One of the most popular and recognizable players of the 1970s, Steve Garvey, first played in the Majors in 1969, but it was not until 1973 that he became Los Angeles's regular First Baseman.  After that year, he was the anchor of one of the top infielders in Baseball and, for many, the face of the franchise.

Garvey had his breakout and best season in 1974.  Garvey won his only MVP that year and began a streak of eight All-Star Games and four Gold Gloves.  Establishing himself as one of the top contact hitters, Garvey batted at least .300 seven times and was a two-time NL leader in Hits (1978 & 1980).  

Garvey did not get enough credit for his power.  He had five 20-plus Home Runs years, with one season exceeding 30.  Belting 211 Home Runs with Los Angeles, Garvey would also drive in 992 batters.  The Dodgers appeared in the 1977 and 1978 World Series, losing efforts to the Yankees, but Garvey was a crucial part of their success, with Garvey winning the 1978 NLCS MVP with a second-place finish in MVP voting.

Garvey would return to the World Series in 1981, this time with the Dodgers winning it all and giving him his first and only Title.  The end for Garvey in Los Angeles

With the Dodgers, Garvey batted .301 with 1,968 Hits.  In 2019, Garvey was among four former players honored with plaques as Legends of Dodgers Baseball.

Entering the very late bye of Week 14, the Chicago Bears sported a humbling 3-10 record. The .231 percentage had Chicago ranked as the lowest team in the NFC, on par with the Denver Broncos, and only below the 1-11 Houston Texans. It’s not great company for a team with a good share of high-quality talents.

Regardless, this was never meant to be the season that the Bears surged towards the playoffs, as the CBS Sports preseason predictions suggest. In the NFC North, the Green Bay Packers were meant to be the top contender, but the Minnesota Vikings bulked up and the Detroit Lions are starting to realize the quality of the players at the team’s disposal.

Even if three wins were to be the final count for the Bears this season, it hasn’t been all bad. The 270 points for coming out of the bye was seven better than the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers, which is always nice. With five games lost by seven or fewer points, some by less than a field goal, the Bears certainly showed up more than the record would suggest.

There have been bright spots dotted around the 2022 season for Chicago, even if the season will end with the 17th game. Importantly, there’s good reason to be optimistic next season, especially once a high draft pick is secured.

Injuries and working out the receiver room

While the Chicago Bears have been able to stay mostly healthy overall, little irritating injuries have popped up at inconvenient times. Justin Fields missing one, Khalil Herbert going down just as he looked set to almost take the backfield for his own, and the double knockout of Bears defensive backs Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker for two games all contributed to a somewhat stop-start feeling around the Bears this season.

Overall, though, the good take is that most key players and up-and-coming stars have been able to play the majority of the games. That said, this makes the receiving space that much more baffling. Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet have become the main targets for Fields, sharing 111 targets over 13 games, but behind them, it’s anyone’s guess with Equanimeous St. Brown, Dante Pettis, and Chase Claypool seemingly the frontrunners of the other six or so candidates, but is largely ineffective.

 Ground game gathering speed

If there’s been one outright shining light for the ’22 Bears, it’s been the run game. Perhaps the only frustrating element has been that Herbert hasn’t been allowed to take full command just yet. David Montgomery hit 641 yards and a 4.0 average through 12 starts. Herbert, in one start and ten games, collected 643 yards and a 6.0 average. To Montgomery’s credit, he’s picked up in the passing game, collecting 25 of 30 targets for a 9.8 average.

Of course, the star of the show has been Fields. Yahoo reports that Fields is hitting the highest yards per carry mark in a single season of any player at 125 carries coming into the bye. Accompanying this, a historic average of 7.1 yards per carry, as well as a franchise-record 67-yard stomp to score a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins.

However, one of the reasons why the receiving corps has been relatively hit-or-miss has been Fields getting hurried – which has also encouraged his absurd rushing figures. At the start of the season, the Bears’ O-line ranked nearly dead last, but legend Olin Kreutz sees flashes of potential from Teven Jenkins, perhaps even enough to one day earn him a Pro Bowl nod.

