Milestones mean more in baseball than it does in any other sport and when you achieve a major one it automatically generates a Hall of Fame discussion.  The conversation today is that last night C.C. Sabathia reached 3,000 Strikeouts over his career making him the 17^thplayer in Major League history to achieve that plateau.  The 3,000^thwhiff came against Arizona’s John Ryan Murphy and he followed up with two more ending at 3,002 for the night.   

Sabathia had announced earlier that this would be his final season in baseball and he has a chance to increase his rank as he is behind John Smoltz (82), Curt Schilling (114) and Bob Gibson (115), all of which are reachable should he be able to maintain a number comparable to his last year’s number.  

With the exception of Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling, everyone who has 3,000 Strikeouts is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  He is also three wins away from the 250 milestone, which is a number that many feel is akin to 300 Wins in the past based on how pitch counts work driving starters out of the game much earlier.  Sabrmetrically he is well behind as his 63.2 career bWAR is well below the 73.2 average that Starting Pitchers have who are in Cooperstown.  

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate C.C. Sabathia for achieving this very impressive landmark and we will be watching when he goes for win number 250.

It was just announced that pro football legend, Gino Marchetti, passed away today at the age of 93.

Drafted in the 2^ndRound from the University of San Francisco in 1952 by the Dallas Texans, Marchetti joined the Baltimore Colts when they relocated the year after and from 1954 to 1964 he was chosen for the Pro Bowl 11 years straight.  The Defensive End was one of the most dominating pass rushers of all-time and he was also a two-time NFL Champion with the Colts.

Marchetti entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends, family and fans of Gino Marchetti at this time.

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 Chicago Blackhawks, a team of the Original Six.

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey we look at the following: 

1. Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NHL.

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 2017-18 Season.

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

1. Stan Mikita

2. Bobby Hull

3. Patrick Kane

4. Glenn Hall

5. Duncan Keith

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.  Look for our top 50 Philadelphia Flyers soon.

As always, we thank you for your support.

We have another significant retirement in the NFL to look at as Place Kicker Sebastian Janikowski has announced his retirement from the pro football.

Born in Poland, Janikowski immigrated to the United States as a teenager and with his soccer background he was a natural kicker for football.  Heavily recruited, he would play for Florida State where he would win the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top Kicker in both 1998 and 1999, and to date is the only person to win that honor is back-to-back years.  In 2000, the Oakland Raiders drafted him in the 1^stRound (17^thOverall), which raised eyebrows as Kickers are not normally drafted that high but considering he played in Oakland for 17 years it turned out well for the silver and black.

Janikowski was never the NFL’s most accurate kicker as he was never in the top three in Field Goal Accuracy but he was the most powerful.  Janikowski holds the record for the most Field Goals made over 50 Yards with 58 and he is tenth all-time in Points Scored.  He was named to the Pro Bowl in 2011, which was the season he led the league in Field Goals.  He would finish his career with the Seattle Seahawks.

He is a long shot for the Pro Football Hall of Fame but will be eligible in 2024.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Sebastian Janikowski on having a wonderful career and we wish him the best in his post-playing career.