Committee Chairman

Guy Lapointe to have his number retired by the Montreal Canadians

Jun 20, 2014

For those of you have been following us here at Notinhalloffame.com, we are in the process of ranking all major North American sports franchises and how they honor their past players. One of the organizations that we suspect will be in the top five will be the Montreal Canadians, who have just announced that former Defenceman, Guy Lapointe will be the latest man who will have his number raised to the rafters of the Bell Center.

Lapointe was a member of the Habs’ “Big Three” corps of blueliners, which included fellow Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, Larry Robinson and Serge Savard, which anchored the team to six Stanley Cups in the 1970’s, including four in a row. He was part of the team from 1968 to 1989 where he was named a First Team NHL All Star once and a Second Team selection three times. Lapointe was also gifted on offense as he scored 572 Points as a member of the Montreal Canadians. Internationally, Guy Lapointe was a member of Team Canada’s famed 1972 Summit Series and the 1976 Canadian Team.

Guy Lapointe wore the number 5 with the Canadians, which was the same number that was worn by another Montreal legend, Bernie Geoffrion who had that number retired in 2006. This is not the first time that a number has been retired twice by the Habs as the number 12 was previously retired twice in honor of both Yvan Cournoyer and Dickie Moore and the number 16 was hangs from the Bell Center in respect to both Elmer Lach and Henri Richard.

Like every other former player who has had their number retired by the Montreal Canadians organization, Guy Lapointe is also a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, an accolade he achieved in 1993. As always the Canadians have set the bar high for other NHL franchises to follow in regards to retired numbers.

Dallas Clark Retires

Jun 19, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

Dallas Clark, who last played in the NFL in 2013 with the Baltimore Ravens, officially announced that he was retired from playing Professional Football today in a press conference in Indianapolis. It was as a member of the Colts where Clark had his most productive seasons, playing nine of his eleven seasons, and tallying 5,665 Receiving Yards with 53 Touchdowns.

Clark was drafted in the first round in 2003 by Indianapolis where the Tight End proved to be an immediate fit for the Colts offense and would become a part of their Super Bowl XLI win, where he currently holds the record for the most Receiving Yards by a Tight End in an NFL post Season. He would have his best Regular Season in 2009 where he would eclipse the 1,000 Yard mark in Receiving and earn First Team All Pro and Pro Bowl honors.

It is unlikely that Dallas Clark has done enough to be a serious contender for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but his impact on the Indianapolis Colts was solid and perhaps they will acknowledge that with more than a press conference after his career one day.

Team 3D to the TNA HOF

Jun 17, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

At TNA’s Pay Per View event, Slammiversary, the troubled wrestling promotion has announced their third inductee into their Hall of Fame. Team 3D, best known to the WWE fans as the Dudley Boys, will join Sting and Kurt Angle as members of the TNA Hall of Fame.

The Dudley Boys had their start in Extreme Championship Wrestling, where the then named Bubba Ray and Devon, would emerge as not only the stars of the gigantic Dudley Clan, but as the top tag team in the promotion earning their version of the World Tag Team Championship eight times. The duo would move on to the World Wrestling Federation and unlike previous ECW talent, would continue to be successful and over a near six year run would appear in Pay-Per-View main events and win versions of the World Tag Team title there ten times.

There contract was not renewed in 2005 and due to the WWE purchase of ECW intellectual property the duo were no longer allowed to go by the name of the “Dudley Boys” and were now Brother Ray and Brother Devon and collectively known as “Team 3D”. They would make TNA their American home (they would win the IWGP World Tag Team Championship in Japan) and win the Tag Team Titles there three times.

The duo would have singles runs in TNA, and Brother Ray would reinvent himself as “Bully Ray” and would enjoy his most successful singles run to date, capturing the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. It would not be out of the question to envision Bully Ray regaining that belt in the near future.

This brings us to just what does this accolade mean anyway? We here at Notinhalloffame.com have been critical of the TNA Hall of Fame for two reasons:

The first is that the three inductees (although you can argue Devon is no longer competing) were active performers at the time of their selection, indicating that the struggling promotion does not have the history to necessitate a Hall of Fame. The second is that the person who should be in their Hall of Fame the most, Jeff Jarrett, has not been inducted and now that he is in the process of creating his own wrestling promotion (Global Force Wrestling) the odds of him getting into this Hall seems remote. Considering the way he departed the WWE in 1999, he has equal odds of entering that promotion’s Hall of Fame are weak too.

With respect to Team 3D, the health of TNA is not that good and we have to wonder whether this wrestling organization will be around for a few more years to even make this accolade mean anything. Still, we congratulate Mark Lamonica (Bully Ray/Bubba Ray) and Devon Hughes for receiving this honor.

RIP: Tony Gwynn

Jun 17, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

This is a particular sad day for Major League Baseball and for us here at Notinhalloffame.com as it was announced that Tony Gwynn passed away today at the young age of 54 due to cancer. Gwynn is considered to be the best player of all time in the history of the San Diego Padres (he is referred to as Mr. Padre after all), and for many the finest pure hitters of his generation.

Tony Gwynn joined the Padres in 1982, and Southern California would be the only MLB home that he would ever know. By 1984, Gwynn would be a full time starter and would lead the National League in Hits and win the Batting Title for the first time. This would become a regular occurrence as Gwynn would become one of the few players to eclipse the 3,000 Hit Mark and would win seven more Batting Titles. With the exception of his first season where he played only 54 games, Gwynn never had a season where he batted under .300, and his career Batting Average was .338.

It was not a misprint to state that Tony Gwynn was ahead of his time. Nowadays, it is commonplace for franchises to have gigabytes of data and recordings on each baseball player from the majors, minors and leagues throughout the world. In the 80’s, Gwynn was already accumulating film (yes film) on potential pitchers he would face, and his own past At Bats so that he could become an even better hitter. Pardon the pun, but Gwynn always stayed ahead of the curve in that regard.

Although Tony did not win a World Series Ring, (though he led them to the National League Pennant twice in 1984 and 1998) he did fill up his trophy case. Gwynn was selected to represent the NL in the All Star Game fifteen times, won the Silver Slugger seven times and the Gold Glove five times. Considering he was not a power hitter, the Silver Slugger honors was a testament to just how keen his batting eye was. Other notable stats of note from his career, was winning an On Base Percentage Title, stealing 319 bases, and winning five Player of the Month Awards. Gwynn may never have won the National League MVP, but he did finish in the top ten in balloting seven times.

Gwynn was also known for his philanthropic endeavors and was recognized as such in 1995 by MLB with the winning of the Branch Rickey Award, which annually goes to the player in recognition of his outstanding community service. As further evidence of Gwynn being one of the league’s “good guys”, he also won the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1998, which goes to the player who best exemplifies the character and integrity of Gehrig on and off the field. The year later, he was chosen to receive the Roberto Clemente Award. That accolade goes to the player who “best exemplifies the game of Baseball, Sportsmanship, Community Involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team”. Putting Gwynn in the same breath as Clemente and Gehrig seems so normal as he was that good and that well respected in Baseball and in life as a whole.

“Mr. Padre” entered the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first vote, accumulating 97.6 percent of the vote in 2007. At this time we would like to extend our condolences to the friends and family of Tony Gwynn and as for us, we are going to spend some time on YouTube remembering what a great player and great man he was. Tony, you will be missed.