We would like to congratulate Tom Cheek for entering the Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously for his work as the Toronto Blue Jays play by play announcer on radio. Cheek called the first 4,306 regular season game for Toronto and has the signature call of “Touch em all Joe! You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life” when Jays’ outfielder, Joe Carter belted the home run that cemented Toronto’s second consecutive World Series in the mid 90’s. Cheek is the winner of the Ford Frick Award for Broadcasting Excellence. This award reminds us how much the Baseball Hall of Fame matters in the canon that is North American Sports.

As you have noticed, we have added the 2014 Basketball Futures. Well, onward and upward here at notinhalloffame.com and we have now uploaded the 2015 group. Now granted, this is not a very large one as we only have two players who will be eligible that year for your consideration.

They are:

Dikembe Mutombo

Wally Szczerbiak

As always, you know what to do! Check them out and cast your votes and give your opinions.

Today the Pre-Integration Committee (from Baseball’s beginnings to 1947) has announced that there will be three new members to the Baseball Hall of Fame. To become elected, the nominees on the ballot, which contained six former players, and four non-players had to receive at least 12 of 16 (75%) votes to enter.

Of the three selected, only one was a player. That was Deacon White, a barehanded Catcher in the 1870’s. White twice won the Batting Title and was a three time leader in Runs Batted In. He was ranked #30 on our notinhalloffame baseball list.

White will be joined by former New York Yankees owner, Jacob Ruppert who under his watch turned the Yankees into the biggest franchise in sports (of which some say they still are). Former umpire, Hank O’Daywas also selected.

Our top choice, Bill Dahlen (#6 on our list) received ten votes and will likely be on future Pre-Integration ballots. Nobody else on the ballot was even close as Marty Marion, Bucky Walters, Sam Breadon, Wes Ferrell, Tony Mullane and Alfred Reach all received three votes or less.

We congratulate the latest entries into Cooperstown!

Much like we have done with the Hockey and Baseball sections, we have now turned our attention to the world of Basketball. We kick it off with a list of six players who will be eligible for 2014 for the Basketball Hall of Fame. As always, we want your opinions on this group and whether they should ever receive a call for the Hall.

They are:

Alonzo Mourning
Anfernee Hardaway
Chris Webber
Eddie Jones
Sam Cassell
Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Remember, the Basketball Hall recognizes not just what a player does in the professional ranks; the collegiate and international accomplishments factor in too. Gang, you know what to do! Check it out and give us your thoughts.