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 and executive. As such it is news to us that the Texas Rangers will be retiring the number 10 of Michael Young.
Debuting for Texas in 2000 and playing there for 12 seasons, Young would become one of the most successful hitters in franchise history. The infielder would have six 200 Hit Seasons with two of those years being good enough to lead the AL (2005 & 2011). A seven-time All-Star, Young won the Batting Title in 2005 with a .331 Average and had a .301 Batting Average as a Ranger. He would also smack 177 Home Runs for the squad.
Defensively, he was incredibly versatile as he played at least 400 Games for the franchise at Second Base, Shortstop, and Third Base and was a Gold Glove winner in 2009 (SS). He was also known for his selfishness and leadership.
As of this writing, he is the franchise leader in Games Played (1,823), Hits (2,230), Doubles (415) and Runs Scored (1,085).
Young’s number will be officially retired on August 31 of this year.
Young’s #10 joins Ivan Rodriguez (#7), Johnny Oates (#26), Adrian Beltre (#29), Nolan Ryan (#34) and the league-mandated (#42) of Jackie Robinson.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Michael Young for earning this very prestigious honor.
We have another retirement to look at as Quarterback, Josh McCown, has announced that his 17-year career is over.
Drafted from the 3rdRound in 2002 out of Sam Houston St by the Arizona Cardinals, McCown was predominantly a backup but was a starter with Arizona (2004), Oakland (2007), Tampa Bay (2014) and the New York Jets (2017) and he would also play for Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland.
When it was all said and done, McCown retired with 17,707 Passing Yards with 98 Touchdown Passes.
While we don’t think that he will receive any consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, anyone who lasts 17 seasons needs to be celebrated.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to wish Josh McCown the best in his post-playing career.
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 and executive. As such it is news to us that yesterday the Minnesota Twins retired the number 7 of Joe Mauer.
Mauer was the number one pick in 2001 and he would make the Twins roster in 2004 where he would play until his retirement in 2018.
Spending the first half of his career as a Catcher and the second half as a First Baseman, Mauer was one of the best hitters for a time winning the American League Batting Title (2006, 2008 & 2009) had seven .300 seasons and a career Batting Average of .306. Mauer would win the 2009 MVP with AL leading sweep of the Slash Line (.365/.444/.587). He retired with 2,123 Hits and a bWAR of 55.0. His JAWS of 47.0 puts him above the average HOF Catcher (44.7) and he is a strong Hall of Fame contender. He is eligible in 2024.
Mauer’s #7 joins Harmon Killebrew (#3), Tony Oliva (#6), Tom Kelly (#10), Kent Hrbek (#14), Bert Blyleven (#24), Rod Carew (#39) and Kirby Puckett (#34).
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Joe Mauer and the late Steve McNair for earning this very prestigious honor.
Now that the NBA Finals are over and the 2018/19 Season has officially been brought to a close, we can turn our attention to what we always do here at Notinhalloffame.com, look at the next Basketball Hall of Fame Class!
People who thought the 2018 Hall of Fame class was stacked, with Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Grant Hill, and Ray Allen, will gawk at the 2020 eligibles say Paruk from SBD. The top-three players in this class -- Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett -- are arguably the three most-accomplished players ever to become eligible at the same time. The trio has 11 NBA titles and 48 All-Star Game nods between them, and they are all 100%, iron-clad locks to be inducted in their first year of eligibility.
Every single one of them is bona fide headliners but if you are looking for a quadruple threat like 2018 remember that the forced end of Chris Bosh’s career in 2016 makes him also Hall of Fame eligible for 2020 and he too has a first ballot resume.
Even with the retirements this year of Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker (all of whom will be eligible for the Class of 2023) we may never see a more loaded group in any Basketball Hall of Fame Class.
We will go one step further and state that this is the most star-studded group of any North American Athletic Hall of Fame Class in the 21stCentury.
One thing is for sure is that this will be the hottest Hall of Fame ticket of any kind in the year of 2020!