Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  Eventually, we plan to do that for the major colleges in the NCAA.  As such, it is news to us that the University of Kentucky has announced the nine members of their Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

The six new members are:

Chanda Bell, Softball (2009-12).  Bell is arguably the best softball player in school history and she took the Wildcats to their first four NCAA Tournament appearances in school history.  She won 68 Games with a 2.55 ERA, and holds the school record of 288 Strikeouts in a season.  Historically speaking, she also threw the first no-hitter and perfect game for Kentucky.

Sawyer Carroll, Baseball (2007-08).  Playing at Outfield, Carroll was a Consensus All-American in 2008.  That year he set a school record in Runs Batted In (83), and was a semi-finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy.  Carroll still holds the all-time school record in Batting Average (.386) and On Base Percentage (.483).  He later played seven years in the Minor Leagues.  

Ron Mercer, Men’s Basketball (1995-97).  Mercer was a huge part of Kentucky’s NCAA Championship in 1996, and the year after he was an All-American and the SEC Player of the Year.  He scored 1,013 Points for the Wildcats.  Mercer went on to have an eight-year career in the NBA playing for Boston, Denver, Orlando, Chicago, Indiana, San Antonio and New Jersey.

A.J. Reed, Baseball (2012-14). In 2014, Reed was the Consensus National Player of the Year when he batted .336 with 23 Home Runs.  When he wasn’t at First Base, he was an excellent Pitcher, going 12-2 with a 2.09 ERA in his award-winning year.  He would later play for the Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox.

Danny Trevathan, Football (2008-11).  Trevathan was the first Linebacker in Kentucky history to be named a First Team All-American and was the leading tackler in the SEC as both a junior and Senior. He would later play for the Denver Broncos, winning a Super Bowl, and he is now a Chicago Bear

Wayne Turner, Men’s Basketball (1995-99). Turner would play in 151 Games for Kentucky, and helped them reach three Final Fours, and won two NCAA Championships.  He would later briefly play for the Boston Celtics.  

The date and location of the ceremony, has yet to be determined.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to the impending members of the University of Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame.

One of the most important pioneers of music has passed away from cancer in Florian Schneider, the co-founder of the German group, Kraftwerk. He was 73 Years old.

Schneider co-founded Kraftwerk with Ralf Hutter in 1970, and he stayed with the group until 2008.  The German quartet are credited with pushing the boundaries of electronic music, which set sonic blueprints for many genres that followed.  

When people heard Kraftwerk for the first time in the 1970s, it was unlike anything they had hear before.  The music was cold and robotic, but it pulled you in a trance-like state. Countless musicians cite Kraftwerk as an influence, and with the exception of James Brown, their music is the most sampled of all-time.

Kraftwerk has been nominated multiple times for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they are currently #1 on our latest Notinhalloffame.com list of those to consider for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends, fans and family of Florian Schneider.

Now, let’s all take a trip down the Autobahn one more time.

It is a very dark day in the football world as it was announced that legendary coach, Don Shula passed away peacefully at his home yesterday. He was 90 years old.

Shula played seven seasons in the National Football League (1951-57) at Defensive Back with Cleveland, Baltimore and Washington.  Like many former players, he moved into coaching, first as the Defensive Coordinator for Detroit (1960-62), and then he took over as the Head Coach for Baltimore, where he compiled a 71-23-4 record and took them to Super Bowl III, where they were upset by the New York Jets.

The Miami Dolphins coveted Shula, and they signed him as their Head Coach in 1970, a position he held until 1995.  Shula took Miami to three straight Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl VII and Super Bowl VIII.  In the Super Bowl VII season, the Dolphins were undefeated, a record that has yet to be duplicated.  Shula would then helm Miami to two AFC Championships in the 1980s.  

The four-time Coach of the Year was named to the 1970s All-Decade Team and the NFL 100^thAnniversary Team.  The Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him in 1997.

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

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.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present the fourth revision of our top 50 Washington Nationals of all-time.

As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we 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.

Please note that this is the latest update since the end of the 2018 season, and needless to say, the first since the Nationals won the 2019 World Series.

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, which has altered the rankings considerably.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2018-19 Season.

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

1. Gary Carter

2. Tim Raines

3. Max Scherzer

4. Andre Dawson

5. Steve Rogers

A significant change has taken place in the top five, as Max Scherzer has rocketed up from #9 to #3.  While this may seem incredibly high for a player who has only been with the team for five seasons, it also reflects how we look at how a player performs in individual seasons equally to their overall tenure.  Scherzer has won two Cy Youngs, with the other three years also seeing him finish in the top five in voting.  If this isn’t the best half-decade in franchise history, then what is?

There were other significant ranking changes based on 2019.  

Stephen Strasburg, the 2019 World Series MVP moves from #11 to #6.  Anthony Rendon, who was third in MVP voting rocketed from #22 to #12. He left the Nationals to join the Angels in the off-season.  There is a debut in Trea Turner, who makes his first appearance at #35.

As always, we thank you for your support.