Even amidst the constant controversy that surrounds the Baseball Hall of Fame, there is always something magical about Cooperstown, and when they have a former player from the modern era elected it makes the ceremony that much more special.

This year they have four.

On what was a beautiful summer day in front of 40,000 fans and forty-nine Hall of Famers in upstate New York, four baseball legends are now enshrined with a bronze bust that will forever be on display.

Rather than recap the accomplishments of the four (regular visitors know that we have done that often), let’s read the etchings on each of the four new inductees.

CRAIG ALLAN BIGGIO: HOUSTON, N.L. 1988-2007

GRITTY SPARK PLUG WHO IGNITED ASTROS OFFENSE FOR 20 MAJOR LEAGUE SEASONS, BECOMING FIRST PLAYER IN HISTORY WITH AT LEAST 3,000 HITS, 600 DOUBLES, 400 STOLEN BASES AND 250 HOME RUNS.  TRANSITIONED FROM ALL-STAR CATCHER TO GOLD GLOVE SECOND BASEMAN TO EVERYDAY OUTFIELDER, AMASSING 3,060 HITS, INCLUDING 668 DOUBLES – MOST BY A RIGHT-HANDED BATTER – AND A MODERN-DAY RECORD 285 TIMES HIT BY A PITCH.  A SEVEN-TIME ALL-STAR, WON FIVE SILVER SLUGGER AWARDS AND FOUR GOLD GLOVE AWARDS.


JOHN ANDREW SMOLTZ: ATLANTA N.L. 1988-99, 2001-08; BOSTON, A.L. 2009; ST.LOUIS, N.L. 2009

A WORKHOUSE POWER PITCHER, TRADED HIS STARTING DOMINANCE TO DEVELOP INTO PREMIER CLOSER BEFORE RETURNING TO ROTATION.  BECAME THE FIRST PLAYER IN HISTORY WITH 200 WINS AND 150 SAVES.  WITH A DYNAMIC FASTBALL, A DECEPTIVE SLIDER AND A DARTING SPLITTER, FANNED 3,084 BATTERS AND WAS NAMED TO EIGHT ALL-STAR TEAMS, THE 1996 N.L. CY YOUNG AWARD WINNER AND 1992 NLCS MVP.  SET N.L. RECORD WITH 55 SAVES IN 2002.  PITCHED BEST WHEN GAME WAS BIGGEST, RECORDING A 15-4 POST-SEASON RECORD, HELPING BRAVES TO 1995 WORLD SERIES TITLE.

PEDRO JAIME MARTINEZ:  LOS ANGELES, N.L. 1992-93; MONTREAL. N.L. 1994-97; BOSTON, A.L. 1998-2004; NEW YORK, N.L. 2005-08; PHILADELPHIA, N.L. 2009


FEATURING AN ELECTRIC ARSENAL OF PITCHES THAT VANQUISHED BATTERS DURING AN ERA OF HIGH OCTANE OFFENSE, THE FIERY RIGHTY FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC OWNED THE INSIDE PART OF THE PLATE WITH AN EXPLODING FASTBALL AND CONFOUNDING CHANGE-UP.  LED LEAGUE IN E.R.A. FIVE TIMES AND STRIKEOUTS THREE TIMES EN ROUTE TO THREE CY YOUNG AWARDS AND EIGHT ALL-STAR SELECTIONS.  FIRST PITCHER TO RETIRE WITH 3,154 STRIKEOUTS IN FEWER THAN 3,000 INNINGS.  WON 219 GAMES WITH AN ASTOUNDING .687 WINNING PERCENTAGE.  POSTED 117-37 RECORD IN BOSTON HELPING TO LEAD RED SOX TO 2004 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP.


RANDALL DAVID JOHNSON:  “RANDY” “THE BIG UNIT”:  MONTREAL, N.L. 1988-89; SEATTLE, A.L. 1989-98; HOUSTON, N.L. 1998; ARIZONA, N.L. 1999-2004, 2007-08; NEW YORK, A.L. 2005-06; SAN FRANCISCO, N.L. 2009

AT 6’10’, A TOWERING AND INTIMIDATING LEFTHANDER WHOSE CRACKLING FASTBALL AND DEVASTATING SLIDER PARALYZED HITTERS FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, FIVE-TIMES CY YOUNG AWARD WINNER, INCLUDING FOUR CONSECUTIVE, 1999-2002.  LED LEAGUE IN STRIKEOUTS NINE TIMES AND POSTED SIX 300 STRIKEOUT SEASONS.  TEN-TIME ALL-STAR AND THREE-TIME 20-GAME WINNER, RANKED SECONS ALL-TIME ON STRIKEOUT LIST (4,875) AND FIRST IN STRIKEOUTS PER NINE INNINGS (10.6) UPON RETIREMENT.  WON 303 GAMES AND LED LEAGUE IN E.R.A. FOUR TIMES, WON THREE GAMES IN 2001 WORLD SERIES WITH CHAMPION DIAMONDBACKS EARNING CO-MVP HONORS. 


Capital letters do make it more emphatic doesn’t it?

Do you want to know what makes it even better?

The fact that Randy Johnson was inducted with his mullet is far greater to us than his hat (the first for Arizona) and the hat worn by Craig Biggio (Astros, also a first.

So what do we do now?

What we always do!

We look forward to the next class of Baseball Hall of Famers and debate their merits.

