Mariners believed that his future in MLB was as an Outfielder, and they signed him in 2005.  They were right.

Choo only played 14 Games for Seattle before he was traded to Cleveland, and he became an everyday player in 2009, where he had back-to-back seasons of 20 Home Runs and a .300 Batting Average.  Traded to Cincinnati for the 2012 Season, Choo made history that year as the first South Korean batter to hit a Home Run in the Playoffs.  He departed the state of Ohio as a Free Agent, with the Texas Rangers as his landing spot.

Joining a contending Rangers team, Choo had four more 20-Home Run years and was an All-Star for the first and only time in 2018.  Retiring after 2020, Choo had 218 Home Runs, 1,671 Hits, and a lifetime OBP of .377.  He will likely be the first of many successful Korean baseball players in MLB.

The first half of Ryan Braun's career looked like it was on a Hall of Fame trajectory.  A two-time All-American at the University of Miami, Braun was considered a five-tool prospect and was the fifth overall pick in 2005, and he rose quickly, entering the Majors in 2007.

It was a great rookie campaign for Braun, winning the National League Rookie of the Year in a season where he belted 34 Home Runs and won the Slugging Title (.634) in a 113 Game year.  Braun was a top star the next five seasons, a perennial All-Star in that span, with him also collecting five straight Silver Sluggers.  Braun had at least 25 Home Runs and 100 RBIs in all of those five campaigns, winning the Home Run Title in 2012 (41) and the MVP the year before when he batted .332 (a career-high), blasted 33 Home Runs and led the league in Slugging (.597) and OPS (.994).  He also was the MVP runner u in 2012 and was third in voting in 2008.

It all came tumbling down when a positive (very positive) PED test was released in late October, and Braun was able to get the suspension overturned on a technicality, all the while (falsely) accusing the tester of being an Antisemitic.  Two years later, Braun was suspended when he was linked to Biogenesis, and he was forever labeled a steroid cheat.  

He was never the same player afterward, though he was still a bona fide everyday player, just not a superstar.  Braun retired after the 2020 Season, leaving Baseball with 1,963 Hits, a .296 Batting Average, 352 Home Runs, and 1,154 RBIs, all of which are more than respectable statistics.

Even without the PED scandal, is Braun still on the wrong side of the Hall of Fame ledger? He probably is, but Brewers fans knew for a time that they had a top-five star.  Not many baseball players can make that claim.