One of These Things is not like the Others!

What does it mean to be a hall-of-famer in a professional sport? Does it mean you put up Hall-of-fame worthy numbers? Do you have to be an innovater of your sport? What does it actually take to be considered one of the best ever to play your sport? When I think of players that don't belong, one man comes to mind immediately and I have been saying it for years. Why is Joe Namath in the Hall of Fame? Sure his name is famous, people know who he is, but does he belong?? What if he never called that improbable superbowl win over the Colts? Would he have made it, I think not.

Lets look at strictly stats right now. Some people say Namath was a winner...not true, his overall record as a starting quarterback, 63-63-4, a .500 record? Doesn't look Hall-of-Fame worthy, but ok he must have had some nice stats though right? Once again, not true. He threw for 173 touchdowns in his career, not a horrible amount, but compared to the 220 interceptions he threw, not impressive at all. Does a quarterback that threw more interceptions than TD's deserve to be in the HOF? Just for kicks let me also say that his career passer rating is 65.5 and completion percentage is just 50.1% Hmmm...NFL Fans, still think he belongs?

Let's do some playful comparisons, Drew Bledsoe, a quarterback many have considered average? His record 98-95, TD's 251, yards 44,611 (sorry I forgot to mention Namath didn't even throw for 28,000 yards). Bledsoe also has a career passer rating of 77.1. By Namath's standards, Bledsoe should be a Hall-of-Famer without question, but is he by yours? Jeff George, Tim Couch, and Jeff Garcia all have higher career passer ratings than Namath. Are they Hall-of-Famers? If you believe they are then maybe my argument here is flawed and I apologize for throwing this man under the bus.

If he lost that superbowl, is he a Hall-of-Famer?

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What if the Expos Weren't Struck Out?

Ken Griffey Jr. probably summed up the 1994 season the best when he said " We picked a bad season to have a good year" Nobody felt this pain any worse than the Montreal Expos. Currently at the time of the strike they had the best record in the majors at 74-40 and were on pace for 105 wins, the best record in franchise history and before this they had only made it to the postseason one other time and that was in 1981.

The team was stacked with talent, players like Moises Alou, Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez, Marquis Grissom, Jeff Fassero, were all hitting their primes and playing well. They were 6 games ahead of the Braves and most baseball writers were on the bandwagon picking them to go to the World Series.

But as this blog of mine has clearly shown, things don't always go the way we think they should or the way we hope they will. The final 47 games of the year were cancelled along with the postseason and World Series. The great effort put forth by the Expos was forgotten because nothing became of it. Would this have saved this dying franchise? Would it have given them a fanbase to put them back on the map again? This strike severley dampened the notion to get a new stadium in Montreal and local ownership groups decided not to invest enough for the team to retain its best players.

Some may say that winning a World Series might not have done a whole lot for the already diminishing franchise in Canada, but I think otherwise. Winning does a lot more than you think. With a new stadium and high interest sprung back on the team because of their success, I think it would have only made sense for ownership to have invested in the team and keep the stars. Who knows, Pedro could have been a 3 time NL Cy Young award winner and Moises Alou and Larry Walker would have provided plenty of punch in the lineup. The Expos could still be around today.

Just as another little side note about the 1994 season though this is slightly off topic from the Expos, this season was looking quite astounding for all statistics. People don't normally remember but Matt Williams was actually on pace to top Roger Maris' record of 61 homeruns he had 43 at the time of the strike. Also Tony Gwynn was batting .394 and had a legitimate shot at being the first man since Ted Williams to top an average .400.

Picture Courtesy of Major League Baseball