Baseball fans talk about this every day, and we now know who will comprise the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

Let’s take a deep dive look into those chosen, those left off, and those who are off the ballot completely.

To the surprise of nobody, former New York Yankee infielder, Derek Jeter enters Cooperstown on his first year of eligibility.  Jeter entered on ___ of the ballot, and he joins his fellow career-Yankee, Mariano Rivera, as back-to-back first ballot Hall of famers.  Jeter would win five World Series Rings, was a 14-time All-Star, a five-time Silver Slugger, and he would accumulate 3,465 Hits, 260 Home Runs and a .310 Batting Average. Jeter was denied a unanimous vote as one voter elected not to put the x by his name.

Jeter is joined by Larry Walker, who was in his last year of eligibility.  It is an incredible story, as Walker debuted on the ballot in 2011 with only 20.3% of the ballot.  He dropped as low as 10.2% in 2014, and only crept back to 21.9% in 2017.  He shot up to 34.1% in 2018, and rocketed to 54.6% last year. The momentum was rocketing for Walker, and he becomes the second Canadian to enter the Hall.

So, what changed?  Part of it is a re-evaluation of the Coors Field effect.  Another part is that the backlog of players has cleared. Perhaps, the biggest part is the recognition that regardless of what diamond he played on, that this is a former MVP who was a bona fide five-tool player.  That is rarified air.  He received 76.6% of the vote.

The former player who came closest is Curt Schilling who garnered 70% of the vote, who bluntly should have been in years ago based on his statistical accomplishments.  With a bWAR of 79.5, 3,116 Strikeouts and three World Series Rings, Schilling was a clutch performer who was at his best when the lights were at his brightest.  In Schilling’s fourth year of eligibility, he received 52.3% of the ballot, but comments against the media and other right-wing charged diatribes rubbed voters the wrong way, and he dropped o 45.0% in 2017.  Last year, he climbed to 60.9%.

Forgive us, as we are going to lump Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds together.  How can we not?  Clemens was the best Pitcher and Bonds was the best hitter without debate, but both are associated with PEDs (though neither was ever caught during their playing days), and both have finished their eighth year on the ballot.  They both had minimal gains this year, Clemens from 59.5% to 61.0% and Bonds from 59.1% to 60.7% but there is still a long way to go.   

Can they get there?

We think so, as three things work in their favor. The first is that Bonds and Clemens were at a different level than everyone else and you can argue (easily) that they would have been Hall of Famers without it.  The second is that Mike Piazza got in (as well as Jeff Bagwell), and there were more than one PED whisper about those two.  The third, and the most damming in our eyes is that Bud Selig is in, and the PED era happened under his watch, and he did not react until pressure forced him to.  Selig was not an ostrich, his head was not in the sand, and he knew what players were doing. He had too, and there have been voters who have said as much.

Former Shortstop, Omar Vizquel, is trending in the right direction.  This is his third year, and he moved from 42.8% to 52.6%.  Vizquel is considered to be one of the best defensive Shortstops of all-time, and he has 11 Gold Gloves to prove it.  While he was not considered to be a great hitter, he had 2,877 Hits to silence those critics.  That is a great number even if he played until he was 45!

Another infielder, Scott Rolen, is also climbing upwards.  With a healthy bWAR of 70.2, the Third Baseman has eight Gold Gloves, seven All-Star appearances and a World Series Ring (St. Louis, 2006) on his resume.  He moved from 17.2% to 35.3%

The best closer on the ballot, Billy Wagner, moved from 16.7% to 31.7%   He had 422 Saves over his career, with an ERA of 2.31 and WHIP of 0.998.

Gary Sheffield also received a jump on his sixth year of eligibility.  The former slugger who blasted 509 Home Runs, went from 13.6% to 30.5% This is a good sign for Sheffield as he was one of the guys was treading water for a long time, and while the odds still remain long, they are much better than they were yesterday.

