I believe a handful of baseball players deserve more consideration for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. One of them is Steve Garvey, a ten-time All-Star who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1969-1982) and the San Diego Padres (1983-1987).
Steve Garvey was a solid two-way player with the Dodgers from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. His breakout season was in 1974 when he won the NL MVP and helped lead the Dodgers to the World Series. Garvey hit 21 home runs, drove in 111 runs, and collected 200 hits. He also won his first Gold Glove Award at first base. Garvey took his game to another level in the 1974 postseason, hitting .385 in 9 games. He would become one of the best first basemen in baseball for almost a decade.
Garvey had six seasons with at least 200 hits, and he played in over 1,000 consecutive games. One can argue his best season was in 1977 when he hit 33 homeruns with 115 runs batted in. He was a part of the first team in Major League Baseball to have four players hit at least 30 homeruns. Garvey led the NL in hits twice (1978, 1980) and games played six times (1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985).
Here’s another thing: Garvey was often at his best in October. Get this: in October, he had a .338 career postseason average in 55 games with 11 home runs and 31 runs batted in. No wonder that Garvey won two NLCS MVPs (1978 and 1984).
As time has passed, I am more convinced than ever that there should be a spot for Steve Garvey in Cooperstown. He was durable, reliable, and everything you would want from a ballplayer. I hope his day will come, and that Steve Garvey will be enshrined in Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Watching him play, I certainly thought he was on his way to the HOF with his career.