If you look at the Wikipedia article on Albert Belle you will find that the section on his controversies is longer than his accomplishments.  He fought with sportswriters, with fans, with other players and his temper was legendary.  So was his prowess with a bat.

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.

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.

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?