Todd Helton is on his second year of eligibility, and he holds a very good career Slash Line of .316/.414/.539.  Helton moved from 16.5% to 29.2%

Manny Ramirez left baseball with 555 Home Runs and a Slash Line of .312/.411/.585.  That is a Hall of Fame number, but unlike Bonds and Clemens, Ramirez WAS suspended for PED use as an active player.  This is a huge distinction, as Ramirez did break an agreed upon rule agreed upon by the Players Union.  He moved from 22.8% to 28.2%.

Former MVP, Jeff Kent, finally climbs over 20% for the first time with 27.5%.  This is his seventh year on the ballot.

Andruw Jones remains on the ballot.  The former Braves’ Outfielder is on his third ballot and he went from 7.5% to 19.4%, a huge jump.

Sammy Sosa is entrenched in Hall of Fame purgatory. Sosa is like Clemens and Bonds, in that he was not caught as a player, but he is as associated with PEDs as much as they are.  Detractors are pointing to his fake media persona and lack of clutch hitting, and he is dead in the Hall of Fame water.  He had 8.5% last year, and hits 13.9% this year, his highest ever.

Andy Pettitte had 9.9% in his first year of eligibility.  In his second year, he moved to 11.3%.

Bobby Abreu barely made the 5.0% threshold to remain on the ballot for a second year.  He received 5.5%.

Paul Konerko, Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez, Cliff Lee, Brad Penny and J.J. Putz all received at least one vote.

Raul Ibanez, Rafael Furcal, Josh Beckett, Jose Valverde, Heath Bell, Chone Figgins, Carlos Pena, Brian Roberts, Alfonso Soriano and Adam Dunn did not receive any votes.

Jeter and Walker join Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller, who were chosen by the Veteran’s Committee.  Boston sportswriter, Nick Carfado, will also enter via the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.   It is a posthumous induction as he passed away last year.  The ceremony will take place on July 26.

We will be redoing our Notinhalloffame.com Baseball List in late February, which will see us remove those who were chosen, and we will add those now eligible.  Rankings will also be altered based on your votes and comments.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Derek Jeter     for being chosen for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  As such it is huge news that Houston Astros have announced their second franchise Hall of Fame Class.

The timing is not getting a lot of exposure, as the Astros are embroiled with stealing signs scandal that has transfixed the game.  Nevertheless, this organization ushered in something special last year with their franchise Hall of Fame, and it is time for us to celebrate that.

These six individuals will be honored in a pre-game ceremony at the Astros home game against the Toronto Blue Jays on August 8.

Those six are:

Lance Berkman:  The third member of the “Killer B’s”, Berkman played for Houston from 1999 to 2010, where he was a five-time All-Star, and in all of those seasons, he finished in the top seven in MVP voting.  Berkman showed power with a pair of 40 Home Run Seasons, and would smack 326 taters with 1,090 RBIs for the Astros.  Berkman was traded to the New York Yankees in 2010, and he left there with a Slash Line of .296/.410/.549.

Cesar Cedeno:  From the Dominican Republic, Cedeno was with Houston from 1970 to 1981 where he was a four-time All-Star.  Cedeno had three seasons where he batted over .300, and he would lead the NL in Doubles twice.  From 1972 to 1976, he won a Gold Glove and he would also have six straight 50 Stolen Base seasons, totaling 487 for the team.  Cedeno also could go deep, as shown by his 163 Home Runs with Houston.  He would have 1,658 Hits, with a .289 Batting Average for the Astros.

Roy Hofheinz:  Hofheinz was the former Mayor of Houston, and part of the group that the Majors to Houston.

Roy Oswalt:  Debuting for the Astros in 2001, Roy Oswalt would finish in the top five in Cy Young voting in five of his six first seasons.  The three-time All-Star would have two 20 Win campaigns, won the ERA Title in 2006 and would have a 143-82 record for Houston.  He also would strike out 1,593 batters.

