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.  As such, it is important to us that the Seattle Mariners have announced that Phil Esposito has been chosen for the inaugural Tampa Bay Lightning Hall of Fame class.

Esposito will be honored on alumni weekend (March 16-18), and will be part of the first class with already named inductees, Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.  

"As good as the Lightning are now, expanding the NHL into Florida was a daunting task as big-time hockey had never been tried in this warm weather state.  Esposito was tasked as the team’s first General Manager, and he used his creativity to generate as much interest in the product as he could.  The Lightning only reached the playoffs once under Esposito, but he laid the groundwork for the team to make it.  He would later serve as their radio color analyst.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Phil Esposito for this impending honor.

The son of star Pitcher (and bigger star Coach) Mel Stottlemyre, Todd Stottlemyre was Toronto’s Frist Round Pick (3^rdOverall) in the 1985 Draft.  The righthander needed three years to make the Jays roster.

With his pedigree, Stottlemyre was expected to be a star, but that did not happen, though he was a solid late-rotation starter for years.  Stottlemyre helped Toronto win the 1992 and 1993 World Series, with the UNLV product winning at least 11 Games annually from 1990 to 1993, with a peak of 15 Wins in 1991.  That was the only year as a Blue Jay that Stottlemyre had an ERA under four (3.78).

Stottlemyre signed with Oakland after the 1994 Season, and with the Jays, he had a record of 69-70, 662 Strikeouts, and a 4.39 ERA.

Jose Cruz came from a baseball pedigree as the son of the Astros star of the same name.  Also playing in the Outfield, the younger Cruz went to the Jays from Seattle as a rookie, and though there were high hopes for Cruz, the Mariners dealt him for pitching help in their playoff run.  He finished the year as the American League runner-up for the Rookie of the Year with a 26 HR year.

Cruz looked poised for greatness after his rookie year, but the next two seasons, it did not come to fruition, with Cruz missing Games due to injury with diminished power numbers (25 HR in 211 Games) with a Batting Average barely scraping .250.  His next two years were much better, belting 31 and 34 Home Runs, respectively, but with the exception of 2001, his OPS never breached .800, though he was a 30-30 player that year.  He regressed again in 2002 and left for the Giants after as a Free Agent.

Cruz might have disappointed, but he did manage to belt 122 Home Runs with 640 Hits as a Blue Jay, which is more than many can claim.

Over his seven seasons in Toronto, Venezuelan hurler Kelvim Escobar tried every role on the mound.

Debuting in 1997, five years after he was signed as an Amateur Free Agent, Escobar saved 14 Games as a rookie, but two years later was a starter, going 14-11, though his ERA was a bloated 5.69.  He again had an ERA over five in 2000 (10-14), going back and forth from starter to reliever, and was finding a groove in late relief in 2001.  

Toronto promoted Escobar to their closer in 2002, and though he had 38 Saves, the 4.27 ERA was not good, and they tried again in 2003 to figure out what to do with Escobar, who bounced between roles.  Escobar signed with the Angels in 2004, and though Escobar’s career as a Blue Jay was inconsistent and somewhat chaotic, he belongs on this list.