The common trend in Baseball Hall of Fame voting is for a solid candidate to get a healthy double-digit vote in his first year of eligibility and watch that number climb slowly as more and more perspective is put on their career. For Steve Garvey, the more the Hall looked at his career, the more they seemed to talk themselves out of his induction, as evidenced by the way his votes were cut in half from his first year (41.6) to (21.1) in his last year.
There is a good chance that if you were a fan of the L.A. Dodgers in the 70’s, you were a huge fan of Steve Garvey. It would be easy to see why, as his squeaky clean image and model good looks were combined with a perennial All-Star who hit for a solid average, had moderate power, was great in the clutch, and was the Iron Man of his generation. Garvey won the 1974 NL MVP, 1978 NLCS MVP, and two All-Star Game MVPs. Basically, if the camera was on Steve Garvey, he produced.
Perhaps that was the problem. Garvey was at times more concerned with looking good than playing well, and he would rather swing away than take a deserved walk, which did not play well on TV. Garvey also may have been a four-time Gold Glove recipient at first, but he was a failure at third base. Garvey may have been an Iron Man playing in a lot of consecutive games, but it may have been at the detriment of his team. Bottom line is that stories of his selfishness have emerged as frequently as stories of his infidelity did after his playing days ceased.
We like to build heroes and tear them down so that we can build them up again. Steve Garvey may have been rejected on his first go-round, but he may be built up again for consideration by the Veterans Committee. Based on what we have seen so far, it is not looking good.
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