Category Archives: hall of fame

Harold Baines Just Ruined the Baseball Hall of Fame

The Baseball Hall of Fame Today’s Era Committee announced they voted Relief Pitcher Lee Smith and Outfielder/DH Harold Baines into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Smith was slowly gaining votes, but only received 34% of the votes in his fifteenth and final year on the ballot.

Baines was only on the regular Hall of Fame ballot just a few seasons as he fell under the 5% threshold on his fourth year and only had a max 6.1% of voters in 2010.

I can understand Lee Smith’s legitimacy as a Hall of Fame candidate. He was a reliever that often pitched multiples innings to get saves. The Hall of Fame was late to the game when it came to voting in relievers. He was a member of some good teams and he was a large part in maintaining those wins. He held the title of Most Career Saves for thirteen years, until Trevor Hoffman surpassed him in 2006. Continue reading →

10 Wrestlers Who Should be in the WWE Hall of Fame

It’s officially Wrestlemania season.

Wrestlemania 33 is in Orlando this year, a very familiar area to WWE. This year’s show will feature some of the best wrestlers in the world and they even got a legend like Goldberg to come back.

A lot happens the weekend of Wrestlemania. Many indie promotions run shows in the area since there are tens of thousands of fans in that area, so why not? WWE also runs an Axxess fan festival, NXT Takeover show and the WWE Hall of Fame.

A few people have already been announced to be in this year’s Hall of Fame class (Kurt Angle, Rock N Roll Express & Teddy Long) and a few are strongly rumored like Rick Rude, Diamond Dallas Page and William Regal, so I will not include them on this list.

Continue reading →

Kurt Angle Arrested for DWI…Again

TNA superstar and former gold medal Olympic wrestler Kurt Angle was arrested for DWI in Texas last night. This is his fourth alcohol-related arrest in six years.

He went to Twitter this morning and vowed to seek the help he needs and to enter rehab. He added, “I can beat this” and we hope he does as well.

The timing of Angle’s arrest couldn’t come at a worse time professionally. He is set to be the second inductee into the ‘TNA Hall of Fame’ in October and is currently in the middle of a major storyline on Impact Wrestling television program. He has a large role in a stable called the ‘Main Event Mafia’ which is feuding with another stable, ‘Aces & Eights’. It is unknown at this time if he will be going into an inpatient or outpatient rehab program.

We breakdown some of the events in Angle’s life that started his downward spiral. Continue reading →

The Best Player Nicknames in Baseball History

Anyone can have a nickname, it’s easy. If you’re name is William or Robert, you can go by Billy or Bobby. You can even have a nickname that goes with your name. An example of that would be “Quick Nick” or “Slow Joe”. See how easy it is?

Well, people have gotten very lazy with nicknames in my generation. Alex Rodriguez is “A-Rod” and Derek Jeter is often referred to as “Jeets.” You see how lame we’ve become?

We scoured the list of players who have ever played in the Majors and we picked the best of all-time.

Here is our baseball player nicknames ‘Hall of Fame”. Continue reading →

Ten Wrestlers Who Deserve to be in WWE Hall of Fame

The 2013 WWE Hall of Fame class has been announced, well the headliners at least. Mick Foley, Bob Backlund, Trish Stratus, and most importantly, Bruno Sammartino are set to be inducted in Madison Square Garden before Wrestlemania 29.

Sammartino is the biggest name in the upcoming class. He has been dead-set against being inducted, but finally accepted the induction. He believes the current state of professional wrestling feeds the bottom denominator. He has been vocal about the vulgarity in “sports entertainment” and vowed to never accepted an induction invitation. I don’t know what changed, but I’m glad he will finally be in.

Here is a list of ten wrestlers, or wrestling factions, that need to be in the WWE Hall of Fame and the likelihood of their inductions happening in the next five years. Continue reading →

Review – "Baseball Fantography" by Andy Strasberg

Are you tired of baseball books with the same boring stock photos? You will not get that with Baseball Fantography by Andy Strasberg. This is a collection of photographs from fans that capture the intimate and personal lives of your favorite baseball players from the past and present. Strasberg began this project when he found an old picture of him with Roger Maris at Yankee Stadium in 1966. He hadn’t seen the photo in decades and a nostalgic feeling came over him. He knew that there were other people who had old baseball photos that would have a similar feeling. This is a timeless record of the fans’ baseball experience…by the fans, for the fans. Continue reading →

Bert Blyleven Deserves To Be Hall Of Famer

Blyleven deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, if not only because of that awesome shirt, but he was a very good pitcher. Let’s face it, baseball’s Hall of Fame has turned into “the hall of very good,” and Blyleven deserves in. He fell 5 votes shy today for being an inductee, but he is a sure money bet of making it next year. Andre Dawson is the lone candidate and the entire ceremony will be dedicated to the former great of the Montreal Expos and Chicago Cubs. In the following article, I try to make my case for Bert Blyleven to be inducted in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Blyleven played during a time, when multi-channel ESPNs and regional Fox Sports Net channels did not exist and MLB Extra Innings packages on DirecTV wasn’t even invented, you may not have caught Bert Blyleven’s best work. Unless you caught the highlights on Sportscenter where Chris Berman used a nickname of Burt “Be Home” Blyleven, you would just think that he was an average pitcher. His career ERA was 3.90, but his early career was his peak, but he kept a roster spot on small-market teams. His record was 287-250, just 37 games over .500, but from 1982 until the end of his career in ’92, his ERA was over 4.00. If a pitcher wins nearly 300 games, it nearly negates this feat once a pitcher reaches his 250th loss, like Blyleven.

