Hall of Fame Game

The Baseball Hall of Fame nominees for 2007 were announced in late November. The only real discussion on this has revolved around "McGwire - in or out?" which has grown rather tiresome.

Today, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its inductees for 2007 which in and of itself is somewhat tiresome. My initial thought was to try and compare each band being inducted (indicted? TAKE THAT R&R HOF!!!) to each of this year's "sure thing" baseball inductees but I immediately got stuck on Tony Gwynn, the ultimate hit machine. Van Halen or R.E.M. would be the most logical picks for him, but they just don't quite work for Tony. Same with Ripken, even though like Patti Smith he has always bored me to tears.

Instead, here is my very quick first thoughts free association of this year's baseball nominees and the first musical act that immediately popped to mind (reasoning / justification where applicable, written retroactively after the fact of the free association). Unlike baseball, no cheating was allowed!

Harold Baines - Marvin Gaye (must have been based on similar looks?)

Albert Belle - AC/DC (Thought of Helle's Belles AC/DC cover band?)

Dante Bichette - Mountain (No idea - larger guy, played in Rocky Mountain State?)

Bert Blyleven - REO Speedwagon (No clue)

Bobby Bonilla - Metallica (The double LL in the names I assume?)

Scott Brosius - Sandfrog (Must have made me think of Scott Spezio?)

Jay Buhner - Judas Priest (Bald head like Rob Halford?)

Ken Caminiti - Killdozer (No clue, I have never heard a Killdozer song that I know of)

Jose Canseco - Miami Sound Machine (Jose was from Miami maybe?)

Dave Concepcion - Madonna (Immaculate Collection / Concepcion similarity?)

Eric Davis - Eric B. & Rakim (Eric is in both names?)

Andre Dawson - Hawkwind (The Hawk / Hawkwind?)

Tony Fernandez - Tony Toni Tone (Tony is in both names)

Steve Garvey - Weather Report (This one is the funniest to me. Boring? Whiter than snow? Garvey looks like a t.v. weatherman?)

Rich Gossage - Kenny Loggins (The Goose / Goose from Top Gun / Danger Zone? I bought a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses today and made some "Top Gun" jokes at the time.)

Tony Gwynn - Luther Vandross (Similar looks?)

Orel Hershiser - Randy Travis (Definitely similar looks here?)

Tommy John - The Who (Tommy / Tommy the rock opera)

Wally Joyner - Spin Doctors (No idea)

Don Mattingly - John Cougar Melloncamp (Both from Indiana?)

Mark McGwire - MC Hammer (MC in both names? But why MC Hammer?)

Jack Morris - Mustache (Jack had a strong Mustache?)

Dale Murphy - Ryan Adams (No clue, two similarly generic sounding names?)

Paul O'Neill - The OJays (No clue whatsoever except for the O?)

Dave Parker - The Detroit Cobras (The Cobra / Detroit Cobras?)

Jim Rice - CCR (No idea)

Cal Ripken, Jr. - Power Station (No idea)

Bret Saberhagen - Kansas (Kansas City Royals fame?)

Lee Smith - The Dirtbombs (I have thought before that Lee reminded me of Mick Collins of the Dirtbombs, and my friend Greg has played basketball with Lee Smith, and Greg loves the Dirtbombs?)

Alan Trammell - Steely Dan (No idea)

Devon White - Devo (Both names start with Devo)

Bobby Witt - Yes (No clue)

Pretty boring unless there is some intriguing psychological underpinning to my choices that I am missing. Out of the bands mentioned, I am not a huge fan of any of them except for Eric B. & Rakim, The Who, and CCR. Also, I have no idea when I last thought of Power Station, Weather Report, or several others, let alone heard one of their songs. Fun! (And yes, that is Randy Johsnon in perhaps the greatest photo ever taken.)