The Baseball Hall of Fame will have two new members as the Today’s Game Committee have elected Harold Baines and Lee Smith.

Over a 22 year career, Baines collected 2,866 Hits with 384 Home Runs and 1,628 RBI. Primarily a Designated Hitter, Baines was with the Chicago White Sox for 14 of those years and he was a five time All Star.  He also played for Baltimore, Texas, Oakland and Cleveland.  The selection of Baines bodes well for future Designated Hitters. 

Lee Smith recorded 478 Saves, leading his respective lad in that four times and at the time of his retirement he was first all-time in Saves.  Unlike Baines who was only on the Hall of Fame ballot for six years, Smith lasted the entire fifteen years on his initial eligibility. 

Smith received all 16 votes and Baines got the minimum 12 votes needed for election. Lou Piniella just missed with 11 votes. 

The selection of Baines is turning heads in some circles as he never was never a strong MVP candidate.  He never had a bWAR over 4.2 and if there was a Hall of Very Good, Baines would be the perfect selection.  Jerry Reinsdorf, who was his owner when he was with the White Sox, is on that committee and he allegedly lobbied hard for this induction.  Baines also had other ties with Pat Gillick (former GM), Roberto Alomar (former teammate) and Tony LaRussa (former Manager).  This one will be debated for years to come.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Lee Smith and Harold Baines for this honor.

It is a sad day in the world of music as it was announced today that Pete Shelley passed away at the age of 63 in home in Estonia.  It is expected at this time the cause of death was from a heart attack.

Shelley rose to prominence as the leader of the Punk/New Wave band, the Buzzcocks who had had some hits in the late 70’s (Orgasm Addict, What Do I Get?) and were one of the more influential groups of their time.  Shelley would have a solo career in the 1980’s, which was punctuated by his top ten U.K. hit “Homosapien”.  The Buzzcocks would reunite in 1989 and have toured off and on since.

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

The International Boxing Hall of Fame has announced the Class of 2019, which consists of four former boxers and five non-combatants.  

The new members are:

Teddy Atlas.  Atlas was a trainer and commentator and is known for taking Michael Moorer and Alexander Povetkin to the Heavyweight Championship.  

Donald Curry (Modern Era). Curry was the undisputed Welterweight Champion in 1985 by unifying the titles with his defeat of Milton McCrory and he would later become the WBC Super Middleweight Champion.  Curry retired with a 34-6 record with 25 KOs.

Tony DeMarco (Old Timers).  DeMarco would become the Welterweight Champion in 1955 but the native of Boston is best known for his two brutal battles afterwards with Carmen Basillio.

Don Elbaum.  Elbaum was a former manager/promoter/matchmaker from Erie who was the “teacher” of Don King. 

Julian Jackson.  Jackson won the WBA Super Welterweight Championship in 1987 and held it until he forfeited the title to move up to Middleweight.  Jackson won the WBC Middleweight Title twice.  He retired with a record of 5506 with 49 KOs.

Guy Jutras.  Jutras was a long time official in boxing.

Buddy McGirt.   McGirt was the IBF Junior Welterweight Champion in 1988 and would later be the WBC and Lineal Welterweight Champion.  He would later become a successful trainer.

Mario Rivera Martino.  Martino served Puerto Rican boxing as a writer and later as a commissioner.  

Lee Samuels.  Samuels worked as a publicist for Top Rank.

The induction ceremony will take place next June.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the International Boxing Hall of Fame Class of 2019.

It is a very sad day in the world of professional wrestling as it was announced that Thomas Billington, who performed as The Dynamite Kid passed away at the age of 60.

Beginning his career in 1975, the Dynamite Kid first gained serious attention in the late 1970’s working for Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling promotion in Calgary where he would rise to the top of the card despite having a small stature.  As good as he was in Calgary, Dynamite made heads turn in Japan where along with Tiger Mask they put forth some of the best high-flying matches that the world had ever seen.  He combined moves off the top rope with a throwback tough as nails attitude where he would quickly be referred to by many of his peers as the best pound for pound wrestler in the business.

Along with Davey Boy Smith, he would form the British Bulldogs tag team in the WWF and within two years the duo would become WWF World Tag Team Champions.  During this reign Dynamite would suffer a severe back injury, which would force the Bulldogs to drop the titles to the Hart Foundation.  Despite this injury, when he came back to wrestle, the Dynamite Kid kept the same style and would eventually do more damage to his spine. 

The Bulldogs would leave the WWF in 1988 and they would compete in Stampede and later All-Japan until the tag team was broken up when Davey Boy Smith returned to the WWF in 1990.  He would continue to wrestle for a couple more years and he made his last in ring appearance in 1996 for Michinoku Pro but he was literally half the size that people remembered lacking any musculature.  Due to the injuries he sustained over his career he was reduced to a wheelchair for the final 20 years of his life.

The Dynamite Kid goes down in history as one of the greatest workers of all-time and one of the most influential.

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