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Another vote lost for Schilling
Dec 16, 2016
Published in
Not in Hall of Fame News
This isn’t going to be Curt Schilling’s year is it?
We have another Baseball Hall of Fame writer who has stated that he will not be voting for Schilling and furthermore, won’t be voting for anyone for the 2017 Hall of Fame Class. That person is Wally Matthews, a former beat writer for the New York Yankees who had this say to say in a column regarding Schilling:
“If baseball’s Sabremetricians could come up with a way to quantify character, Curt Schilling’s would be a negative number.
But a guy’s personality is not supposed to be the criteria for voting, his performance is. However, voters are human beings and sometimes it is difficult to separate the man from the player.
That is where the question of Curt Schilling’s candidacy comes up for me this year. I have voted for Schilling in the past, based on his superior career WAR (80.7, higher than that of Tom Glavine, Don Sutton, Jim Palmer, Bob Feller, and yes, even Sandy Koufax) and his outstanding post-season numbers.
His personal views have often troubled and at times offended me — he is an unabashed collector of Nazi memorabilia — but I have kept that out of my thought process.
Until, that is, about a month ago, when he retweeted a photo of a man wearing a T-shirt advocating the lynching of journalists, with the comment, “OK, so much awesome here . . .”
Beyond the offensiveness of any reference to lynching, which is profoundly racist in itself, is the threat to the men and women in my profession. That is something I take personally and if Curt Schilling really wants to “lynch” journalists, he can start with me, in a boxing ring with 10-ounce gloves on. That will put an end to his sick little fantasy.”
Did he just challenge Schilling to a fight?
This wasn’t all that Matthews had to say, as other comments showed how he was disheartened with the baseball players in general and their attitude towards the media in general:
“I thought I had reached my breaking point a couple of years ago when, while covering a Yankees road game in a Midwest city, a pitcher who had recently been voted into the Hall of Fame — he was a borderline candidate at best but I voted for him, I must admit, under pressure from some colleagues — came upon the Yankees beat crew waiting for the elevator down to the post-game clubhouse.
This borderline Hall of Famer looked at the group of people, many of whom had voted for him, and turned to a companion. “Look at all the sheep,” he said, derisively. Then he began making ridiculous bleating noises. I couldn’t decide whether to belt him in the mouth or refer him to a psychiatrist. All I know is in that moment, I was profoundly sorry I voted for him and his slightly-better-than average stats.”
We are not sure who sounds more bitter, Matthews, or the former baseball player he is describing.
Matthews also vented about the hypocrisy of the Today’s Game Era Committee selecting Bud Selig for the 2017 Hall:
“As if trying to determine whose numbers are real and whose were inflated by artificial (read: chemical) and therefore illegal means weren’t difficult enough, the Hall has further complicated matters this year by voting in Bud Selig, a co-conspirator with Donald Fehr and Gene Orza in allowing the steroid era to occur in the first place.”
While his argument on the induction of Bud Selig is sound, the fact that someone is just throwing away a ballot is absurd and juvenile. Certainly there are other baseball journalists who would love to have this opportunity.
Either way, the tally for Schilling is not looking like it could possibly be higher than last year.
We have another Baseball Hall of Fame writer who has stated that he will not be voting for Schilling and furthermore, won’t be voting for anyone for the 2017 Hall of Fame Class. That person is Wally Matthews, a former beat writer for the New York Yankees who had this say to say in a column regarding Schilling:
“If baseball’s Sabremetricians could come up with a way to quantify character, Curt Schilling’s would be a negative number.
But a guy’s personality is not supposed to be the criteria for voting, his performance is. However, voters are human beings and sometimes it is difficult to separate the man from the player.
That is where the question of Curt Schilling’s candidacy comes up for me this year. I have voted for Schilling in the past, based on his superior career WAR (80.7, higher than that of Tom Glavine, Don Sutton, Jim Palmer, Bob Feller, and yes, even Sandy Koufax) and his outstanding post-season numbers.
His personal views have often troubled and at times offended me — he is an unabashed collector of Nazi memorabilia — but I have kept that out of my thought process.
Until, that is, about a month ago, when he retweeted a photo of a man wearing a T-shirt advocating the lynching of journalists, with the comment, “OK, so much awesome here . . .”
Beyond the offensiveness of any reference to lynching, which is profoundly racist in itself, is the threat to the men and women in my profession. That is something I take personally and if Curt Schilling really wants to “lynch” journalists, he can start with me, in a boxing ring with 10-ounce gloves on. That will put an end to his sick little fantasy.”
Did he just challenge Schilling to a fight?
This wasn’t all that Matthews had to say, as other comments showed how he was disheartened with the baseball players in general and their attitude towards the media in general:
“I thought I had reached my breaking point a couple of years ago when, while covering a Yankees road game in a Midwest city, a pitcher who had recently been voted into the Hall of Fame — he was a borderline candidate at best but I voted for him, I must admit, under pressure from some colleagues — came upon the Yankees beat crew waiting for the elevator down to the post-game clubhouse.
This borderline Hall of Famer looked at the group of people, many of whom had voted for him, and turned to a companion. “Look at all the sheep,” he said, derisively. Then he began making ridiculous bleating noises. I couldn’t decide whether to belt him in the mouth or refer him to a psychiatrist. All I know is in that moment, I was profoundly sorry I voted for him and his slightly-better-than average stats.”
