Baseball fans know what Harvey Haddix is mostly known for.  

From the deadball era, Jesse Tannehill is one of the unsung pitchers from that time.

Bob Friend played most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1951-63), where he quietly had one of the better decades of the National League's Pitchers.

Bill Madlock is one of the more unlikely multi-time Batting Champions, as when you look in the annals of baseball history, Madlock is not on the tip of your tongue.  He should be, as this is a four-time National League Batting Champion.

Playing all but one game of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Babe Adams was one of the best control Pitchers of his day.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players and executive. As such, it is news to us that the Pittsburgh Pirates have announced that they will be creating their own franchise Hall of Fame in 2020.

It was also announced their Steve Blass will be part of the Pirates’ inaugural Hall of Fame Class.

Blass played ten seasons for Pittsburgh where the Pitcher posted a record of 103-76 and earned a World Series Ring in 1971.  Following his playing career, he would become a broadcaster for the team, which began in 1983, a role he still has today.

It is unknown at this time whether or not Blass will be joined by others in the inaugural class, but we suspect there will be more.

The Hall of Fame will be located at PNC Park.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Steve Blass for this prestigious honor and the Pittsburgh Pirates for establishing this institution.

Al Oliver came to the league in 1969 as a line-drive hitter and for eighteen years consistently smacked the ball for hits.  He had over 2,700 hits in his career, and despite not being a genuine power hitter, he had a plethora of RBI’s.

Hoyt Wilhelm generally receives credit for being the game’s first great reliever.  History may eventually show that Wilhelm was not the only prototype for relievers as Roy Face deserves to be considered in that discussion too.

Although Wilbur Cooper is considered one of the best pitchers in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates, it was so long ago, his legacy is often forgotten. From 1917 to 1924, Cooper was at his best and was in the top ten regularly in virtually every pitching category in the National League. He was the first left hander in the NL to hit 200 wins, but his overall total in that department did not exceed much more than that. Advanced metrics have given Cooper a bit more of a look again, but at the very least he should be remembered with greater fondness in the Steel City than he is currently. Had he played for a World Series team, he probably would be.

How many times is an athlete described as “small in stature but big in heart”?  This analogy has been used more times than we can determine but far too often but it was an accurate assessment when describing the turn of the century ballplayer, Tommy Leach.

Although Freddy Sanchez has not played in the Majors since 2011, the former batting champion had not officially retired, until today.

Sanchez, 38, who won his batting title on the final day of the season in 2006 while with the Pittsburgh Pirates officially finishes his career with 1,012 Hits with a .297/.335/.413 Slash Line and three All Star Game appearances.

He is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2017, though he is not expected to get in. 

We here at Notinhalloffame.com wish Freddy Sanchez the best in his post MLB career.

After an 18 year career in Major League Baseball, Aramis Ramirez, a third baseman who last played with the Pittsburgh Pirates officially announced his retirement on a radio station in his native Dominican Republic.  This was not a surprise as in spring training this year (then playing for the Milwaukee Brewers) Ramirez said that this would be his final season as a player.   

Ramirez leaves the game with some impressive accolades.  He was a three time All Star, a one time Silver Slugger and would finish in the top ten in MVP voting three times.  Statistically, he leaves the game with 386 Home Runs and 2,303 Hits and led the National League in Doubles in 2012.  He would play his entire career in the National League, beginning (and ending) his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates with lengthy stints with the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers along the way.

We always ask the question here at Notinhalloffame.com when we have a retirement as to whether that said player is HOF caliber.  While Ramirez had a very good career, his numbers, especially poor defense resulting in a career bWAR of 32.1 isn’t one that will cut it in the modern thought process, and he will struggle to gain more than a handful of votes in 2021, the first year that he becomes Hall of Fame eligible. 

While Aramis Ramirez has completed his service to Major League Baseball, he will do a farewell tour in his native Dominican Republic playing for Tigres del Licey in the Dominican Winter League.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to wish Aramis Ramirez the best of luck in his post-MLB career.

In this era of the overpriced, overpampered, selfish athlete, we can’t help but like a player who was nicknamed “Mr. Team”.  This isn’t to say that Bob Elliott did not still rack up some impressive individual accolades as he certainly did just that.

You may have noticed many sportswriters who have a Hall of Fame ballot for the Baseball drink a little more these days. The PED question is now utterly unavoidable with the new wave of eligible candidates as the sport’s biggest stars of the last two decades are now eligible for Hall of Fame enshrinement.

It is not that our baseball list has not been controversial in the past. We have already put it through serious revisions when we initially created a “1a” and a “1b” to accommodate the fact that both Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson are ineligible for the Hall due to gambling. A thought crossed our mind to create a list of eligible players who were caught (or suspected) of using PEDs, but there is one fact that cannot be ignored: these players ARE eligible for the Hall of Fame, and as such we have elected to treat as an “era” of the sport.

It has been often said that Barry Bonds would have been a Hall of Famer before the period it is believed that he started taking Performance Enhancing Drugs. With excellent career numbers (both traditional and sabermetric) and three National League MVP Awards under his belt, the Cooperstown resume was already there. What has been speculated is that Bonds grew frustrated at the attention that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire received during their famous chase of Roger Maris’ single-season Home Run record and that had he done the same things (PED) that they did, he could have surpassed their levels. Whether or not that history is correct, Bonds’ already impressive numbers reached stratospheric levels, and he completely dominated the Steroid Era.

We don’t have to tell you all the statistics. A first look shows seven MVPs, the career Homer Run and Walks mark, and the top five career tallies in Runs, RBIs, WAR, and OPS, and that is without going into great depth. We also don’t have to tell you that Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro (others tainted with PEDs) have colossally failed to get the writer’s support for the Hall, and there is no evidence to show they will change their minds. However, the fact is that Barry Bonds was a better player than those two superstars and if any player from that era deserves to get in, it is Barry Bonds.

We would have no problem casting a vote for Bonds for the Hall of Fame if we were ever granted a ballot, as evidenced by his selection to the top of our list. We would however understand if you wouldn’t.

Should Barry Bonds be in the Hall of Fame?

Definitely put him in! Maybe, but others deserve it first. Probably not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. No opinion. No way!

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Definitely put him in! - 58.5%

Maybe, but others deserve it first. - 1%

Probably not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. - 2.3%

No opinion. - 0.5%

No way! - 37.6%