Committee Chairman

San Diego inducts Leslie O'Neal to the Chargers HOF

Sep 03, 2014

The San Diego Chargers has officially announced that former Defensive standout, Leslie O’Neal will be the 37th member inducted into their franchise’s Hall of Fame. The ceremony will take place on their October 19th home game against their division rival, the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chargers Hall of Fame inducted their first group in 1976.

O’Neal was the eighth overall pick of the 1986 Draft and the two-time All American from Oklahoma State made an immediate impact on the Chargers with 12.5 Quarterback Sacks and the capture of the Defensive Rookie of the Year of the Award. It was a bittersweet season fro O’ Neal, who did not finish out the season due to a knee injury, which was so severe, he missed the entire ’87 campaign and did not return to Mid-October of 1988.

The rehab proved successful as O’Neal returned to form and in 1989 made his first of what would be six Pro Bowls as a representative of the Chargers. Overall in the nine seasons he spent in San Diego, Leslie O’Neal recorded 105.5 Sacks and made three Second Team All Pro squads. His last game for the Chargers was in ’95, and he would continue playing in the NFL for more seasons where he totaled 132.5 Sacks for his career, currently placing him tenth overall all time.

We would like to congratulate both the San Diego Chargers and Leslie O’Neal at this time.

Fictitious Athlete HOF Finalists Announced!

Sep 02, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

Last November, The Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame announced Rocky Balboa as their inaugural inductee. The Class of 2014 will be decided on an online vote, which will conclude on November 30th of this year.

The opening round began with over 300 Athletes and 100 Contributors in the Preliminary Round, which was reduced to 50 Fictitious Athletes and 30 Fictitious Contributors in the Semi-Finalist Round.

After three months of voting open during the Semi-Finalist Round, the 15 Athletes and the 11 Contributors with the most votes have advanced to become the Finalists for the Fictitious Hall of Fame Class of 2014.

All previous votes have been wiped clean, and one ballot can be entered per person. This vote will be open to the public until November 30, 2014, when the top three vote getting Athletes and top vote getting Contributor will enter the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame.

The 15 Fictitious Athlete Semi-Finalists are:

Al Bundy (Married…With Children)

Apollo Creed (Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III & Rocky IV)

Bobby Boucher (The Waterboy)

Crash Davis (Bull Durham)

“Fast” Eddie Felson (The Hustler & The Color of Money)

Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump)

Jimmy Chitwood (Hoosiers)

Happy Gilmore (Happy Gilmore)

Hanson Brothers, The (Slap Shot)

Paul “Wrecking” Crewe ’74 (Burt Reynolds) (The Longest Yard)

Reggie Dunlop (Slap Shot)

Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Major League and Major League II)

Roy Hobbs (The Natural)

Sam Malone (Cheers)

Willie “Mays” Hays (Major League)

The 30 Fictitious Contributors Semi-Finalists are:

Carl Spackler (Caddyshack

Chubbs Peterson (Happy Gilmore)

Gordon Bombay (The Mighty Ducks Trilogy)

Harry Doyle (Major League & Major League 2)

Hayden Fox (Coach)

Jerry Maguire (Jerry Maguire)

Jimmy Dugan (A League of Their Own)

Mickey Goldmill (Rocky, Rocky II & Rocky III)

Morris Buttermaker (The Bad News Bears) ‘76

Mr. Miyagi (The Karate Kid)

Norman Dale (Hoosiers)

The 1989 Baseball film, Major League had three Finalists, the most of any movie. Adam Sandler (The Waterboy & Happy Gilmore) is the only actor to have two characters who made the Finalist Ballot.

Narrowly missing the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame Final Round were such notables as Daniel LaRusso (The Karate Kid trilogy), Al Czervik (Caddyshack), Randy “The Ram” Robinson (The Wrestler), Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez (The Sandlot), Clubber Lang (Rocky III), Ricky Bobby (Talladega Nights) and Jesus Shuttlesworth (He Got Game).

Gang, you know what we want you do! Click on the links and let us here your votes!

The direct voting on the Athletic Finalists can be found here, and for the Contributor Finalists can be found here:

Adam Dunn to retire

Sep 01, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

Chasing his first berth in the Major League Baseball Playoffs, Adam Dunn, who was just traded to the Oakland A’s has announced that this will be his final season in the game. Dunn, who currently has 460 career Home Runs, and hit the 40 Home Run mark in a season five consecutive years (2004-2008) currently is 36th all-time and fifth among active players.

Dunn, an All Star twice in his career (2002 & 2012) may possess a low career Batting Average of .237, but he did lead have two seasons leading his respective League in Walks twice and has a more than respectable On Base Percentage of .365, though this is countered with four seasons leading in the category of Strikeouts.

As potent as Adam Dunn could be with his bat, he was far from equal with his glove. He would never have a positive number in Defensive bWAR and has a career number in that regard and plummeted his overall bWAR to 16.6, which is not exactly a number that would get him off of the first ballot for Hall of Fame voting.

Still, the fans of Adam Dunn paid to see him hit the long ball, which he was one of the best at. We thank him for the Homers and the memories and will have a soft spot for Oakland this September.

Trevor Hoffman enters the Padres HOF

Sep 01, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

Shortly after the San Diego Padres controversially renamed their area where they honor past stars, “Selig Hall of Fame Park”, a very uncontroversial moment occurred today for Baseball fans in Southern California.

Trevor Hoffman, one of the most accomplished Relief Pitchers in Baseball’s history, officially became the ninth man inducted into the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame today. Hoffman, who is second all time in career Saves, had 552 of his 601 as a Member of the Padres, a team in which he spent sixteen seasons with.

Hoffman would represent the Padres six times as an All Star, twice leading the National League in Saves, the both of which saw him as the runner up for the Cy Young Award. Hoffman had a 1.043 WHIP and 1,029 Strikeouts over 952.1 Innings as a Padre. He would become a fan favorite, not just for his lights out closing skills but his entrance to the mound to AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells”.

Mariano Rivera the only man who has more career Saves than Hoffman retired last season is considered a strong candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, however Relief Pitchers have not always seen the kind of respect afforded to Starters. Hoffman, whose career bWAR is 28.3 is well below Rivera in both that stat and in JAWS, the sabremetric used most commonly to evaluate Hall of Fame potential.

As such, Trevor Hoffman may not necessarily be a lock for the Baseball Hall of Fame, but nobody can deny his place in the San Diego Padres Hall, where he will likely be regarded as the greatest closer of their franchise’s history for decades to come.