Committee Chairman

Tim Wallach to the Canadian Baseball HOF

Jun 21, 2014

Although it lacks the prestige and history of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in the small town of St. Mary’s, Ontario quietly gains steam year by year, especially with the growth of Canadian talent in the Majors. This year’s class may not necessarily reflect that, but we do think it is worth reporting on the four new entrants to this Hall of Fame.

The undisputed headliner of this group is former Montreal Expos’ star, Tim Wallach. The Third Basemen first became an Expo in 1980 and after earning the starting job a year later, would be selected to five All Star Games and capture two Silver Slugger Awards. Offensively, Wallach hit 204 Home Runs in Montreal and would lead the National League in Doubles twice. He was also considered a star with his defense as he was chosen the Gold Glove recipient three times and would have a total bWAR of 36.8 in Montreal. Currently, Wallach is the Bench Coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Dave Van Horne who was the primary English Language Broadcaster for the Expos for thirty-two years from 1969 to 2000 joins Wallach. Van Horne, who currently is the voice of the Miami Marlins, received the Ford C. Frick Award in 2011, which automatically inducted him into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Two more men are part of this class. New Brunswick born Scout, Murray Cook was also chosen, as was Jim Ridley, who was born in Toronto. Ridley was a long time Scout for the Blue Jays and coached the Canadian Junior National Team for six years. The Award for the Canadian Baseball Scout of the Year is named in his honor.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would lie to congratulate this year’s inductees to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Guy Lapointe to have his number retired by the Montreal Canadians

Jun 20, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

For those of you have been following us here at Notinhalloffame.com, we are in the process of ranking all major North American sports franchises and how they honor their past players. One of the organizations that we suspect will be in the top five will be the Montreal Canadians, who have just announced that former Defenceman, Guy Lapointe will be the latest man who will have his number raised to the rafters of the Bell Center.

Lapointe was a member of the Habs’ “Big Three” corps of blueliners, which included fellow Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, Larry Robinson and Serge Savard, which anchored the team to six Stanley Cups in the 1970’s, including four in a row. He was part of the team from 1968 to 1989 where he was named a First Team NHL All Star once and a Second Team selection three times. Lapointe was also gifted on offense as he scored 572 Points as a member of the Montreal Canadians. Internationally, Guy Lapointe was a member of Team Canada’s famed 1972 Summit Series and the 1976 Canadian Team.

Guy Lapointe wore the number 5 with the Canadians, which was the same number that was worn by another Montreal legend, Bernie Geoffrion who had that number retired in 2006. This is not the first time that a number has been retired twice by the Habs as the number 12 was previously retired twice in honor of both Yvan Cournoyer and Dickie Moore and the number 16 was hangs from the Bell Center in respect to both Elmer Lach and Henri Richard.

Like every other former player who has had their number retired by the Montreal Canadians organization, Guy Lapointe is also a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, an accolade he achieved in 1993. As always the Canadians have set the bar high for other NHL franchises to follow in regards to retired numbers.

Dallas Clark Retires

Jun 19, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

Dallas Clark, who last played in the NFL in 2013 with the Baltimore Ravens, officially announced that he was retired from playing Professional Football today in a press conference in Indianapolis. It was as a member of the Colts where Clark had his most productive seasons, playing nine of his eleven seasons, and tallying 5,665 Receiving Yards with 53 Touchdowns.

Clark was drafted in the first round in 2003 by Indianapolis where the Tight End proved to be an immediate fit for the Colts offense and would become a part of their Super Bowl XLI win, where he currently holds the record for the most Receiving Yards by a Tight End in an NFL post Season. He would have his best Regular Season in 2009 where he would eclipse the 1,000 Yard mark in Receiving and earn First Team All Pro and Pro Bowl honors.

It is unlikely that Dallas Clark has done enough to be a serious contender for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but his impact on the Indianapolis Colts was solid and perhaps they will acknowledge that with more than a press conference after his career one day.

Team 3D to the TNA HOF

Jun 17, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

At TNA’s Pay Per View event, Slammiversary, the troubled wrestling promotion has announced their third inductee into their Hall of Fame. Team 3D, best known to the WWE fans as the Dudley Boys, will join Sting and Kurt Angle as members of the TNA Hall of Fame.

The Dudley Boys had their start in Extreme Championship Wrestling, where the then named Bubba Ray and Devon, would emerge as not only the stars of the gigantic Dudley Clan, but as the top tag team in the promotion earning their version of the World Tag Team Championship eight times. The duo would move on to the World Wrestling Federation and unlike previous ECW talent, would continue to be successful and over a near six year run would appear in Pay-Per-View main events and win versions of the World Tag Team title there ten times.

There contract was not renewed in 2005 and due to the WWE purchase of ECW intellectual property the duo were no longer allowed to go by the name of the “Dudley Boys” and were now Brother Ray and Brother Devon and collectively known as “Team 3D”. They would make TNA their American home (they would win the IWGP World Tag Team Championship in Japan) and win the Tag Team Titles there three times.

The duo would have singles runs in TNA, and Brother Ray would reinvent himself as “Bully Ray” and would enjoy his most successful singles run to date, capturing the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. It would not be out of the question to envision Bully Ray regaining that belt in the near future.

This brings us to just what does this accolade mean anyway? We here at Notinhalloffame.com have been critical of the TNA Hall of Fame for two reasons:

The first is that the three inductees (although you can argue Devon is no longer competing) were active performers at the time of their selection, indicating that the struggling promotion does not have the history to necessitate a Hall of Fame. The second is that the person who should be in their Hall of Fame the most, Jeff Jarrett, has not been inducted and now that he is in the process of creating his own wrestling promotion (Global Force Wrestling) the odds of him getting into this Hall seems remote. Considering the way he departed the WWE in 1999, he has equal odds of entering that promotion’s Hall of Fame are weak too.

With respect to Team 3D, the health of TNA is not that good and we have to wonder whether this wrestling organization will be around for a few more years to even make this accolade mean anything. Still, we congratulate Mark Lamonica (Bully Ray/Bubba Ray) and Devon Hughes for receiving this honor.