We lost another great one, as it was announced today that former Dallas Cowboys star, Ralph Neely, passed away at the age of 78

An All-American at Oklahoma, Neely was drafted in the second round in 1965 by the Baltimore Colts, who traded his rights to Dallas.  The Offensive Lineman was chosen for his first First Team All-Pro in 1967, which would lead to two more right after.  Also, a two-time Pro Bowl recipient, Neely, helped the Cowboys win Super Bowl VI and XII, and he would start 168 of his 172 Games.  He would be named to the 1960s All-Decade Team, and is a member of the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor.

In our latest Notinhalloffame.com list for those to consider for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Neely was ranked at #178.

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

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 our pre-2022 revision of our top 50 New York Mets.

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.

The Mets looked at one time like they could make the playoffs in 2021, but faltered at the end, though we did see some movement in our top 50 from active Mets.  We also have one new entry to our list.

As always, we present the top five, which sees one significant change.  Jacob deGrom has passed David Wright for #3 on our greatest Mets ever.

1. Tom Seaver

2. Dwight Gooden

3. Jacob deGrom

4. David Wright

5. Darryl Strawberry

You can find the entire list here.

Michael Conforto advances from #43 to #38 and Jeurys Familia climbed up two spots to #46.

The new entry is 2019 Rookie of the Year, Pete Alonso, who debuts at #49.

The alterations remove Juan Lagares from the list.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

The baseball career of Pete Alonso has been short, but it has been potent.

Alonso won the National League Rookie of the Year in 2019, while leading the NL in Home Runs (53) and Extra Base Hits (85) while going to the All-Star Game and earning All-MLB 1 honors.  It was a great start, but it also exposed that the First Baseman was prone to striking out often, was slow, and was not a great defensive player, yet his power made Pitchers shiver.

Since that time, Alonso finished third in Home Runs in 2020 and 2021, and was second in 2022 year (40) in a year where he won his first RBI Title (131).  The power kept on gushing from Alonso's bat last year with 46 Home Runs and 118 RBIs, but his .217 Batting Average was his lowest to date.

The two-time Home Run Derby winner is one fo the top power hitters in Baseball and will rocket up this list if he stays a Met for years to come.  Alonso enters 2025 with 226 Home Runs, and will break 250 this year.

Sandy Alcantara arrived in Miami following a 2017 trade with the Cardinals, a high-upside right-hander who had only eight major league games to his name. While he spent much of his early career proving that a pitcher’s win-loss record is an unreliable narrator, he eventually established himself as the most durable and dominant force in the National League, at least for one season anyway.

After becoming a permanent starter in 2019, he demonstrated a high-frequency ability to pitch deep into games, yet famously led the National League with 14 losses despite showing the organization he was their best arm. He remained a professional mainstay through the shortened 2020 campaign and the 2021 season, in which his 3.19 ERA was again undermined by a poor record.  This, however, was about to change.

In 2022, the Dominican hurler mastered the strike zone to become the first Marlin to win the National League Cy Young Award. He led the majors in innings pitched (228.2) and complete games (6), recording a stellar 2.28 ERA and a sub-1.00 WHIP.  It looked to be only up from there, but a traumatic injury threatened to derail his prime. After a 2023 season where he struggled with localized command issues and ultimately underwent Tommy John surgery, he missed the entirety of the 2024 campaign. However, he showed the organization his grit by returning for the 2025 season and immediately reassuming his role as a professional mainstay. While his first year back from surgery featured the expected up-and-down results as he regained his feel, he still logged over 170 innings and recorded 11 wins, proving that his durable frame could still handle a significant workload.

Entering 2026, Alcantara is healthy and is arguably at a crossroads in his career.