gold star for USAHOF
The 1984 World Series Champion Detroit Tigers finally have player representation in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Actually, they now have two.

The Modern Era Baseball Committee have selected both Jack Morris and Alan Trammell, who have both received the necessary 75% of the 16 man committee required to have entered Cooperstown.

Jack Morris won 254 Games over an 18 year career with the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians, the first three of which saw him win World Series Championships with. Morris was the ace of the 1984 Tigers team, and was a key member of the Blue Jays back-to-back titles in 1992 & 1993, but it was his performance in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series with the Minnesota Twins where he pitched ten innings of shutout baseball to win the game. Morris didn’t always have the best statistics but when it was a big game, he was definitely a go-to pitcher.

Morris’ teammate from the ’84 Tigers, Alan Trammell also got in. The Shortstop played his entire career with the Tigers and was a six time All Star. Trammell was a four time Silver Slugger, three time Gold Glove recipient and was the runner-up for the 1987 AL MVP.

Steve Garvey, Don Mattingly, Marvin Miller, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons and Luis Tiant were also on the ballot, however not chosen.

Morris and Trammell will be removed from next year’s Notinhalloffame.com Baseball list and we look forward to few weeks to see whom else the Baseball Writers of American will induct with them.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate both Alan Trammell and Jack Morris at this time.
With its second meeting under a revamped structure, the Baseball Hall of Fame veterans committee will convene to evaluate nine players and one executive whose impact was made primarily during the Modern Baseball era, defined as having occurred between 1970 and 1987, and perhaps elect someone to the Hall of Fame. Their ballot results will be announced on December 10 during the winter meetings.
The “Hall of Fame” season is really amping up. The Baseball Hall of Fame Modern Era Committee has announced the ten finalists for consideration. This new Committee covers those who participated from 1970 to 1987.

The nominees are:

Steve Garvey: Ranked #31 on Notinhalloffame.com. Garvey was a ten time All Star and was named the 1974 National League MVP. He accumulated 2,599 Hits with a .294 Batting Average with 272 Home Runs. He was on the ballot for the fifteen full years finishing as high as 42.6 %.

Tommy John: Ranked #16 on Notinhalloffame.com. John won 283 Games and is a four time All Star. A two-time Cy Young runner-up, John had 2,245 Strikeouts over his career. He was on the ballot for fifteen years peaking at 31.7% on his final year of eligibility.

Don Mattingly: Ranked #54 on Notinhalloffame.com. Playing his entire career with the New York Yankees, Mattingly was the American League MVP in 1985. Mattingly went to six All Star Games and had a career Batting Average of .307 with 222 Home Runs. He would also win the 1984 Batting Title. He was on the ballot for fifteen years with a high of 28.2% in his first year of eligibility.

Marvin Miller: The head of the Players Association from 1966 to 1982, salaries skyrocketed under his tenure.

Jack Morris: Ranked #11 on Notinhalloffame.com. Morris would win 254 Games and is a four time World Series Champion. He was on the ballot for fifteen years and came very close with a 67.7% finish in his fourteenth year.

Dale Murphy: Ranked #42 on Notinhalloffame.com. In a career spent mostly with Atlanta, Murphy was a back-to-back MVP winner (1982 & 1983) and blasted 398 Home Runs. He was a five time All Star. On the ballot for fifteen years, Murphy peaked at 23.2% in 2000.

Dave Parker: Ranked #28 on Notinhalloffame.com. “The Cobra” was the 1978 National League MVP and hit 339 Home Runs over his career. He was also a two time World Series Champion. He was on the ballot for fifteen years and finished as high as 24.5% in his second year of eligibility.

Ted Simmons: Ranked #14 on Notinhalloffame.com. Simmons was an eight time All Star and one of the top Catchers of his day. He was only on the ballot for one year where he finished with 3.7% of the ballot.

