With all respect to Gil Scott Heron, I think today may have proved him wrong.
I enjoyed posting this a year ago, so I decided to weigh in again this year. This could be dangerous as the players I watched religiously as a kid are starting to become eligible, and I think that in most cases I remember them as being a lot better than they probably were.
Harold Baines: No. But perhaps he and David Ortiz and Edgar Martinez should start the DH Hall of Fame.
Jay Bell: No. Example #1 though of players that were probably not as good as I remember them. It also doesn’t help that about 80% of the games I watched were Cubs games, and against the Cubs in the early 1990s, guys like Jay Bell looked like Willie Mays.
Bert Blyleven: No. I’ve read more about Bert Blyleven than I would have thought possible. All of my favorite baseball writers strongly support his candidacy. And yet, I can’t do it. I know his numbers were great, but even when he played, he was never really considered that great. I think the fact that does it for me is that he only made 1 All-Star team in a VERY long career.
David Cone: No.
Andre Dawson: No. This comes down to his On Base Percentage, which is far below any other outfielder in the Hall. I was a big fan of Dawson, but never quite as much as some of my fellow Cubs fans. By the time I was old enough to remember watching him, his knees were already gone and he couldn’t move like the guy who is only the third player in history to hit 400 homeruns and steal 300 bases.
Ron Gant: No. Brings back memories of those first great Braves teams, doesn’t it? I was talking to my friend, who is an Atlanta fan, last night about John Smoltz signing with the Red Sox. His response was, “my childhood is officially over”. It didn’t take me long to decide my equivalent moment. It was when Steve Stone left the Chicago announce booth.
Mark Grace: Yes. Ok, so I don’t really think he is a HOFer, but I do think he deserves some votes. Grace had more hits in the ’90s than anyone else. I think that has got to count for something.
Ricky Henderson: Yes. He might actually get Ripken-like votes…around 98%.
Tommy John: No. Some people talk about how he was a pioneer because of the elbow surgery that is named after him. They know that he didn’t actually perform the surgery, right?
Don Mattingly: No.
Mark McGwire: Yes.
Jack Morris: No.
Dale Murphy: No. I could change my mind next year. I need to look at the numbers a little more.
Jesse Orosco, Dan Plesac, Greg Vaughn: No.
Matt Williams: No. Example #2
Dave Parker: No.
Tim Raines: Yes. A poor man’s Ricky Henderson…but not that poor.
Jim Rice: No. I’m tired of hearing about him, thankfully this is his final year of eligibility. And I think he probably gets in.
Lee Smith: No. I’m not sure why there is next to no support for him while Goose Gossage and Bruce Sutter were elected in the past two years. I’m not saying I think he should get in, I just think that there needs to be a decision made on how to deal with closers.
Alan Trammel: Yes. Only because Joe Posnanski convinced me.
Mo Vaughn: No. A poor man’s Frank Thomas. If he had had 5 more prime years, he may have made for an interesting discussion.
So, my votes: Grace, Henderson, McGwire, Raines and Trammel.
I think the actual results will be Henderson and Rice.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Elvis Impersonators are your 2008 Heelshouse Fantasy Football League Champions! It is our 2nd title in 3 years.
It’s been a busy month, and I know I’ve fallen off the blogging map. But I had to drop in to acknowledge that today is my One Year In Jersey Anniversary. How did that happen?!
And for those of you wondering…the Elvis Impersonators are at the top of their division, 2nd in the league, and beginning to peak heading into the playoffs!
Although I’m not moving into my new place in Red Bank until Sunday, tonight is my last night in Belmar. I’m in the city the next two days hanging out with my dear friend and Snore reader, Lori, who is in town for the weekend, attending my first show as a Roundabout subscriber, and going to a SoHo book release party.
And on my last night in town, I had the following exchange at Rite Aid where I was buying some trashbags that seemed to wrap up this town so well. A block over, the town was having it’s Halloween parade:
Cashier: Are those to clean up the mess tomorrow?
Me [Not knowing what he’s talking about]: Haha. Yeah.
Cashier: All I’ve sold tonight are eggs and toilet paper…and there’s nothing I can do about it.
B-E-L-M-A-R…
Ok, I lied. I did not start my originally drafted starters this week. Nervous about how he would return from a broken face, I benched Anquan Boldin in favor of Cedric Benson, then watched Boldin put up 30 points on the bench. But! I still won to go to 5-3 on the season thanks to big games from Brees and LDT. Unfortunately, both of them are on Bye next week. I’ll be spending most of the week going back and forth over what Waiver Wire QB to pick up to fill in for Brees for one week. Lee and the Shiner Bock Bandits await this week, and though they are near the bottom of the league, I’m going to need my WRs to step up this week to pull this one out. Without LDT, I won’t be expecting much from my RBs, and the fact that my QB options are Gus Frerotte and Matt Cassel, I’m not liking my odds there.
The Elvis Impersonators were not a healthy team the past two weeks and suffered blowout losses. It was a difficult task just filling out my starting lineup. However, after contemplating making several moves to blow-up the current team and start over, I decided to bide my time, let LDT, Colston, Boldin and Scheffler get healthy, and count on the best-in-the-league points of Brees to get me into the playoffs. In Week 8 against Team Mangini Drinks Wine Coolers, I will have the starting lineup that I drafted active for the first time since Week 1. I’m hoping to pull off what the Oakland Raiders did in 2002, winning the first 4, losing the next 4, then making a run all the way to the Super Bowl!