It’s been very slow going as far as a football season goes, but the starting set of Jenkins, Riley Reiff, Sam Mustipher, Cody Whitehair, and Braxton Jones has undoubtedly improved a great deal throughout the season. The number of pressures put on Fields has waned as the games have ticked along, and space is being made for the ground game to flourish.

Tanking for an opportunistic draft day

With four games to go, the Bears were tasked with facing the two leading Super Bowl contenders – the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles – and then their divisional leaders. First to come, the Detroit Lions, somehow knocking around the wild card contention. Then, the leaders, the Vikings. Earlier in the season, the Bears lost by a single point to the Lions, and by seven to Minnesota.

So, it won’t come as a surprise that even the platform with the highest rating among all Illinois sports betting outlets was fairly undecided on the Bears even getting one more win. Also offering a $1,000 risk-free bet, the 9.6-rated BetMGM had the bears at -200 to get over 3.5 wins this season and +165 to remain on three. For the Bears, staying under that three-win mark wouldn’t be the worst thing.

As it stands, Chicago would likely get the second overall pick – even higher than when the team landed linebacker Chuck Howley. Naturally, the first-overall Texans would take the top quarterback, leaving the Bears with a potential star pass rusher, Will Anderson. However, with bolstering protection for Fields surely the priority, and the offensive lineman going mid-round in most mock drafts, perhaps a trade for even more value could come in.

All-in-all, 2022 is going to go down as a building season, and there’s been plenty to have Bears fans optimistic for the future.

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.  We have a new one to unveil today, that of the San Francisco Giants.

The franchise began in 1883 as the New York Gothams, changing their name to the Giants shortly after.  In the pre-modern World Series era, New York won the 1888 and 1889 Pennants, and in 1905, they captured their first World Series. The Giants won the World Series again in 1921, 1922, 1933, and 1954, but like the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Giants were not going to be the top dog in NYC, and they moved to San Francisco in 1956.

Even though they had Willie Mays in tow, it would take long after he left until the turn of the century for the Giants to win another title.  San Francisco won the 2010, 2012 & 2014 World Series, giving them eight in total.

This list is up to the end of the 2022 regular season.

Our Top 50 lists in Baseball look at the following:

1.  Advanced Statistics.

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

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

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

Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2022 Season.

The complete list can be found here, but as always, we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. Willie Mays

2.  Barry Bonds

3. Christy Mathewson

4. Mel Ott

5. Carl Hubbell

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.  

Look for our more material coming soon!

As always, we thank you for your support.

In 1981, a "mania" took over Los Angeles.  Some would say it took over the entire baseball world.  That was "Fernandomania" in honor of Mexican hurler Fernando Valenzuela.

The Dodgers accidentally discovered Valenzuela as they were scouting a Shortstop in Mexico.  They were dazzled by the rotund hurler and signed him, buying out his Mexican League contract in 1979.  A year later, he was a September callup, and in 17.2 Innings, he never allowed a run.  It didn't take a clairvoyant to see what might happen in 1981.

"El Toro" helped the Dodgers win the 1981 World Series.  That season, he won the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young, making him the first player to accomplish that in the same year.  Valenzuela was the opening day starter, and everyone in Los Angeles took the Mexican star.

The mania surrounding Valenzuela cooled, but he was still an elite pitcher for many years.  He was an All-Star each year from 1981 to 1986, and he had three more top-five finishes in Cy Young voting.  Valenzuela would have three 200 Strikeout years, and he was also a decent batter, winning two Silver Sluggers.

The All-Star years were over by 1987, and he played until 1997, with stops in California, the Mexican League, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Diego, and St. Louis.  He retired with 173 Wins and 2,074 Strikeouts.

Pitchers had better careers, but many of those never captured the imagination of baseball fans like Fernando Valenzuela.

In 2019, he was one of four players to have a plaque in recognition as a Legend of Dodger Baseball, but that might be rescinded, as that was reserved for great players who were not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  In 2023, the Dodgers reversed course, and announced that his #34 would be retired by the team.