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.  We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Edmonton Oilers. 

Debuting as the Alberta Oilers in 1972 in the World Hockey Association, they would exchange the Alberta for Edmonton after one year.  The Oilers were an original WHA team, who would be one of four franchises that would be absorbed into the NHL in 1979.  When they joined the NHL, they had a young Wayne Gretzky in tow, and after drafting players like Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier and Grant Fuhr, a dynasty occurred that would win four Stanley Cups in the 1980s and one in 1990.  Since that time, they made the Finals once in 2006.  

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NHL.

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2018-19 Season.

The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. Wayne Gretzky

2. Mark Messier

3. Jari Kurri

4. PaulCoffey

5. GrantFuhr

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.  

Look for or All-Time Top 50 Colorado Avalanche coming next!

As always we thank you for your support.

When the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced their Finalists, Chris Bosh was left off of it.  This is his first year of eligibility after being forced to retire due to issues with blood clots in 2014.  He had this to say on his Instagram:

"I'm going to be honest with you. I'm a competitor, man. I've been competing my whole life. A lot of people don't really know that about me, but I'm a fierce competitor. Losing bothers me. Coming up short bothers me. It always has, you know, since the moment I started playing basketball and it kind of bleeds over into everything that I do. So I'll just get ahead of it, and so you hear this from me: I'm disappointed."

Only five men (down from ten) were named as Finalists this year, with three of those being former players (Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett).   The conspiracy theory in us feels like Bosh (and other previous finalists like Chris Webber and Ben Wallace) were put on the shelf for now to clear the path for Bryant, Duncan and Garnett.  With all due respect to Bosh, he is the clear number four behind those three.  The delay of Bosh also gives the Hall a headliner for the 2021 Class, and let’s be honest, they need to sell tickets to.

As always, we will be watching.

Normally we wait until it is confirmed by the WWE, but when it is reported by Dave Meltzer of f4wrestling.com, we tend it believe that this is will come to fruition.  On his recent Wrestling Observer Radio show, Meltzer said that the late Davey Boy Smith will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for the Class of 2021. 

From England, Smith would cut his teeth in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling and Japan in the late 70s and early 80s.  Smith and his regular tag team partner, The Dynamite Kid, were brought into the WWF in early 1984, and the British Bulldogs would take their innovate style made everyone take notice.  At Wrestlemania 2, the Bulldogs would win the WWF Tag Team Championship over the Dream Team (Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake).  The reign was cut short, as Dynamite suffered a severe back injury in December of 1996 in Hamilton, Ontario.  The Bulldogs would promptly lose the tag titles to the Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) the following month.  Dynamite would recover (though was never the same) and they Bulldogs would continue to work for the WWF until November of 1988 after asking for their release.

The Bulldogs would again work in Calgary and Japan, but after two years, the relationship between Smith and Dynamite deteriorated, and without telling him, Smith returned to the WWF alone as the British Bulldog.  Smith would become an upper-card babyface, and his popularity in Britain and Europe skyrocketed.

At SummerSlam 1992 in Wembley Stadium in London, Smith pinned Bret Hart in the main event to win the Intercontinental Championship.  He held that strap for three months until he was pinned by Shawn Michaels.  Behind the scenes, along with the Ultimate Warrior, he was fired for obtaining HGH.

Smith went to WCW which was brief, but he was involved in the high end of the card.  He came back to the WWF at Summer Slam 1994, assisting Bret against his brother Owen, and he would later team with Lex Luger as the Allied Powers. Luger left for WCW, and Smith turned heel and would challenge Diesel and later Bret Hart for the WWF World Heavyweight Title.  Smith would become part of Jim Cornette’s stable, and later the new Hart Foundation. When Bret left the WWF after the infamous Montreal Screwjob, Smith and Niedhart followed, bit it was a mess for the latter two.

Smith barely reached the lower mid-card in WCW, and his back was destroyed when he landed on a trap door (used for the Ultimate Warrior), and he was never the same again.  He was released shortly after.

After WCW, he went back to the WWF in September of 1999, but this run was not particularly good.  Smith was not in the best shape, and he with the exception of a six-pack challenge match for the WWF World Heavyweight Title Match at the Unforgiven PPV, he was used in a lower-card heel role.  He left the WWF in May of 2000.

Smith passed away at the age of 39, after suffering from a heart attack.  He was planning for a comeback in wrestling, and had appeared in independent shows tagging with his son, Harry.

