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Committee Chairman

Committee Chairman

Kirk Buchner, "The Committee Chairman", is the owner and operator of the site.  Kirk can be contacted at [email protected] .

As you have noticed, we have added the 2014 Basketball Futures. Well, onward and upward here at notinhalloffame.com and we have now uploaded the 2015 group. Now granted, this is not a very large one as we only have two players who will be eligible that year for your consideration.

They are:

Dikembe Mutombo

Wally Szczerbiak

As always, you know what to do! Check them out and cast your votes and give your opinions.

Today the Pre-Integration Committee (from Baseball’s beginnings to 1947) has announced that there will be three new members to the Baseball Hall of Fame. To become elected, the nominees on the ballot, which contained six former players, and four non-players had to receive at least 12 of 16 (75%) votes to enter.

Of the three selected, only one was a player. That was Deacon White, a barehanded Catcher in the 1870’s. White twice won the Batting Title and was a three time leader in Runs Batted In. He was ranked #30 on our notinhalloffame baseball list.

White will be joined by former New York Yankees owner, Jacob Ruppert who under his watch turned the Yankees into the biggest franchise in sports (of which some say they still are). Former umpire, Hank O’Daywas also selected.

Our top choice, Bill Dahlen (#6 on our list) received ten votes and will likely be on future Pre-Integration ballots. Nobody else on the ballot was even close as Marty Marion, Bucky Walters, Sam Breadon, Wes Ferrell, Tony Mullane and Alfred Reach all received three votes or less.

We congratulate the latest entries into Cooperstown!

Much like we have done with the Hockey and Baseball sections, we have now turned our attention to the world of Basketball. We kick it off with a list of six players who will be eligible for 2014 for the Basketball Hall of Fame. As always, we want your opinions on this group and whether they should ever receive a call for the Hall.

They are:

Alonzo Mourning
Anfernee Hardaway
Chris Webber
Eddie Jones
Sam Cassell
Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Remember, the Basketball Hall recognizes not just what a player does in the professional ranks; the collegiate and international accomplishments factor in too. Gang, you know what to do! Check it out and give us your thoughts.

A survey conducted by the Associated Press of Baseball Writers who have a Hall of Fame vote (and were willing to participate) show Barry Bonds at 45 percent, Roger Clemens at 43 percent and Sammy Sosa at 18 percent. Whether this is what their final tallies is yet to be determined, but the venom of which those who were quoted had against the PED era players has to be noted.

Washington Examiner columnist, Thom Loverro does not begrudge the statistical landmarks of the aforementioned three but stated that “three of the six criteria for election to Cooperstown are sportsmanship, integrity and character and that Bonds, Sosa and Clemens fail on all three counts”. Troy Renck of the Denver Post stated that he would “feel very uncomfortable voting for anyone that is a known cheater”. MLB.com’s Hal Bodley said his passion for the game could never allow known cheaters to the Hall.

Allow me to get on my soap box here…..

I am sick to death of these writers talking about the game’s integrity when most of them had their heads up their ass during the PED era and voted for these same players to win Cy Youngs and MVPs when it was clear that inflated numbers were not just a product of a juiced ball. (Look up how many articles were written during that time painting that and expansion for the reason of inflated numbers) I will say again that Major League Baseball collectively looked the other way ignoring what would be a problem for the sake of selling tickets after the debacle of the 1994 strike. For that matter so did the fans, and so did many of these same writers.

Once the inflated head (literally) of Barry Bonds shattered records and turned into a playstation batter, did many start to care. Was it because he was an unlikable black man who had zero media savvy (nor wanted to)? Maybe. History shows that his accomplishments were the turning point of public opinion, and not Brady Anderson and his douchbaggery sideburns and his unlikely 50 home runs that happened a few years earlier. (Many articles praising Anderson for packing extra muscle and retooling his swing exist too).

Here is what else I know. Baseball players have ALWAYS searched for an edge. Be it the spitball (which got Gaylord Perry inducted, and the title of his autobiography was “Me and the Spitter”), corked bats or greenies, the subtleties of cheating have been part of the game. It doesn’t make it right, but how is one level of cheating better than the other? Oh….because Congress did not spend millions trying to figure out if Perry really did use the Spitball.

Ok…that wasn’t fair, as Steroids are only legal with a prescription, of which I don’t recall any ballplayer having one. Still, Baseball did not ban anabolic steroids until 2002 and it was not until 2005, that the caught use of it resulted in suspension. So, if Baseball had no set policy against it (realistically until 2005), than is it right to punish those who did not break a rule in their sport? Apparently to many of these writers it is.

Off the soapbox now.

So what does this mean? Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa (who frankly may not be statistically relevant anyway) are not likely to get in. That and every year at this time we are going to have this same conversation.