Luis Tiant: Ranked #44 on Notinhalloffame.com. Tiant was known mostly for his time in Boston and he was a three time All Star with 229 career Wins. He was on the ballot for fifteen years and finished as high as 30.9, which occurred in his first year of eligibility.

Alan Trammell: Ranked #12 on Notinhalloffame.com. Trammell played his entire career with the Detroit Tigers and was a six time All Star. Trammell had 2,365 Hits and was the 1984 World Series MVP. He was on the ballot for fifteen years and finished with 40.9% on the ballot in his last year of eligibility.

It will be very interesting to see if any of these names will get in. To be chosen, a candidate must receive 75% of the 16 member vote.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com thought it would be fun to take a look at the major awards in North American team sports and see how it translates into Hall of Fame potential.

Needless to say, different awards in different sports yield hall of fame potential. In basketball, the team sport with the least amount of players on a roster, the dividend for greatness much higher. In baseball, it is not as much as a great individual season does not have the same impact.

We are now taking a look at the Gold Glove Award, given annually to the best defensive player in MLB in each respective position.
As we continue or slow process of ranking the all-time Top 50 of each major North American franchise, we also have to constantly update the ones we already have. The one that we have done this time is revising the Detroit Tigers up to accomplishments up to the end of 2016 season.

In this particular case, we did not just adjust everything based on what transpired in 2015. The way in which we determine our baseball lists are as follows:

  1. Sabremetric tallies while with that team, mostly WAR.
  1. Traditional metrics and how they finished in their respective league overall.
  1. Playoff accomplishment.
  1. 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 has resulted in a significant shift in the overall Top 50 of the Tigers and many new entries that had not been listed previously.

The revised list can be found here.
Damn, this is a long process isn’t it?

We have told you that we are looking to do for each major North American Franchise in professional sports their top 50 players.  There have been quite a few that we have done, but as you know there are a lot more left to do!

As such, we have another team whose top 50 players we are ready to announce, in our opinion of course.

It is a return to Motown, with multi-time World Series Champion, the Detroit Tigers.

As one of the more successful and tenured franchises in Major League Baseball, this is quite a list, and you can see the complete 50 here.

We encourage you all to take a look and let us know your thoughts on this group and we thank you for your support.

7. Alan Trammell

The longtime Shortstop for the Detroit Tigers, Alan Trammell spent almost as much time on the Hall of Fame ballot as he did with the Tigers.  The career Detroit Tiger was the MVP of the 1984 World Series; a team that had one of the best seasons in modern history.  
Last year, we did our first ever debate on Notinhalloffame.com where we tackled the Hall of Fame merit of twenty-four men who are on the Hall of Fame ballot, in what was in our opinion the most loaded ballot in our lifetime.

Since it was so much fun last time, we thought we would do it again!

One thing that has not changed is the number.  We will again debate twenty-four men who are on the ballot.

What has changed are the ones debating.  Last year I had the pleasure of having DDT, the curator of DDT’s Pop Flies blog and D.K. of the Phillies Archivist blog.  This year, Spheniscus, who has participated in past Rock and Roll discussions, will be joining me.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com thought it would be fun to take a look at the major awards in North American team sports and see how it translates into Hall of Fame potential.

Needless to say, different awards in different sports yield hall of fame potential.  In basketball, the team sport with the least amount of players on a roster, the dividend for greatness much higher.  In baseball, it is not as much as a great individual season does not have the same impact.
As we gear up for the 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting and announcements, the overriding question is: Have we returned to normal?

To put that into perspective, how's this for abnormal? In 2013, with a ballot overstuffed with Hall of Fame-caliber candidates (I counted 14), not one candidate was elected to the Hall. Adding to the debacle was the first appearance on a Hall of Fame ballot by Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both of whom brought the bubbling issue of players suspected or confirmed of having used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to an apoplectic, moralistic boil.
While the Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot for this year was already known, it is worth noting that the names on the ballot have been made official and have been sent out to prospective voters.

Let’s go through the ballot and take a quick look shall we?