Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Tampa Bay Rays. 

Entering the American League as an expansion team in 1998, the Rays were originally the “Devil Rays”, before dropping the demonic portion of their name in 2008.  Saddled in the ultra-competitive American League East, Tampa has managed to make the playoffs five times, including an American League Pennant in 2008.  They have yet to win the World Series to date. 

As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2019 Season.

The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. Evan Longoria

2. Carl Crawford

3. Ben Zobrist

4. David Price

5. Kevin Kiermaier

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.  

Look for our All-Time Top 50 Boston Red Sox coming next!

As always we thank you for your support.

A few days following the passing of Jerry Sloan, another Hall of Fame Coach passed away. Eddie Sutton, one of the most successful college coaches died at the age of 84.

A Head Coach at Division I for nearly four decades, Sutton took four different schools to the NCAA tournament.  As a player, Sutton played at Oklahoma State (1955-58), and following his playing days, transitioned into a role as an Assistant Coach for one year.  This would be Sutton’s only season as a subordinate, as he took over the reins at Tulsa Central High (1959-66).  Sutton’s teams were very good, and it garnered him a resume to take to the next level.  Sutton took over at Southern Idaho (1966-69), again doing well with an 84-14 record.  That would be the end of his JuCo career, as Division I came calling.

Creighton University signed Sutton to take over in 1969, and he took the Blue Jays to the NCAA Tournament in 1974.  With Creighton, he had an overall record of 82-50, a nice record for a good school but he landed a higher-profile role with Arkansas of the Southwest Conference.

He ran the Razorbacks program from 1974 to 1985, where Sutton would take them to the Tournament the last nine seasons.  With Arkansas, he was the Coach of the Year (1978), four-time SWC Coach of the Year, and in 1978, he brought the Razorbacks to the Final Four.  

Following Arkansas, Sutton took over the program at Kentucky, where he did well, winning his second AP College Coach of the Year (1986), but his end there ended in a booster scandal, forcing him to resign.  Sutton may have left the program in disgrace, but he would rebound two years later, as he went back to his alma mater, Oklahoma State in 1990.

Sutton’s tenure at Oklahoma State was the longest of his coaching career (1990-2006) and he was a three-time conference Coach of the Year.  The Cowboys would be the fourth team he brought to the dance, and Oklahoma State went to the Final Four twice under Sutton’s guidance.  He resigned in 2006, and came out of retirement briefly to coach the University of San Francisco on an interim basis for one year before he retired for good.

Sutton was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and he was chosen this year for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.  Sadly, that induction will now be posthumous.  He had an overall coaching record in college of 806-326.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends and family of Eddie Sutton.

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.  Eventually, we plan to do that for the major colleges in the NCAA.  As such, it is news to us that the St. Louis Cardinals has announced that Tom Herr, John Tudor and Bill White were chosen for their franchise Hall of Fame.

Herr and Tudor were elected via the fan vote.  They beat out Keith Hernandez, Edgar Renteria, Steve Carlton, Lee Smith and Matt Morris to earn this honor.  White entered by the Red Ribbon Panel, which was created for players from an earlier era.

Tom Herr, Second Base (1979-88).  Herr was a member of the Cardinals 1982 World Series Championship Team, and he collected 1,021 for the franchise.  His best season was in 1985, where he was an All-Star, was fifth in MVP voting and batted .303 with 110 Runs Batted In.  While he was never a Gold Glove winner, he was a good fielder and had a Defensive bWAR of 4.0 for St. Louis.

John Tudor, Pitcher (1985-88 & 1990).  After the 1984 season, John Tudor was traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to St. Louis, and the southpaw proceeded to have the best season of his career.  Tudor finished second in Cy Young voting after going 21-8 with a 1.93 ERA and a National League leading 0.938 WHIP.  Tudor was a huge reason that the Cardinals won the Pennant, and Tudor won his first two starts, losing the third against Kansas City.  Tudor had a 62-26 record for the Redbirds.

Bill White, First Base (1959-65 & 1969).  An All-Star in five of his years in St. Louis, White was a member of 1964 World Series Championship Teams.  Playing at First Base, White was considered one of the best defensive players at that position, and he won six of his seven Gold Gloves as a Cardinal.  White had two top-ten MVP finishes and as a Cardinal had 1,241 Hits, 140 Home Runs and a .298 Batting Average.

The Cardinals Hall of Fame came into existence in 2014, and has quickly become one of the best franchise-run Halls of Fame.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to the impending members of the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.

It is a sad day in the Basketball world as long time Hall of Fame Coach, Jerry Sloan, passed away today at the age of 78.  He passed away from Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson Disease.

Playing his college ball at Evansville, Sloan was a two-time NBA All-Star and four-time First Team Defensive player, with a career spent mostly in Chicago.  Sloan would later be their Assistant Coach, and was promoted to their Head Coach.  Sloan had a losing record in Chicago, and he was let go after three years, but there was a lot of talent in his mind, and the Utah Jazz hired him as a scout.  Sloan ascended to Assistant Coach and in 1988, he became their Head Coach.  

Under Sloan, Utah became one of the best teams in the Western Conference and he would run the team until 2011.  Under his guidance, Sloan took the Jazz to six Division Titles, two Conference Championships and ten 50-Win seasons.

Sloan was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 as a Coach.  His number 4 was retired by the Bulls, and the Jazz retired the number 1,223 in honor of his number of wins while coaching Utah.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends and family of Jerry Sloan.