An argument that Blyleven has for his induction is that his numbers are measurable to Nolan Ryan’s. Blyleven does not have Ryan’s no-hitters or his dominance of one-hit games either. Blyleven’s win-loss record has a lot to do with Blyleven’s teams not scoring many runs, thus having him lose many one-run games. He pitched in a different era than what today’s pitchers will be held up to. Middle-relief pitching was approached as need-based, rather than a necessity, Blyleven pitched in almost 300 career complete games.

Let’s crunch some numbers, in his 22-year career, Blyleven pitched a complete game in over 40% of the games in which he has started. He has never ranked higher than third in the Cy Young voting and has only played in two All-Star games in his 22-year career.

Bert Blyleven will be immortalized into the Hall of Fame. Sometimes players start racking up statistics just cause longevity and not exactly superb play. Blyleven’s 3701 strikeouts are amazing, but his K/9 statistic of 7.4 per 9 innings isn’t super spectacular, but nothing about Blyleven really is. It’s a solid number and Blyleven was a solid pitcher and long-term performance needs to be rewarded with an induction in Cooperstown.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

It’s Official: Dawson Is in Hall Of Fame

The verdict is in and Andre Dawson will be the lone inductee into baseball’s Hall of Fame. It was his 9th year on the ballot and the publicity campaign worked for “The Hawk.” Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were close, but weren’t able to get 75% of the votes to join Dawson.

I have been a huge fan of Andre Dawson since I was about seven years of age. When he appeared on the Cubs, I was unaware where he came from. I was very young and I only kept tabs on the Cubs since I watched them every day on WGN. It wasn’t until later that I found out that he was a star in Montreal for many years. When he arrived in Chicago, he was a home run machine and the clean-up hitter that Chicago needed to finally win a pennant in 1989. He was a nice player to lineup near Ryne Sandberg, but he turned out to be much more for Chicago, since he won the NL MVP in 1987 and lead the league in home runs.

Dawson was clearly a shell of himself later in his career because he played on the very bad turf in Montreal that messed up his knees. He used to have a lot of speed and stole a lot of bases with teammate Tim Raines leading the league many seasons. The Expos were a very fast team, but after playing so many years there, players were plagued with various knee problems. The turf was basically carpet on top of cement.

I will surely be watching the induction of “The Hawk” as I did when Ryne Sandberg was inducted. When you think about the 1987 season for the Cubs, they had Dawson, Sandberg, Rafael Palmeiro, Greg Maddux, Jamie Moyer, and Lee Smith. They had six players that will either be in the Hall of Fame or will be very close. It’s hard to believe that the team finished last place in the NL East that year with a record of 76-85.

It was a shame that Bert Blyleven fell 5 votes of getting into the Hall of Fame. Every pitcher who gets near 300 wins, even if he had nearly as many losses, deserves to get in. He has two more years of eligibility and he should get in next season. Roberto Alomar also fell short in his first year of eligibility. He is another player that should get in and they both faired well in a year with not many stars becoming eligible. Jack Morris also saw an increase in votes, but he still has a long way to go, his name was on about 50% of the ballots.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Review – "Baseball Americana" by Harry Katz

Harper Collins has published a great coffee table book entitled “Baseball Americana.” It’s by Harry Katz, Frank Ceresi, Phil Michel, Wilson McBee, and Susan Reyburn, it’s a lot of people’s names, but it’s a big book. There are so many great pictures and information in this book from the Library of Congress. There’s even a panoramic picture of the first Black World Series in 1924. Here is my review of “Baseball Americana”…

I’m a huge baseball fan and when I can read a book about the historical past of baseball, I jump at the opportunity. Some of the things in “Baseball Americana” are things that aren’t shown in any other book. Some of the material that this books includes are a picture baseball being played in 1787, the first ever baseball card, a rare color photograph of Satchel Paige, and even a lithograph of the first ever professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869. Continue reading →

Review: "Munson" by Marty Appel

Thuman Munson was a great catcher and team captain for the New York Yankees. He was tragically killed in a plane crash during the prime of his career. He had a great rivalry with Boston Red Sox catcher, Carlton Fisk, it even got personal a few times. Marty Appel has written a book about Munson and I decided that my brother, a big Red Sox fan should read it and write a review. It’s a great book and I knew that he couldn’t say anything bad about it. It proves that Munson’s greatness can unite people, even if they bleed Red Sox crimson.

