This was sudden.

David Baker has just announced his immediate resignation as the President of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, citing that it was time to return home, and retire.  He held that post for eight years.

You will have to forgive us, as the timing seems very suspect.  We are a little more than a month away from the announcement of the 2022 Semi-Finalists, and are nearly a third into the NFL Season.  An abrupt retirement at this time, coinciding with the Washington Football Team scandal that saw the NFL go through over 60,000 e-mails raises red flags.

We have been open about our dislike of Baker making himself a star on the NFL programming, and wondered aloud if his desire to be on television elevated former coaches, Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson, ahead of others (namely Don Coryell and Tom Flores), as they were pre-game personalities on major networks.

With all of that being said, we hope this is not due to illness, and we do think that the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s stature, has been elevated under his tenure.

He will be replaced by Jim Porter, who previously was the Hall’s chief Marketing and Communications Officer.

The process continues.

We here are Notinhalloffame.com have plans to create our own set of post-season awards, which we will look back and retroactively present from 1901 on.  That will take a while, but it has never stopped us before!

Our awards are not be league specific.

Now it is time for our 2021 positional awards.

We will be awarding a positional player of the year, but not only that, offer up the runner-up and second runner-up, meaning that we will have First, Second and Third All-MLB players.

Let’s work our way around the diamond and award the best of the best in Baseball!

*Please note that to qualify, a player must appear in that position at least 50% of the time.

First Team All-MLB: Second Baseman of the Year:  Marcus Semien, Toronto Blue Jays.  7.1 bWAR, 6.6 fWAR, 173 H, 45 HR, 115 R, 102 RBI, 15 SB, .265/.334/.538/873.

A nine-year veteran, Semien is in his first year north of the border, and the acquisition has thus far proved golden for the Blue Jays.  Semien led the American League in Plate Appearances and Extra Base Hits, went to his first All-Star Game, and threw up career-highs in Home Runs, RBIs and Slugging Percentage.  With all due respect to the other Second Basemen, this was one of the easier positional awards.

Second Team All-MLB: Second Base:  Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay Rays.  4.8 bWAR, 5.2 fWAR, 132 H, 39 HR, 97 R, 99 RBI, 1 SB, .247/.340/.534/863.

Lowe might have been an All-Star two years ago, but arguably this was his breakout year, showing the power numbers he could do in a full season.

Third Team All-MLB: Second Base:  Jose Altuve, Houston Astros.  4.4 bWAR, 5.2 fWAR, 167 H, 31 HR, 117 R, 83 RBI, 5 SB, .278/.350/.489/839.

Altuve went to his seventh All-Star Game this year, and he washed away the poor COVID-2020 season. 

Travis Zajac was taken in the First Round in the 2006 Draft (20^thOverall), and the native of Winnipeg cracked the New Jersey Devils roster immediately, with a 42 Point Season and a tenth-place finish in Calder voting.

Zajac developed into a solid two-way forward, and in both 2008-09 and 2009-10, he cracked 60 Points and was in the top ten in Frank J. Selke voting, finishing seventh and eighth respectively.  Zajac never hit that mark in scoring since he did have four more years where he eclipsed the 40-Point mark.  

Zajac would play over 1,000 Games for New Jersey before the struggling franchise dealt him to the Islanders.  For the Devils, Zajac accumulated 550 Points.

Because of the sheer greatness of Dominik Hasek, Ryan Miller was never going to be the best Goalie in Sabres history.  That being said, we know that Miller was pretty damned good.

Miller joined the Sabres organization after three years at Michigan State, and in his fourth year of professional hockey, Miller became the primary netminder for Buffalo.  He kept his GAA well under three, and finished sixth in Vezina voting in 2006-07, but Miller would have a banner year in 2009-10.  That season, Miller led the NHL in Point Shares (16.8), winning the Vezina and was fourth in Hart Trophy voting.  Miller would also post career-highs in Wins (41), GAA (2.22) and Save Percentage (.929).  On top of everything, Miller was the prime Goalie for the United States in the Olympics, and while the Americans fell to Canada in the Gold Medal Game, it was widely believed that Miller was the best player of the tournament.

Miller could not match that year, but he remained a strong Goalie, later playing for St. Louis, Vancouver and Anaheim, finishing an 18-year career in 2021.  He played in 540 Games, and had a 284-186-57 Record with a 2.58 GAA.