Next
up in the “Nickname of the 70’s” parade is one of my favorite players
from the era, “Mr Clean” Steve Garvey, who earned the alias early in his
career because of his seemingly “squeaky-clean” image:
Though he’d go on to tarnish that image later in life, pretty much
derailing his political ambitions post-baseball, he was indeed the
poster child for the All-American boy from the moment he came up to the
Majors through the early-80’s.
Hey, I don’t judge, so we’ll leave that aside and get to the fact that
he was the premier first baseman in the National league from the
mid-70’s through the mid-80’s, an All-Star year in and year out.
Modern metrics be damned, the man topped 200-hits six times, took home
the NL MVP in 1974, won four Gold Gloves and strung together a run of
1207 consecutive games played, which is still the NL record.
The anchor of the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers teams of the era, they
took over from Cincinnati as the preeminent team in the Senior Circuit
in the late-70s, reaching the World Series three times over five seasons
between 1977 and 1981, winning it all that final year, beating the New
York Yankees and exacting some sweet revenge for their two losses in
77/78.
I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a few hundred times: the fact that this
man is NOT in the Hall of Fame, representing his era of Major League
baseball, is a joke. Flat out nonsense. Beyond the numbers, the
personality, the leader of a team that was shattering attendance
records, helping popularize the game further, the man was a an All-Star
year in-year out.
In my book, seeing that the most support he ever received was 42.6%,
which was in his second-year of eligibility in 1994, is nothing short of
a mark on what the Hall of Fame is.