The 'Hall of Pretty Good'

Damn!! I wish I'd thought of this. Great idea.

I'll try it for football, same era.

PATRIOTS: Steve Grogan
JETS: Al Toon
DOLPHINS: Mark Duper, Mark Clayton
BILLS: Bruce Mathison. no, wait, Joe Cribbs

BENGALS: Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason
STEELERS: Louie Lipps (hi Oz!)
BROWNS: Bernie Kosar, Earnest Byner, Brian Sipe

COLTS: Chris Hinton
OILERS: Dan Pastorini

CHARGERS: John Jefferson, Don Coryell (loved those high-scoring 4 pm games)
BRONCOS: Karl Mecklenberg (might make the real one someday)
CHIEFS: Stephone Paige
RAIDERS: Cliff Branch

GIANTS: Joe Morris
COWBOYS: Bill Bates
EAGLES: Ron Jaworski, Randall Cunningham
REDSKINS: The Smurfs!

BEARS: Matt Suhey. OK, Gary Fencik. Or Dave Williams, the guy that beat the Lions on Turkey Day by returning the opening kickoff of OT for a TD
VIKINGS: Tommy Kramer, Anthony Carter
LIONS: Billy Sims (I was really drawing a blank here)
PACKERS: Lynn Dickey (hi Bubbler!)

FALCONS: Steve Bartkowski
SAINTS: Chuck Muncie
BUCCANEERS: Doug Williams

SEAHAWKS: Dave Krieg (my favorite player), Jim Zorn
RAMS: Dieter Brock. OK, Henry Ellard. Or Flipper Anderson (hi Buck!)
CARDINALS: Stump Mitchell, Roy Green
49ERS: Roger Craig, John Taylor

EDIT: DAMN YOU TO HELL BUBBLER!!!!!

 

At that point, he wasn't the greatest anything. He was a rookie having a nice run. He has, indeed, become one of the two greatest big-game QBs. No argument there. But Pittsburgh had him contained. If you'd ever watched the Steelers play, you'd know they commonly allow yards between the 20s and are content to hold teams to field goals. Bledsoe threw the only TD pass in that game. And if you'd use your memory, instead of just shouting me down like you usually do, you'd remember there was a debate following that game regarding whether the Pats should stick with Bledsoe for the Super Bowl, given the energy he provided the offense that day or go back with Brady. Ultimately, BB made the right call, as he usually does. But Brady going down against Pittsburgh that day was a good break for NE.
Now, back to our originally scheduled programming.

 

Brady was not a rookie that season. It was his second year.

 

Frank Mahovlich is already in the HHOF, and deservedly so. Pete? Um, I'm not really sure about him. Very talented but had a lot of trouble with motivation and wasn't nearly as great as he could have been.

I'd nominate Pat Verbeek, affectionately known as The Little Ball of Hate, for the HHOPG. He's the only man in NHL history with more than 500 goals (522), 1,000 points (1,063) and 2,500 penalty minutes (2,905) and, until last season, still held the New Jersey Devils record for goals in one season.

 

Mattingly doesn't belong anywhere near this thread. He was great, the best player in the world for a few years. If you want to tell me that there weren't enough of those years to get him into the HOF, I disagree, but I understand. He was not pretty good.

 

If there's a "Hall of Mediocre Players who Got on a Hot Streak at The Right Time", he's in like flint.

 

John Olerud

 

Guy, although some people have taken it in a different direction, players who were great but not quite good enough for their respective Hall of Fame is exactly what this thread started off as. At least that's how I read it before people started going team-by-team through the decades.

To pick somebody I am more familiar with, Louis Lipps is a hell of a lot farther from the NFL Hall of Fame than Mattingly is from the baseball HOF.

Guys like Jerome Bettis and Tiki Barber are better comparisons.

 

Carlton Fisk. Should be in this Hall of Fame, not the one in Cooperstown.

 

Ditto for Gary Carter.

 

Great list, Bubbler. Here's a few more (thank god I saved some random 80s football cards...can't find the sticker books, though)...

Browns - Hanford Dixon, Frank Minnifield, Chip Banks
Steelers - uh, let's forget the 80s ever took place
Jets - Freeman McNeil
Bengals - Rodney Holman
Pats - Andre Tippett
Falcons - Bill Fralic
Broncos - Simon Fletcher, Dennis Smith
49ers- Michael Carter
Vikings - Joey Browner, Steve Jordan
Chiefs - Deron Cherry, Carlos Carson (probably a stretch), Albert Lewis
Seahawks - Fredd Young, Jacob Green

 

Mattingly had four incredible seasons and two very good seasons, but he fizzled out too quickly. A career OPS+ of 127 doesn't cut it for a first baseman. Especially one who was forced to retire at 34 and only played in one postseason series.