Vada Pinson was a very consistent hitter for the Reds and would twice lead the National League in Hits.  While he did not win a batting title, he had three seasons for Cincinnati where he went over .300.  Pinson would also lead the NL in Doubles twice, triples twice and had six seasons where he hit over 20 Home Runs.  Overall, 1,881 of his 2,757 Hits happened as a Reds, and the team inducted Pinson into their Hall of Fame in 1977

Considered by some to be a significant Hall of Fame snub, Bucky Walters was a dominating Pitcher for the Reds in the late 30’s and early 40’s. 

Joe Morgan was already a good baseball commodity when he was a Houston Astro, but when he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds he blossomed as one of the best infielders in the game. 

Frank Robinson was the first player to win the MVP Award in both leagues, and while he was a major force in the Baltimore Orioles push to their first World Series Title, he was actually a better player during the ten seasons he was a Cincinnati Red.

It cannot be quantified just how good Johnny Bench was.

The Cincinnati Reds Catcher was not just one of the best offensive players at his position ever, but he also backed that up with stellar defense and a cerebral way to call his staff. 

Dolf Luque was one of the few Cubans allowed to play in the Majors in the early 20th century which was likely due to his fair complexion and blue eyes.  The Cincinnati Reds were the beneficiary of this, as he would develop into quite a Pitcher playing under the Reds umbrella.

While George Foster would not become a Hall of Famer he was the favorite of many fans of the Big Red Machine, and why not?  This was the man who had the power numbers and let’s face facts; Home Runs make the highlight reel.

Sabremetrically speaking, Frank “Noodles” Hahn is the most effective Pitcher in Cincinnati Reds history.

He also has one of the best nicknames in franchise history.

Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his third year of eligibility, Barry Larkin was the most complete Shortstops of his day and arguably amongst the top ten of all-time.

Ah, the Hit King!

We all know that Pete Rose is banned from baseball, but the Cincinnati Reds recently placed him in their franchise Hall of Fame, as they should…he was the greatest player in team history.

A major star of the Cincinnati Reds staff in the late 1930s, Paul Derringer would win 161 Games for the team.  Derringer would be named to six All-Star Games (including five straight from 1938 to 1942) and would have four 20 Win seasons and was known for rarely walking batters in his prime.  Notably, he would have two straight top-five appearances in MVP voting (1939 & 1940).

Joey Votto had a claim at one time as the best hitter in baseball.

While most people know that he is good, they might not be aware this is a player who won the National League On Base Percentage Title seven times (including four in a row from 2010 to 2014, batted over .300 eight times, and is also a former Slugging Champion.  With that last accolade, the Canadian clearly has power as he has well over 300 Home Runs, and 2,000 Hits in a career that was only been spent in Cincinnati.

In our methodical process to present the top 50 players of all of the franchises of the big four, our next goal is to take a look at how each one of them honor their past players and/or executives. As such it is significant news to us that the Cincinnati Reds, one of the longest tenured teams in Major League Baseball has announced that Adam Dunn will become the latest member of their team’s Hall of Fame.

A second round draft pick in 1998, Dunn would make the main roster in 2001 and would become quickly known for his tape measure Home Runs. A Red for eight seasons (2001 & 2008) Dunn had five consecutive 40 Home Run years (though the last was split with Arizona) and he would go yard 270 times with Cincinnati.

While Dunn would have some detractors for his low Batting Average, high Strikeout ratio and poor defense, he did have an excellent On Base Percentage (.380) and Slugging Percentage (.520) as a Red. The Reds never had a winning season while Dunn played there but his power displays certainly gave a lot of fans to cheer for.

Dunn beat out Aaron Boone, Danny Graves, Reggie Sanders, John Franco and Scott Rolen who were also nominated. It is possible that the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame Veteran’s Committee will announce other inductees to join Dunn.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Adam Dunn for achieving this prestigious honor.

Regular visitors to Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly putting together the best 50 players of all time for each team from the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and the National Football League.

Once that is complete, our next task is to tackle how each of those teams honor their former players/executives in terms of franchise halls of fames, retired numbers etc.

One of the teams that we are in the preliminary stages of selecting our top 50 is the Cincinnati Reds, who announced six former players on their modern era ballot.

