THE MAG.COM PRESENTS:
ALL WORLD POWER RANKINGS

by Ted Bauer

BEST HALL OF FAMES BY LOCATION? WE'RE HEADED TO UPSTATE NEW YORK

Eleven guys are headed into the Basketball Hall of Fame tonight, among 'em Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon (1984 NCAA Title game and 1994 NBA Finals, holla!), as well as Pat Riley and our man Dick Vitale. Anyone out there ever been to the Basketball HOF? It's in Springfield, MA (same train line as Hartford, which is how you get to ESPN's Bristol HQ); literally, it's an unassuming building next to a McDonald's. Certainly not Faneuil Hall in Boston. Weird: baseball's HOF is in Cooperstown (not NYC!), football's in Canton (not Cleveland!), and tennis' is in Newport (not Quahog!) Let's rank the HOFs by locale and grandeur.

TOP 5
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	1 (4)	BASEBALL HALL OF FAME (COOPERSTOWN, NY)	Easy at one: do you know any dudes with a semi-normal relationship with their father who didn't go to upstate NY at least once between the ages of "understanding what a 3-2 count means" and "the moment Cat's in the Cradle makes sense?"
	2 (6)	INTERNATIONAL TENNIS HALL OF FAME (NEWPORT, RI)	Too high? Possibly. Justification: tennis is an erudite game (think Wimbledon theme song). Newport is an erudite place. Whole concept seems to fit. Wait, did we say "erudite"? We meant "rich".
	3 (7)	HOCKEY HALL OF FAME (TORONTO)	Similar reasoning: where else would this be except Toronto? Bonus: it's huge. Double bonus: attention to detail; check out their "visitor information" page.
	4 (9)	PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME (CANTON, OH)	With the whole "Dawg Pound" thing seeming a pretty rabid concept, we'd like this in Cleveland. Can a city not have two major "halls of fame" in it? Still, the busts are legitimately cool and people seem to cry at induction speeches here more than any other place. We're fans of emotion; Terms of Endearment is up next on Netflix.
	5 (11)	BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME (SPRINGFIELD, MA)	The dudes who run this place know about the value of interactivity. Some amazing exhibits up there, plus a nice historical retro on 1968's UCLA vs. Houston game.

HONORABLE MENTION
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	11 (74)	COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME (SOUTH BEND, IN)	South Bend's most famous bar is called The Linebacker. In that corner of the world, Rick Mirer is still a hero. Location-wise, you probably couldn't pick a better place. Uh, ignore last season.
	23 (92)	PINBALL HALL OF FAME (LAS VEGAS, NV)	We had no idea this existed until a cursory Google search just now. We're planning on going. Pinball? A Hall of Fame? Amazing!

RISING AND FALLING
MOVEMENT		WHAT
		BOWLING HALL OF FAME (STRIKE! Ok, lame joke. But it's in St. Louis and this guy loves St. Louis.)
		MOTORSPORTS HALL OF FAME (It's in Dovi, Michigan. What?)

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