Barry Bonds had his #25 retired by the San Francisco Giants today and while that is news to us, the bigger deal by far is the public endorsement he received for the Baseball Hall of Fame by Willie Mays, who was on hand to honor Bonds had this to say during the ceremony:

“Give somebody honor that deserves to be in the Hall of Fame…When you get there you’ll say ‘Man, how did I get here?’ And I want him to have that honor. On behalf of all the people in San Francisco and the country, vote this guy in!”

His decree was meant by a huge ovation at AT&T Park.

Mays was with the Giants for the best run of his first ballot Hall of Fame career and is the godfather to Bonds. Bonds’ Hall of Fame momentum is gaining as he received 56.4% of the ballot last year, well up from the 36.2% he had on his first year of eligibility, which was in 2013. He has four more years on the ballot.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Barry Bonds on receiving this honor and for what it is worth we agree with Willie Mays.

The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame has announced their Class of 2018 and while this is not exactly a class that is “star-studded” this is group of five who all deserve their place in Eveleth, Minnesota.

Let’s look at the new members shall we?

Red Berenson: From Canada, Red Berenson played in the NHL for seventeen seasons and would become a coach immediately after his playing career ended. Berenson won the Jack Adams Award in 1981 while coaching the St. Louis Blues, but he would return to his alma mater, the University of Michigan where he would become their head coach in 1984 and would stay until 2017. He would win 848 Games in NCAA competition and two NCAA Titles (1996 & 1998)

Natalie Darwitz: Darwitz played for the United States on three Olympic Teams (2002, 2006 & 2010) and was on three IIHF World Women’s Championship Teams (2005, 2008 & 2009).

Leland Harrington: Harrington played for the Boston Bruins for two seasons in the 1920’s and played 32 Games with the Montreal Canadiens in the 30’s. He will be inducted posthumously as he passed away in 1959.

David Poile: Poile is the all-time record holder in Wins for a General Manager with 1,333 Wins. Poile served as the Washington Capitals GM for 15 years and took over the same role for the expansion Nashville Predators in 1997, a position he still holds today. He also served as the General Manager for the U.S. World Hockey Championship teams of 1988 and 1999 and the U.S. Olympic Team in 2014.

Paul Stewart: Stewart played 21 Games for the Quebec Nordiques in the 1979-80 season but he would later become a referee in the NHL for seventeen seasons. Stewart is the only American to have played and refereed in the NHL.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the newest members of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

This is a very sad day in the world of hockey and the city of Chicago as it was announced that Stan Mikita passed away at the age of 78 following a long battle with Dementia.

Born in the former Czechoslovakia and raised in Canada, Mikita first debuted in the National Hockey League in the 1958-59 season with the Chicago Blackhawks, the team in which he would play for during his entire professional career.

Mikita would help Chicago win the 1961 Stanley Cup but while this was the only Cup he would win, his career would actually be more productive after that title. After greatly reducing his penalty minutes, Mikita would become a more balanced player and the Centre would win the Art Ross Trophy four times over a five year period (1963-64 to 1967-68) while also leading the NHL in Assists three times. Mikita would go back-to-back winning both the MVP and Lady Byng (1966-67 & 1967-68) becoming the first player to ever to do so. Over his career he would be a nine time All Star, a six time First Team All Star, a two time Second Team All Star and he would enter the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983. He would score 1,467 Points over his career, which again was all with the Chicago Blackhawks.

There were few players who competed at the level of Stan Mikita.

On this dark day, we feel the need to take a road trip to Aurora, Illinois and visit Stan Mikita’s Doughnuts.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends and family of Stan Mikita.

Well this is interesting.

As we all know, Terrell Owens skipped the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony in Canton, Ohio and had his own in Chattanooga, Tennessee at his alma mater. Apparently, the Hall is feeling a little embarrassed by the spectacle and wants to ensure that this does not happen again.

This news comes from Pro Football Talk, which reported that the institution wants to enforce a rule change that would force all inductees to attend the ceremony in Canton. It is not sure how they can enforce that though the speculation is that once a candidate reaches the Semi-Finalist stage they would have to sign a waiver stating that they would attend the ceremony.

In our eyes, this is a strange action by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. During Owens’ speech he stated that the reason he boycotted Canton was that he was protesting the Hall of Fame selection process, which he viewed as flawed.

Specifically, he stated this during the ceremony:

“Many of you are probably wondering why we’re here, instead of Canton. I’d like to set the record straight. It’s about the mere fact that the sportswriters are not in alignment with the mission core values of the Hall of Fame. These writers disregarded the system, the criteria and by-laws and ultimately, the true meaning of the Hall of Fame and what it represents. I wanted to take a stand so the next gut coming after me will not have to go through what I, and others have gone through.”

Honestly, we here at Notinhalloffame.com have been vocal about our belief that Terrell Owens should have entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot with all due respect he wasn’t even close to being the person who had a long wait for enshrinement…that would be Jerry Kramer who waited decades and until this past weekend was the only member of the NFL 50th anniversary team not to be enshrined. If Owens feels snubbed, we wonder if he had a long conversation with Jerry Kramer on that subject.

We don’t think he did either.

Having said that the actions of Terrell Owens were his right to do. While we weren’t enamored of it the fact that the Pro Football Hall of Fame are now looking to create a policy to prevent this seems very totalitarian to us, especially considering that there was a good chance that what Terrell Owens did would be a “one-off” and that we are unlikely to see this again, but with the political climate of the NFL, unnecessary rules may not help potential inductees to “tow the line”.

Chances are that the T.O. Hall of Fame drama is over and it is unlikely that we will see this occur again…whether they try to enforce this or not.