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 Texas Rangers will be retiring the number 10 of Michael Young.

Debuting for Texas in 2000 and playing there for 12 seasons, Young would become one of the most successful hitters in franchise history.  The infielder would have six 200 Hit Seasons with two of those years being good enough to lead the AL (2005 & 2011). A seven-time All-Star, Young won the Batting Title in 2005 with a .331 Average and had a .301 Batting Average as a Ranger.  He would also smack 177 Home Runs for the squad.

Defensively, he was incredibly versatile as he played at least 400 Games for the franchise at Second Base, Shortstop, and Third Base and was a Gold Glove winner in 2009 (SS).  He was also known for his selfishness and leadership.

As of this writing, he is the franchise leader in Games Played (1,823), Hits (2,230), Doubles (415) and Runs Scored (1,085).

Young’s number will be officially retired on August 31 of this year.

Young’s #10 joins Ivan Rodriguez (#7), Johnny Oates (#26), Adrian Beltre (#29), Nolan Ryan (#34) and the league-mandated (#42) of Jackie Robinson. 

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Michael Young for earning this very prestigious honor.

Baseball immortality: Precious few attain it, most do not even come close—and some perch on the cusp of that immortality as signified by the Baseball Hall of Fame. Theirs are the test cases, players whose careers, accomplishments, and legacies form the threshold of what separates a Hall of Famer from the rest.

Baseball Hall of Fame voting in the last few years has been fascinating for a number of reasons, particularly the logjam of qualified candidates, which promises to remain an issue for the next few years. That logjam puts additional pressure on the borderline candidates—will they be overlooked, perhaps unfairly, because there are too many candidates from which to choose?

The Texas Rangers have announced that former infielder, Michael Young, will become the next inductee into their franchise Hall of Fame.

Young was a Texas Ranger from 2000 to 2013 and has the team record in At Bats, Runs Scored, Hits, Total Bases, Doubles and triples and is a seven time All Star.  Young would twice lead the American League in Hits (2005 & 2011) and won the Batting Title in ’05.  He is also a five time Texas Rangers Player of the Year.

His overall statistics as a Texas Rangers includes a Slash Line of .301/.347/.444 with 2,230 Hits and 177 Home Runs.  He finished eighth in MVP voting twice.

Young becomes the 20th player to make the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and he is ranked eleventh in our all-time Texas Rangers list.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Michael Young for earning this prestigious honor.

With 2,230 Hits as a Texas Ranger, Michael Young led the American League twice in that category and had seven seasons where he reach the 200 Hit plateau.  Young would win the 2005 AL Batting Title and would be an All-Star seven times.  Despite his hitting acumen, Young was not the best defensive player (mostly he was inconsistent) and his OBP is a little low considering his Batting Average, which is why his rank may not seem high enough.

As of this writing, Young is the all-time franchise leader in Hits, Runs (1,085), Doubles (415), and Triples (55). Young was enshrined into the Rangers Hall of Fame in 2016.

You know how hard it is to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame? In 2013, with a ballot brimming with qualified candidates, not one player received the 75 percent of the votes needed for admission. (I identified 14 likely Hall of Famers on the 2013 ballot.)

Granted, 2013 was the first year of eligibility for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both poster boys for performance-enhancing drugs (PED), bringing to a head the contentious debate about "cheaters" and their admission into the Hall. But there were certainly several "clean" players on that ballot, and a few of those, such as 3000-hit-club member Craig Biggio, would have been uncontroversial picks in any previous year.

And although 2014 saw the election of three players—Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and Frank Thomas—it was merely the tip of a talent-heavy iceberg (I identified 18 likely Hall of Famers for that ballot), while providing a burn to Biggio yet again as not only did he miss election by one vote (he garnered 74.8 percent of the vote), but three first-time candidates leapfrogged him into Cooperstown.