Gary Sheffield has officially retired and has made his case for the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Twenty years ago, a baseball star with over 500 Home Runs would be an automatic lock for the Hall of Fame.  That is not the case anymore now is it?

Sheffield's career stats are solid, there is no doubt of this.  He hit 509 Homers, was a nine time All Star and a five time Silver Slugger.  Subsequently, his 2,689 Hits and 1,676 Runs Batted In are also impressive tallies.  Still there are three things that worl against him.

Journeyman Perception.

Sheffield may have been great virtually everywhere he went...but he went a lot of places.  He was a Brewer, a Padre, a Marlin, a Dodger, a Brave, a Yankee, a Tiger and a Met.  Should he get in, it makes most sense to put a Marlins cap on him, but he really is not identified with any team.

Steroids

Sheffield was named in the Mitchell Report as one of the players who had purchased steroids, an allegation he has denied.  We all know what the writers have done with supposed PED users.

Controversy

Although we love Gary Sheffield's candid nature, he has not always been the darling of the media, and wherever he goes, trouble seemed to follow.  Take away the PED allegation, and it is very possible that media members may reject him anyway.

So, is Gary Sheffield a Hall of Fame contender?  What do you think?

Well....Just when it seemed we had an interesting thought about Peter Forsberg; he up and retires on us.

The Swedish Superstar's comeback lasted only two games and thirty-five minutes on the ice, yet he deemed his past injuries to render him ready for a permanent trip to the golf course.  Forsberg did not hit the 1,000 point mark but his International play makes him a serious HOF contender in our eyes.  When eligible (should he not return to European Pro Hockey)  in three years, we think he will habe a solid upper rank on our list.  What do you all think?

Peter Forsberg returned to National Hockey League on Friday Night to the Colorado Avalanche after spending two seasons with Modo in the Swedish League.  Forsberg was a favorite of ours, and we are happy to see him back in the NHL, but it got us thinking....

What of the other stars still competing in Europe, like Jaormir Jagr and Dominik Hasek?  Here is why we are thinking about it.  The Hockey Hall of Fame will not consider anyone eligible until they have finished their professional career (even in Europe) for three years.  We will be looking to create a Future Candidate List for the various sports in which we cover, and we will be looking to do a "coming soon" for the afformentioned Europeans. 

Back to Forsberg, we have a case of a man who has already had an accomplished NHL career, and has been a proven assist machine.  He currently stands at 885 career points, but stands at #10 All Time for Points per Game.  Internationally, Forsberg has two Olympic Gold Medals for his native Sweden.  In the NHL, he is a former Art Ross and Hart Trophy Winner and has twice hoisted the Stanley Cup.  We think he is already Hall of Fame material, but does he have to reach a magical 1,000 NHL point total to get into the Hall?

Well gang, the Hall of Fame Class of 2011 was announced and with a group this loaded it is hard to say there were any surprises or snubs.

Our top two ranked football players, #1 Marshall Faulk & #2 Deion Sanders were inducted on their first year of eligibility.  Our #4 candidate, Shannon Sharpe was also selected making us wonder who will have the most colorful speech; Sanders or Sharpe.

Our Number #10 Selection, Richard Dent will enter as the star this year's class as the star on the defensive side of the ball.  We are certain that Bears fans everywhere are celebrating this selection.

Rounding out the group are Les Richter, Chris Hanburger & the warranted induction of NFL Films Legend, Ed Sabol.

Where we at Notinhalloffame were surpised about, was the exclusion of Willie Roaf, who was our Number #5 selection, though will likely see entry in the next couple of years.  We also erroniously thought that two Running Backs would gain entry, but Curtis Martin (#6) and Jerome Bettis (#14) both failed to get inducted on both their first year of eligibility. 

No Wide Receivers entered the Hall this year as the illustrious group of Cris Carter, Tim Brown & Andre Reed did not get in.  Charles Haley, Dermonti Dawson & Cortez Kennedy were also not selected.

What do you think, did the Hall get it right?