We have a significant (though not celebrated) retirement in Baseball as Jayson Werth has decided to end his comeback and call it a career. It was a simple statement that he made with Fancred Sports:

“I’m done…whatever you want to call it”.

In the last off-season Werth signed with the Seattle Mariners but never made it to the big league team playing for Tacoma in AAA.

Werth debuted in 2002 with the Toronto Blue Jays where he played for two seasons in a reserve role, eventually moving to Los Angeles where as a Dodger he showed promise. In 2006, a wrist injury would force him to miss the entire season and afterwards would be signed by the Philadelphia Phillies. Werth would be named an All Star in 2009 and that year he would help the Phils win their second World Series Championship. In 2010, he would lead the NL in Doubles and finished eighth in MVP voting, the highest of his career.

The Washington Nationals would sign Werth and he would enter the highest profile run of his career. The Outfielder would play 808 Games for Washington accruing 109 Home Runs. In 2013 and 2014 he would finish fifth and third respectively in On Base Percentage,

Werth retires with 1,465 Hits. He is not going to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but perhaps he has done enough to be placed on the ballot. That would be 2023.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to thank Jayson Werth for the on-field memories and we wish him the best in his post-playing career.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com have always been huge advocates of Don Cherry gaining induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, though we have to give the bombastic hockey analyst credit, as he doesn’t promote himself for the Toronto based institution. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t vocal about whom he thinks should be inducted, and who shouldn’t have been.

Cherry’s wrath was directed towards former Red Army player, Alexander Yakushev who surprisingly was chosen. He had this to say:

 "I am really upset at Yakushev. Absolutely ridiculous that he's in and Henderson's not. What he did in Russia over there, it was fantastic. To think that they put in the two losers (Yakushev and Tretiak), and they keep out the Canadian winner? I guess that's a little tough but that's the way I feel."

Seemingly this is less of a shot of Yakushev’s selection than it is of championing Henderson’s cause, but with all due respect to Cherry, any shot at Vladislav Tretiak not being Hockey Hall of Fame worthy seems wrong.

For what it is worth in our last Notinhalloffame.com hockey list, we had Paul Henderson ranked #21 on our last ranking. That will be updated shortly.

We expected that there would be a bit of backlash in regards to the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2018 towards the selection of current NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, and sure enough it happened.

Former players, Daniel Carcillo and Nick Boynton took to Twitter to vent their frustration towards the announcement:

"I can't get over what a slap in the face this must be to the families of Steve Montador, Rick Rypien, Derek Boogaard, Bob Probert & Wade Belak, Gary Bettman had a hand in every death by withholding info about the risks of doing their job."

The five players who Carcillo references who were suffering from brain damage and died prematurely.

Thirteen-year veteran Nick Boynton also questioned the induction and asked for material that he donated to the Hall to be returned.

There is currently a class action lawsuit against the National Hockey League by former players accusing the league of keeping information in regards to the danger of concussions.

Chances are this is not the last we will discuss the Hockey Hall of Fame induction of Gary Bettman.

This is one of the days that we look forward to every year at Notinhalloffame.com as the Hockey Hall of Fame has announced the Class of 2018. This year’s class includes two former NHL players (Martin Brodeur and Martin St. Louis), a former women’s player (Jayna Hefford), a former Soviet player (Alexander Yakushev) and two builders (Willie O’Ree and Gary Bettman).

Let’s take a deeper look at this year’s class.

The current NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman was chosen. This will not be a very popular choice especially in Canada, where it is perceived that he has an anti-Canadian bias. Since he took over the league in 1993, there have been three work stoppages. Those who favor his induction will point to the fact that revenue has increased ten fold since he took over. This is not without precedent as the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted a seated Commissioner in Pete Rozelle in 1985.

Martin Brodeur enters on his first year of eligibility and this selection was as close to being a lock as you could get. With 691 Wins in the NHL, he is the all-time leader in that statistic with his closest competition being 140 away. Brodeur has a claim as the most successful Goalie ever, as in addition to his Wins total he would backstop the New Jersey Devils to three Stanley Cups, was a four time Vezina Trophy winner and a five time William M. Jenning Award winner. Internationally, he had two Olympic Gold Medals with Team Canada. We had him ranked #1 on our most recent list.

Jayna Hefford represented Canada in International competition. She enters in her second year of eligibility. A four time Olympic Gold Medalsis and seven time World Champion, Hefford scored 91 Points Internationally, which is second overall in the history of Canadian Women’s Hockey.

As speculated by many, Willie O’Ree was chosen. O’Ree made history in 1958 when he played for the Boston Bruins in 1958 thus becoming the first black player in the history of the league. While his career only comprised of 45 Games it was a landmark moment for hockey and he was certainly a trailblazer for many of the black players today.   O’Ree’s story has become more well known in recent years and he has been very instrumental in programs that encourage diversity into the sport.

Martin St. Louis went from undrafted to the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2004, St. Louis took the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup title while winning the Hart Trophy in the process. The undersized player (5’ 8”) would win the Lady Byng Trophy three times and was also the Art Ross Trophy winner in 2013. St. Louis was ranked #3 by us and like Brodeur he entered on his first year of eligibility.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the induction of former Soviet player, Alexander Yakushev. Yakushev was the Soviet League scoring champion in 1969 and was a two time Gold Medalist for the U.S.S.R. in both 1972 and 1974. He scored 11 Points in the famous 1972 Summit Series. To the best of our knowledge, there had been no talk of Yakushev entering the Hockey Hall of Fame.

In terms of our rankings, please note that we only rank former NHL players and have not yet created a list for builders or female players.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the Class of 2018. We will begin work on our 2019 Notinhalloffame.com Hockey list shortly.