The nominees are as follows:

Aaron Boone, Third Base: 1997-2003.   The son of Bob Boone and brother of Bret Boone, Aaron went to his only All Star Game in 2003 prior to being traded to the New York Yankees. He had 646 Hits, 86 Home Runs with a .271 Batting Average over his Reds career.

Adam Dunn, Outfield: 2001-2008. An All Star in 2002, Dunn went on a power tear hitting 40 dingers five years in a row from 2004 to 2008. As a Red, the power hitter tallied 270 Home Runs with a Slash Line of .247/.380/.520.

John Franco, Relief Pitcher: 1984-89. Three times an All Star as a Cincinnati Red, John Franco secured 148 Saves including 39, which led the NL in 1988.

Danny Graves, Relief Pitcher: 1997-2005. Graves would go to two All Star Games and had four seasons where he eclipsed 30, including a 41 save season in 2004. He would save 182 Games in total for Cincinnati.

Scott Rolen, Third Base: 2009-2012.   Rolen was only a Red for his last three and a half seasons of his career, though was still named an All Star twice. He had 304 Hits as a Red.

Reggie Sanders, Outfield: 1991-98. Sanders was an All Star in 1995 and finished 6th in MVP voting. As a Red he would tally 781 Hits, 125 Home Runs and 158 Stolen Bases.

To be eligible for the Reds Hall of Fame a player must have played for Cincinnati for three seasons, played in the majors in the last thirteen years and have been retired for at least three years.

In addition to the Modern Player inductee, a Veterans Player inductee will also be selected.

You can vote at Cincinnati.reds.mlb.com.

The announcement of the winner will be made in late September.

Pete Rose may never get into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  However the Cincinnati Reds, the team in which Rose spent the bulk of his career with, has decided to ignore the nearly three decade ban that was upheld by Major League Baseball Commissioner, Rob Manfred, as they will be inducting the Hit King into their franchise’s Baseball Hall of Fame.

Rose, who is a native of Cincinnati, is still a revered man in that city, and this was where he led the “Big Red Machine” to two World Series Championships in the 1970’s.  As a Cincinnati Red, Rose accumulated 3,358 of his 4,256 career Hits; a number that may never be broken.  Rose would also win six Hit Titles, three Batting Titles, the Rookie of the Year and an MVP Award in Cincinnati.

The Reds will not only be inducting Rose into their Hall of Fame, but they will also be retiring his number 14, in a ceremony that will take place in June.  The organization also announced that they plan to erect a statue in his honor outside Riverfront Stadium.

While we are aware that will be some who will be angry with this decision, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are thrilled with the Cincinnati Reds for this decision, and are happy for Rose and the Baseball fans of Cincinnati.

How many people pointed at Bert Blyleven’s 287 career wins year after year and championed his Hall of Fame cause?  We don’t know the exact number, but we are sure that it is a lot more who than those who created logs extolling the virtues of Tony Mullane’s 284 Major League victories.

Considered by baseball historians to be the best Third Baseman of the Deadball Era, Heinie Groh quietly won two World Series Rings; one controversially with the Reds in 1919 and another with the Giants in 1922. It was in Cincinnati that Groh had his best seasons, where he twice led the National League in On Base Percentage and was a hit and run machine. He was also considered amongst the best defensive player at his position in his era. This has garnered Heinie Groh a second look from a lot of modern baseball pundits as though his traditional accumulative stats do not reflect a Hall of Fame baseball player, his Sabremetric ones paint a different possibility.

A converted third baseman, Bucky Walters took the mound later in his career but once he did he made up for the lost time.  Walters would even win the MVP for his pitching prowess and was one of the rare hurlers who could be used often as a pinch hitter.

One of two things could happen when you play with a collection of superstars.  Either you get lost in the shuffle or you become incorrectly elevated among them.  Neither was the case for the Dave Concepcion who became nationally known playing alongside Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez, but deserved the attention that came with it.

The start of Vada Pinson’s career showed promise of a Hall of Fame career as he was a five-tool baseball player.  So just how does a player who had this much promise, still compile over 2,700 hits and yet have what was considered a journeyman career?