Billy Wagner:  One of the more dominating relief pitchers of his day, Wagner went to three All-Star Games with Houston, and would win the National League Rolaids Relief Award in 1999.  He would record 225 Saves and 379 Games Finished.

Bob Watson:  Watson was with Houston from 1966 to 1979, and he was a two-time All-Star.  He would accumulate 1,448 Hits with 139 Home Runs for the team while batting .297.

This is the first class that was voted on by the 11-member Astros Hall of Fame committee.

They will join Bob Aspromonte, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Jose Cruz, Larry Dierker, Gene Elston, Milo Hamilton, Joe Morgan, Joe Niekro, Shane Reynolds, J.R. Richard, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Jim Umbricht, Don Wilson and Jimmy Wynn, who were all inducted last year.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Larry Walker for earning this prestigious honor.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  As such it is huge news that the Colorado Rockies will be retiring the number 33 of former Outfielder, Larry Walker.

After playing for the Montreal Expos for six seasons, he would sign with Colorado as a Free Agent for the 1995 season.  Walker, who was already an All-Star in Montreal, would ascend to greater heights in Colorado.  With the Rockies, the Canadian slugger would go to four All-Star Games, and would win three Batting Titles.  Walker won the 1997 National League MVP, while also capturing five Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers with the Rockies.

This is the final year that Walker is eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and it is considered that he has approximately a 50/50 shot for Cooperstown.

Walker joins Todd Helton (#17), and the league wide retirement of #42 of Jackie Robinson.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Larry Walker for earning this prestigious honor.

When the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the 10 new members from the player’s senior pool, that meant that 10 former legends were left off.  While there was a sizable groan in the Rocky Mountains when former Bronco, Randy Gradishar was left off, the most “visible” one was in Texas, as former Cowboys Wide Receiver, Drew Pearson, was also left off.

We use the word “visual” because KTVT from Plano, Texas was on hand to record his reaction.  When he wasn’t chosen, Pearson could not contain his disappointment:

“They broke my heart.  They broke my heart; and they did it like this! They strung it out like this.”

Pearson is referring to the broadcast on the NFL Network, which began at 7 AM EST.  While most people did not expect that they would go right into the announcement of who was chosen, nobody thought that the inductees would be announced in a reality show format, that dragged across nearly two hours.  The NFL Network did not state at the beginning that the announcements would be spread out over such a long duration of time.  The agony for those not chosen, and the families thereof, had to be excruciating.  

Pearson’s frustration continued:

“Can’t do nothing about it. Can’t catch no more damn passes. Can’t run no more routes.  It’s there.  What upsets me more is when they say you don’t deserve it.  They talk negative about you.  There’s nothing negative about my career in the NFL. Nothing!”

If we were to hazard a guess as to when the mood of the room changed, it had to be when fellow Wide Receiver, Harold Carmichael was announced to the Hall.  He wasn’t just announced on the NFL Network, he was there on hand to discuss the selection.  If he was there, he was obviously told ahead of time, and Pearson and all of the others in that room had to feel that their chances just plummeted.

While Pearson may have taken a chance having his reaction filmed live, there was no reason that he would have thought the broadcast would announce the new inductees in that staggered pattern.  None of us did.  This had let to minimal speculation that Hall of Fame President, David Baker, has been milking camera time and exposure for the Hall.  That train of thought began when he appeared on both the CBS and FOX playoff broadcasts to tell Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson respectively that they were now Hall of Famers; leading to some feeling that they earned that spot over Don Coryell and Tom Flores, who had previously been Finalists.  Cowher had not.

Dallas was not without representation as former Safety, Cliff Harris, was chosen.

All of this has left some with a bad taste in their mouth, but we again want to reiterate that we are thrilled that we are watching the biggest Pro Football Hall of Fame Class ever, and that is the most positive Hall related news in years.

Good or bad, we know we will keep wathing.