I am a Red Sox Fan. Continue reading →

Review: The Class Of Football by Adam Shefter

NFL Hall of Fame speeches are great to listen to and everyone can take something from them. Former NFL Network, and currently ESPN football analyst, Adam Shefter knew this and he compiled a book of some of the best excerpts from speeches given in Canton, OH at the NFL Hall of Fame inductions throughout the years. Inductees always talk about the principles of life and lessons learned while playing the game and growing up within it. Check out the review of the book, “The Class of Football” edited by Adam Shefter, published by Harper Collins.

Listening to a Hall of Fame speech in any sport is great theater. They have spent hours, days, and weeks prepared his Hall of Fame speech and he knows that what he says at that podium will resonate with their fans. They talk about their mentors, their childhood, the history of the game, family, and teamwork. It’s as if each inductee has a checklist that every speech must have to ensure a great moment. They always dream of this very moment and is probably one of the first foe (nervousness) could get the very best of them. Continue reading →

A Cubs Fan’s Perspective: Sammy Sosa

I have been a Cubs fan for as long as I’ve been alive. I am 28 years old and some of the earliest memories involved my dad and I watching afternoon games on WGN. I remember Jody Davis, Leon Durham, Rick Sutcliffe, and Lee Smith all fighting the Chicago summer heat. The times were special and moments that I wouldn’t change at all. The teams were bad and most of the crowd didn’t care, and I didn’t care too much either. I was a little kid who idolized the players with dreams of one day playing professional baseball too. Those dreams never came true, but I am still a Cubs fan, although I am a little confused of how happy I am about that today.

I was in middle school when the Cubs traded George Bell to the White Sox for a young outfielder, Sammy Sosa. I liked Bell for the few seasons that he was with the Cubs, but I kind of understood that they needed to get younger. I didn’t know much about Sosa, other than owning a few of his rookie cards. My lone opinion was that he looked extremely happy. Almost immediately, the trade for Sosa started to pay off. He was stealing bases and hitting more homers than I expected. The first season, I thought that he may be a better version of Shawon Dunston, since he didn’t strike out as much, which didn’t say much.

The Cubs didn’t win many games the first few seasons that Sosa was around. I can still hear Harry Caray yell out Sosa’s name after he jacked a 400+ foot home-run. Those moments gave me joy, about as much as an actual Cubs victory. Sosa’s home-run total kept creeping up, but the whispers of the ball being juiced calmed my fears of anything fishy going on. It wasn’t until the summer of ’98 that the homers were getting out of hand. I have to admit, I still didn’t care. Mark McGwire was hitting just as many homers as Sosa and he looked noticeably huge. I didn’t suspect much about steroid use, the only thing that was written was something new to me called “Andro.” I read about it and saw that it wasn’t illegal. I didn’t think anything was wrong, but I wanted Sosa to beat him. I think most people wanted Sosa to beat McGwire, if not for the fact that he was more likeable.

Every time that Sosa took the field in the first inning, he would run out into right field like a perfectly choreographed play. Everything Sosa did was more of a show for the fans. After 9/11, he hit a homer and ran around the bases with a little American flag.

Sosa’s numbers stayed the same as McGwire began to breakdown. Sosa’s average took a hit, since he looked like he was wanting to knock it out of the park with every swing. Finally, his behavior the last year with the Cubs was too much for the club to handle. They dealt him to Baltimore for a few young players. Sosa’s career was never the same, mainly because the cloud of suspicion was too great. To this day he denies all claims of using PEDs, but the revelation of a failed test in 2003 makes it all clear. Sosa apparently cheated, it doesn’t surprise many, but I’m just confused.

I believe that a large number of players used some sort of performance-enhancing drug during the same period of Sosa’s career. I believe he wanted an edge and once he had a taste of success, he couldn’t leave it alone. If he didn’t do it for himself, he did it for the fans. As I said before, my first opinion of Sosa was his smile. He didn’t lose his smile until the end of his career. He didn’t have his smile when he was testifying in front of Congress. If Sosa’s number isn’t retired and he doesn’t make the Hall of Fame, Sosa may never smile again. A decision to forgive and forget has to be made at some point. Some purists still have a big problem with “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and the Black Sox. I say that we still need to decide on what kind of punishment would suit the crime.

My opinion is for the Baseball Writers of America to have a conference. Everyone should take sides and maybe come to a conclusion. I would like to see all the alleged steroid users, that have Hall of Fame numbers, be inducted in the same class. You would be able to put that on Pay-Per-View and it would have a high buyrate. I don’t think it’s right that they used PEDs, but enough is enough. I want to move past this. It may take the player’s union to allow blood testing, it would be a step in the right direction.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.