In our latest Notinhalloffame.com WWE ranking, Smith was ranked at #10. After Wrestlemania, we will begin work to revise our WWE Ranking.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the family of Davey Boy Smith at this time.

A few weeks ago, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced their 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame Class.  The result was that Derek Jeter (on his first ballot), and Larry Walker (on his tenth and final) were chosen to enter Cooperstown. The two will join former Catcher, Ted Simmons, who was elected by the Veteran’s Committee.  All three of those former players were ranked in the top ten, and have been removed from the list.

For the first time since we began this list in 2010, there is no new entry in our top 15.  Actually, there is no new entry in the top 50.  This should assist in clearing any existing backlog. 

The new top ten is:

1A. Pete Rose.  Following the bombshell that was the Astros sign-stealing scandal, Rose again lobbied for reinstatement in the Majors.  His reasoning was that since no Astros player was punished, that logic should transfer to his own situation.  That likely won’t happen, but he did remain in the news as President Trump also said he should be in the Hall of Fame.  Since he is ineligible, he has the “1A” designation.

1B. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. Like Rose, Jackson was banned from baseball, which is now 100 years old.  Jackson was banned for his (alleged) participation in the 1919 Black Sox scandal where players were paid by gamblers to throw games in the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.  Jackson was a Hall of Fame worthy player, but as such his estate has to settle for his “1B” rank.

1C. Roger Clemens.  Unlike Rose and Jackson, Clemens is Hall of Fame eligible, but the PED stain has kept him out thus far.  He has two more years left and a big mountain to climb, but what looked impossible a few years ago, could be attainable.  

2. Barry Bonds.  Ditto for Bonds, and the only reason he is behind the “Rocket”, is because he has a slightly lower vote total than anyone than Clemens.  The all-time Home Run king is in the same boat as Clemens, as they both are in the low 60s in voting with two years left of eligibility.  

3. Lou Whitaker.  Playing his entire career with the Detroit Tigers, Lou Whitaker was only on the Hall of Fame ballot for one year, but has appeared on the Veteran’s Committee Ballot. There is still a good chance that he could enter via that route and join his double play partner, Alan Trammell, who also had to wait for a Veteran’s Committee admission to Cooperstown.

4. Bill Dahlen. “Bad” Bill Dahlen has been a Veteran’s Committee Nominee before, and could be again. The surly Shortstop was a defensive gem, a World Series Champion with the Giants in 1905, and is still in the top 50 in bWAR for Position Players.

5. Curt Schilling.  Had it not been for the mouth, political views and Twitter account of Curt Schilling, he would likely already have been inducted by now.  As it stands, he is close with a recent tally of 70% on his eight ballot.  Schilling has been on his best behavior in the last year, and with the weakest ballot in memory, he will enter Cooperstown in 2021 if he keeps his nose clean.

6. Manny Ramirez.  Unlike Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez WAS caught using PEDs and did so when the Baseball Player’s Union had an agreement with Major League Baseball.  Ramirez has approached 30% in the last ballot, and statistically he belongs, but induction is unlikely as of this writing.

7. Todd Helton.  Helton could follow Larry Walker into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and his Hall of Fame support approached nearly 30% on his second year on the ballot. Helton is definitely on the right trajectory.  

8. Gil Hodges.  This might surprise you, but one of the most debated players on our baseball list is Hodges.  This is the player who has the most accumulated votes that never got inducted, and his name is synonymous with Dodgers lore.

9. Tommy John.  Tommy John Surgery is actually represented in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but John himself is not.  He has 288 Wins and 2,245 Strikeouts and he will definitely appear in a future Veteran’s Committee ballot.

10. Scott Rolen.  Rolen jumped from 17.2% to 35.3% on his third year of eligibility, and while he was not a Colorado Rockie like Todd Helton, he is the one called the “New Larry Walker” based on belief that he will methodically work his way into Cooperstown.  We agree with that assessment.

As you can see, there are no new entries in the top ten.  There are actually, nobody new in the top fifty.  The only two new entries are Mark Buehrle at #74, and Tim Hudson at #101.

This brings a unique opportunity for those who are on the 2021 ballot as the returning nominees will not be looking to be “slotted” below anyone new. 

We are in the preliminary process of expanding our list to 300.

You know what we want you to do!

Take a look, and if you haven’t done so already, cast your vote and offer your opinion!