We have to hand it to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  In a brief period of time, they have made their Hall matter with both a strong physical presence and a logical selection process.  Basketball could learn from that!  They have announced their latest HOF class and three of our top four selections were named to this class.  Herb Thomas (1), Buck Baker (3) and first year candidate Rusty Wallace (4) are now headed to the Hall.  They will be joined by Cotton Owens and (22) and Leonard Wood who was inducted for his work as a mechanic.  We look forward to amassing our next list and wonder how many of our top five will get in next year year!

For the second year in a row, the Canadian triumvirate of Rush remains number one on the Notinhalloffame Countdown of the 500 artists who we think should be considered for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It was an easy decision really. Countless articles have lobbied for their induction, their peers have commented on their exclusion and the votes on this site make it clear that no other band could hold that spot this year. Although there is no change in the top spot, new first year eligible acts have entered the top 100.

The highest of the “rookies” is influential rap group, Public Enemy who has received the number 5 slot in their list debut. They have an excellent shot to enter the Hall in their first year of eligibility and should be the next rap group to get in. The only other group that we can think of that could beat them to it is N.W.A. who enters our list at number 16. Hip Hop is not the only genre that dominates the debuts as alternative pioneers; the Pixies and Jane’s Addiction enter at 24 and 62 respectively. In what we consider to be a bit of a wildcard entry, George Michael brings his danceable music to the 73 spot.

Other new entries include the Tragically Hip at 255, Sinead O’Connor at 272, The Goo Goo Dolls at 287, Boogie Down Productions at 299 and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince at 348.

As always, your votes and comments matter and we ALWAYS take that into consideration when we do our yearly rankings

We welcome your thoughts!

Sincerely,

Notinhalloffame

Wow.  We were totally surprised by the death of Donna Summer.  The disco diva had been battling lung cancer, though few were aware of the ailment.  Summer has been nominated multiple times for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but has yet to receive the call.  She has been firmly entrenched in our top 100 since our inception, and though she has only been associated with the Disco genre, she was its queen.   We will miss her very much.

The most controversial group of players in baseball history are eligible for the Hall of Fame this year and much like we suspect the Baseball Writers of America struggled with their ballot much the way we fought with our ranking. In the end, we made the decision to treat the Steroids Era as just that: an era. We will never how many players elected to take Performance Enhancing Drugs, but we know it was a high amount, and we know until recently it was not illegal under the rules of Major League Baseball.

With this said, for the second consecutive year in a row, our Baseball list has undergone a major overhaul from top to bottom. It includes many players who are eligible for the first time, and a slew of players that we have ranked for the first time, and possibly overlooked. As you can tell by the headline, Barry Bonds tops our list at “1c”; the highest ranked ELIGIBLE player for Cooperstown.