All right, so the Hall of Fame nominations are early this year, and coming at you without warning. They start, like, right now.
They will come at you twice a day, starting a day, through Friday. A few reminders:
First: Here are the current members of the Deadspin Hall Of Fame, with their year of election:
2006
Carl Monday
Kyle Orton
Clinton Portis
Run You Stupid Fucking Dinosaur, Run
Renee Thomas And Angela Keathley
Viking Sex Boat
You're With Me, Leather
2007
Ned
2008
Buzz Bissinger
Will Leitch
Isiah Thomas
Marques Slocum's Fuck Lion
Now: The parameters.
1. This is not Sportshuman of the Year. This is simply people/concepts/teams/zygotes/whatever who could be up for nomination. It does not matter if their notoriety/brilliance has come in the last calendar year. Barbaro has now been nominated for the Deadspin Hall of Fame three times, falling short each time. (The plaque is fake.)
2. The threshold for induction is 75 percent. Considering how difficult it is to get collective Internet people to agree on anything, this sorts the proverbial wheat from the proverbial chaff. Whatever chaff is.
3. Voting ends Sunday at 10 p.m. Induction is next week.
So. Now all that's out of the way, our first 2009 nominee is Charles Barkley.
As Daulerio put it, Barkley is the most bulletproof man in sports. He can call his producer a "pussy," he can say he wants to punch Rush Limbaugh, he can be fired by all TNT's sponsors, he can joke about Isiah Thomas committing suicide and he can, of course, get busted for a DUI when all he wanted to do is drive around the corner and get a blow job.
And all this does is make us love him more. And probably vote him governor of Alabama someday.
But is it it enough to get him in the Hall of Fame? Seventy five percent is the threshold for induction. Vote below: Polls will be open through the weekend.