Opinion: Garvey out for good
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Steve Garvey’s enshrinement in the Hall of Fame is no longer a question of ‘when’ ... or even ‘if.’ After a few hopeful decades of shoo-in status, the legendary former first-baseman for the Dodgers is off the Hall of Fame ballot for good after failing to receive yeas from 75% of the voters for 15 straight years.
It isn’t all that surprising that Garvey’s permanent lock-out went virtually unnoticed in the larger baseball world (with Mark McGwire’s rebuff and all). But as it didn’t even get any mention in the Dodgers’ hometown paper today; a Times sports story Tuesday even implied that Garvey would remain eligible next year (the story did, however, mention the 15-year eligibility rule with another Hall candidate):
Longtime Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey and former Dodgers pitchers Orel Hershiser and Tommy John again are on the ballot, but received less than 30% of the vote last year.They probably will be joined on the waiting list by McGwire, who ranks seventh on the career home run list but is about to bat leadoff in the lineup of suspected steroid users whose worthiness for immortality is far from assured.
Garvey’s ineligibility for the Hall of Fame doesn’t mean his career stats aren’t impressive: He racked up a .294 lifetime batting average, the 1974 National League MVP, 10 appearances in the All Star game and four Gold Glove awards. But the offensive explosion in baseball over the last 15 years makes a solid, .294 lifetime batting average seem insignificant; stellar defense isn’t easily quantified in Hall of Fame-friendly statistics.
Hall of Fame enshrinement no longer looming, Garvey will have to be content to relish in his status as the perennial good-guy face of the Dodgers (his past reluctance to financially support a few estranged of his nine children notwithstanding, of course).