We are not sure who sounds more bitter, Matthews, or the former baseball player he is describing.
Matthews also vented about the hypocrisy of the Today’s Game Era Committee selecting Bud Selig for the 2017 Hall:
“As if trying to determine whose numbers are real and whose were inflated by artificial (read: chemical) and therefore illegal means weren’t difficult enough, the Hall has further complicated matters this year by voting in Bud Selig, a co-conspirator with Donald Fehr and Gene Orza in allowing the steroid era to occur in the first place.”
While his argument on the induction of Bud Selig is sound, the fact that someone is just throwing away a ballot is absurd and juvenile. Certainly there are other baseball journalists who would love to have this opportunity.
Either way, the tally for Schilling is not looking like it could possibly be higher than last year.
The Top 50 Minnesota Vikings are now up!
Dec 13, 2016
Published in
Not in Hall of Fame News
Yes, we know this is a very slow process!
We have another Top 50 All Time to announce and we have returned to the National Football League, specifically the NFC North, where we tackled the monstrous legacy of the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions previously. This time we look at their division rival, the Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota went to four Super Bowls in the 1970’s, all in losing efforts, but to get to that many title games you know that team was loaded with talent in that era. Not surprisingly, that is where many of our Top 50 come from.
This was a very hard process for us, perhaps the hardest one to date!
The entire list begins here:
We invite you to click through to see where Fran Tarkenton, Adrian Petersen, Cris Carter, Alan Page and Randy Moss are, but we will tell you who we ranked #1, and we know it will shock you a little.
It is Hall of Famer, Carl Eller.
We bet while you weren’t expecting that one, were you?
This list is up to the end of the 2015 Season.
We look forward to your feedback and remember the intent is to change this annually, so your opinions and comments do matter!
We have another Top 50 All Time to announce and we have returned to the National Football League, specifically the NFC North, where we tackled the monstrous legacy of the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions previously. This time we look at their division rival, the Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota went to four Super Bowls in the 1970’s, all in losing efforts, but to get to that many title games you know that team was loaded with talent in that era. Not surprisingly, that is where many of our Top 50 come from.
This was a very hard process for us, perhaps the hardest one to date!
The entire list begins here:
We invite you to click through to see where Fran Tarkenton, Adrian Petersen, Cris Carter, Alan Page and Randy Moss are, but we will tell you who we ranked #1, and we know it will shock you a little.
It is Hall of Famer, Carl Eller.
We bet while you weren’t expecting that one, were you?
This list is up to the end of the 2015 Season.
We look forward to your feedback and remember the intent is to change this annually, so your opinions and comments do matter!
The #2 of Derek Jeter will be retired.
Dec 08, 2016
Published in
Not in Hall of Fame News
As we move onward and upward in our slow trudge to naming all of the Top 50 players from the North American “Big Four”, our eventual follow up will be the look at how those organizations honor their former players and executives.
As such it is news to us (somewhat big actually, though completely expected) that the New York Yankees will formally retire the number #2 of their eventual first ballot Hall of Fame infielder, Derek Jeter on May 14, their Mother’s Day home game against the Houston Astros.
Going through the accomplishments of Jeter would be exhausting, but just to recap the tip of his iceberg, he is a member of the 3,000 Hit Club, a five time World Series Champion and a fourteen time All Star
Twenty-one former Yankees have had their number retired, and the retirement of #2 mans that their can never be another New York Yankee who will wear a single digit number as all of the others have been retired.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Derek Jeter for this much deserved honor and the Yankees for doing this is an appropriately timed fashion.
As such it is news to us (somewhat big actually, though completely expected) that the New York Yankees will formally retire the number #2 of their eventual first ballot Hall of Fame infielder, Derek Jeter on May 14, their Mother’s Day home game against the Houston Astros.
Going through the accomplishments of Jeter would be exhausting, but just to recap the tip of his iceberg, he is a member of the 3,000 Hit Club, a five time World Series Champion and a fourteen time All Star
Twenty-one former Yankees have had their number retired, and the retirement of #2 mans that their can never be another New York Yankee who will wear a single digit number as all of the others have been retired.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Derek Jeter for this much deserved honor and the Yankees for doing this is an appropriately timed fashion.
Bill King to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame
Dec 08, 2016
Published in
Not in Hall of Fame News
We have another entrant in to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Annually, the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award gains entry into Cooperstown. This year, it is the late Bill King, who was the voice of the Oakland Athletics for years.
King, who had been a finalist six times, also served as the play-by-play voice for the Oakland Raiders and the Golden State Warriors. Basically, he was the voice of the city of Oakland.
The Athletics job was his third major role in the city, taking over the full radio broadcasting duties in 1981. It was his voice that called the A’s World Series win in 1988 and his “Holy Toledo” catch phrase rang throughout the Bay Area.
This is a posthumous induction as King passed away in 2005.
Annually, the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award gains entry into Cooperstown. This year, it is the late Bill King, who was the voice of the Oakland Athletics for years.
King, who had been a finalist six times, also served as the play-by-play voice for the Oakland Raiders and the Golden State Warriors. Basically, he was the voice of the city of Oakland.
The Athletics job was his third major role in the city, taking over the full radio broadcasting duties in 1981. It was his voice that called the A’s World Series win in 1988 and his “Holy Toledo” catch phrase rang throughout the Bay Area.
This is a posthumous induction as King passed away in 2005.