Long before specialized relief pitching became a core part of modern baseball, Harry "Slim" Sallee was a key multi-purpose pitcher for the Deadball Era St. Louis Cardinals. The tall southpaw, who arrived in 1908, quickly became essential, often pitching multiple roles. Since the Cardinals often ranked low in the National League, Sallee had to handle various duties, sometimes as a starting ace and other times as a late-inning reliever.

Sallee relied on precise control and an elegant, deceptive delivery rather than raw power, masterfully confounding hitters to anchor the St. Louis pitching staff for nearly a decade. He surpassed the 200-inning threshold in five separate seasons for the franchise, stringing together four consecutive 15-win campaigns from 1911 through 1914. His individual value peaked during a remarkable two-year period between 1913 and 1914, when he accumulated a total of 37 victories, completed 36 games, and maintained an exceptional, microscopic 2.10 ERA during his intensive workload in 1914.

Focusing solely on his 212 career starts for the team masks the broader scope of his adaptability that shaped his legacy in the senior league. Sallee was an early innovator in finishing games he didn't initiate. Long before the official recognition of the “closer" role or the save stat, his effectiveness in high-pressure relief situations was highly respected. He retrospectively led the National League in saves twice while with St. Louis, recording a league-high six saves in 1912 and 1914, all while remaining one of the most durable starters.

Midway through the 1916 season, Sallee was traded to the New York Giants. While Sallee would later secure two World Series championships with the Giants and the Cincinnati Reds—including a magnificent 21-win masterpiece for Cincinnati's infamous 1919 title team—his most extensive, foundational body of work was accomplished in St. Louis.

With the Cardinals, Sallee appeared in 302 games (starting 212). He achieved a 106–107 record, with an excellent 2.67 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Over 1,939.0 innings, he pitched 111 complete games, 14 shutouts, and was retrospectively credited with 25 saves.

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 the pre-2021 update of our top 50 Atlanta Braves of all-time.

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.

There is one new addition, but not an active player.  As always, we announce our top five immediately, but out full list can be found here.

1. Hank Aaron

2. Warren Spahn

3. Kid Nichols

4. Greg Maddux

5. Eddie Mathews

There was minor tinkering on the list due to the changing values from Baseball Reference.

One major jump took place as Freddie Freeman, the reigning MVP, rocketed from #19 to #13.

We have a significant debut, albeit from a player who hasn’t played in over a century.  Jack Stivetts, who was an excellent hitting Pitcher arrives at #40.  We had forgotten to take account his competent batting, which accounts for his high rank.

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

Jack Stivetts played eleven seasons in the Majors with the meat of his career playing for the Boston Beaneaters (1892-98).

The Pitcher had four 20-plus Win years, and was an exceptional hitter, batting .305 for the Braves, a stat that helped to land him on this list.

Stivetts overall win 131 Games with an OPS of .799, which is one hell of a combination.

The WWE Hall of Fame has announced the second member of the Class of 2021, and it is Eric Bischoff, the former President of World Championship Wrestling.

Bischoff first worked in wrestling as an announcer in the American Wrestling Association, and would be hired to announce for WCW, albeit on lower-rated shows.  In 1993, He shockingly won the role of Executive Vice President with WCW, and two years later, he would launch Monday Night Nitro, to run in direct competition with the WWE.

Bischoff used the resources of Ted Turner, to not only sign Hulk Hogan, but Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, and Nitro would beat Raw in the ratings 83 weeks in a row.  As this was occurring, Bischoff honed his skills on camera, and played a dastardly heel authoritarian figure.  Bischoff showed marketing skills, cross promoting with other programs, and he became almost as well-known as Vince McMahon.

Ratings would sag, and a burned-out Bischoff was fired in 1999, but he would be asked back as his replacement, Vince Russo, was struggling.  He left again in July of 2000, and WCW continued to plummet.  Bischoff made a pitch to buy the wrestling company, but once they lost television, there was no reason for Bischoff to pursue ownership. WCW would be sold to McMahon at a steal, who acquired the back catalogue and trademarks.

Hell froze over in 2002, when Bischoff appeared on WWE television as the kayfabe General Manager of Raw. He held that role for three years, and was largely praised for his performance.  Bishoff also later worked for TNA.

Bischoff last worked for the WWE in 2019 when he had a brief run as the Executive Director of Smackdown.  He has since made appearances for All Elite Wrestling.

It was also announced last week that there will be a special that will include the 2020 and 2021 Classes.  The 2020 Class comprised of the New World Order (Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac), John Bradshaw Layfield, the Bella Twins and Jushin “Thunder” Liger.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Eric Bischoff for his impending induction.