Hopefully, all of you will participate and lend us your opinions as to who you want to see in the next Baseball Hall of Fame class.

It will take us time, but we here at Notinhalloffame.com are planning to take a look at the greatest players of each major franchise and subsequently how each one of them looks at their respective Halls of Fame/Rings of Honor or Retired Number selection.


Saying that one of the most prestigious baseball teams, the Boston Red Sox have announced that they will be retiring the number of former Pitcher, Pedro Martinez, marking the ninth time in franchise history that the team has offered that accolade.  His number 45, will join that of Bobby Doerr (#1), Joe Cronin (#4), Johnny Pesky (#6), Carl Yastrzemski (#8), Ted Williams (#9), Jim Rice (#14), Carlton Fisk (#27) and the mandated retired number 42 of Jackie Robinson.  The ceremony will take place on July 28, two days after he is to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.


In the seven seasons that Pedro Martinez compiled with the Red Sox, Martinez collected two Cy Young Awards, won the ERA title four times, the WHIP title four times and compiled a stellar 117 and 37 won/loss record.  Martinez was also a large part of the 2004 team that won the World Series.


We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Martinez on achieving this accolade. 

Johnny Damon came close to getting to the 3,000 Hit mark in his career (2,769) and did have other decent career numbers with 235 Home Runs, 1,139 Runs Batted in, and 408 Stolen Bases. Damon was also a very popular figure who won two World Series (one in Boston and one in New York), but a look at his individual campaigns show that of a statistical compiler, as he never had a top ten MVP season, only made two All-Stars, and only was in the top ten in WAR for Position Players once. Throw in his sub .800 career OPS and sub-par defense, do we have a more popular Vada Pinson on our hands?  His vote tally of 1.9% in his first year of eligibility was interesting and told the tale of his Hall of Fame chance.

With all due respect to Ivan Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero, statistically speaking, Manny Ramirez is the top dog of the new possibilities for the 2017 Class. We will also say that he was the most entertaining. We are all aware of the eccentric “Manny being Manny moments, but ahead of all that was a man who was an incredible hitter who had a career slash line of .312/.411/.585/.996 that included one Batting Title, three On Base Percentage Titles, three Slugging Titles, and three OPS Titles. Most importantly, Ramirez maintained his offensive production in the postseason and was the Most Valuable Player for the Boston Red Sox in their 2004 World Series win. Arguably, Manny Ramirez is one of the most prolific offensive superstars to never win an MVP award or even make a runner-up finish, though he was in the top 10 in voting eight times, and he has more than enough stats to be a Hall of Fame entry.

Still, we all know what the elephant in the room is here, don’t we? “Manny being Manny” meant Manny injecting himself with Performance Enhancing Drugs, and unlike many suspected PED users, Ramirez WAS caught and served a suspension for it. If alleged PED use keeps superstars out, confirmed PED use will probably keep him out, regardless of what the stats say.  As he recently concluded his ten years on the writer’s ballot, we know the answer. 

For the record, we love outspoken athletes. They may not always be popular with fans (and other players), but they sure make for far better sound bites than “we gotta go out there and give 100 percent” or other such statements from the “Athlete’s Guide to Dealing with the Media”. Ironically, Schilling is now part of the media, but remains as outspoken as ever.

Schilling attracted attention with his arm, too. Although he has only 216 career Major League victories, he has a career WAR of 69.7, which ranks him in the top thirty all-time for Pitchers. He was a strikeout machine who also rarely walked batters, as shown by his number two career ranking in Strikeouts to Walks Ratio.   Schilling also rose to the occasion even more in the postseason, where he posted an 11- 2 record, a World Series and NLCS MVP, three rings, and a WHIP under one. 

Curt Schilling’s famous bloody sock from the 2004 Hall of Fame is already in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Logic dictates that there is a solid chance that he will join his famous hosiery, though that would have to come from the Veterans Committee, as his political views and media feuds kept him out via the voters.

  

Couldn’t we just say, " Look at the previous Barry Bonds entry and say ‘Ditto”? Seriously, the parallels are too great to ignore.

Like Bonds, Clemens may have had a Hall of Fame career before he allegedly took PEDs, and like Bonds, he dominated the steroid era as he did the decade before. He has the career statistics (353 wins and 4,672 strikeouts), the dominating seasons (seven Cy Youngs and an MVP), and two World Series Rings. “Rocket” Roger Clemens is arguably the best Pitcher in the past forty years.

None of this may matter. A solid percentage of his accomplishments took place under the shroud of steroids. Clemens was never known as the nicest baseball player (as Mike Piazza can attest to), but his post-career handling of scandals has made him even less likable than the surly Bonds.   We have a feeling that Roger Clemens will forever go down in history as the Pitcher with the most Wins (and Strikeouts & Cy Youngs) who is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His only chance (like many others) will lie in how the Steroids Era is perceived.

As it stands, Clemens is in the same abyss as Bonds, having failed to make the regular ballot and been rejected by the Veterans Committee.

Should Roger Clemens be in the Hall of Fame?

Definitely put him in! Maybe, but others deserve it first. Probably not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. No opinion. No way!

Processing....

Definitely put him in! - 57.1%

Maybe, but others deserve it first. - 3.6%

Probably not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. - 2.7%

No opinion. - 0.9%

No way! - 35.7%