In the long and illustrious (often tortured) history of the Boston Red Sox, a case can be made that of all the men who graced Fenway’s mound Luis Tiant was the most popular of them all.  Considering the number of great athletes who have donned the Red Sox uniform, this is an impressive accolade indeed.

Tiant wasn’t just popular because of his friendly demeanor, inviting accent, and the fact that he didn’t look like an athlete; Tiant was also popular because he was damn good.  In his career, the Cuban won 20 games four times with his unorthodox delivery.  When he was on, he had excellent control and could get batters out with finesse or power.

Midway through his career, Taint missed many games due to shoulder injuries.  After a few very subpar campaigns, he resurrected his career with Boston, but not before losing out on seasons that would have easily padded his stats to make him more palatable to Cooperstown.  Tiant also gave up a lot of home runs, which hampered him at every juncture of his career.  If those bad seasons were just below average, Tiant very well could have had a place in the Hall.

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.

Maury Wills did not make the Major Leagues until he was 26 years old yet still managed to rack up over 2,000 hits in his career.  What numbers would he have put up if he cracked a big league roster earlier and would it have been enough to make him a member of the Hall of Fame?

At the time of the infamous steroids trial, Rafael Palmeiro seemed to come off so well.  Of course, when you are sitting next to a man who suddenly suffered from amnesia (Mark McGwire), a man who suddenly forgot the English language (Sammy Sosa), and the man who broke the “bro code” (Jose Canseco), a defiant and confident-sounding Rafael Palmeiro could not help but look good.  A few months later, Palmeiro was suspended by Major League Baseball for testing positive for steroids.

Ironically, this could hurt Palmeiro’s chances more than anyone else who testified at Congress.  At that point, he had reached 500 home runs, quieter than anyone else ever had, and was knocking on the door of 3,000 hits.  Seemingly, anyone else with those numbers would be a celebrated figure beset with endorsements and rabid fans.  Palmeiro had neither, as he was playing in the shadow of flashier and more successful power hitters.  As such, he was not regularly in the hunt for MVPs and only appeared in four All-Star games, which, considering his career numbers, was relatively low.  Subsequently, he was rarely with great teams and holds the dubious record of having played the most games without a World Series appearance.

Prior to the steroid stigmatism, Palmeiro had the Hall of Fame locked numbers of 500 Home Runs and 3,000 Hits.  Without the allegations, he may not have even been a lock for first-ballot induction.  With the PED label, a look at his offence showed a massive upswing at age 34.  McGwire may one day be forgiven, as might Sosa.  Palmeiro likely won’t.  As unfathomable as it seemed a decade ago, he was almost a one-and-done Hall of Fame candidate, and his years on the ballot fell well short of the maximum as he fell off after his fourth year.  This could be a sad reality for one of his day's most consistent offensive performers.