PARK CITY — IF you think Pete Rose has a huge Hall of Fame headache, you should consider Steve Garvey's.
At least Pete knows why.
Pete Rose isn't in the baseball Hall of Fame because of his gambling and resultant ban from Major League Baseball. Steve Garvey's problem isn't so easily defined. Based on the support he gets from Hall of Fame voters, his career keeps getting worse even though he hasn't played a game in 17 years. He's been on the ballot for the past 12 years and his percentage of the vote has dropped from a high of 43 percent in his third year of eligibility in 1995 to a low of 24 percent two weeks ago, when Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor were the only players admitted by being named on at least 75 percent of the ballots cast by members of the Professional Baseball Writers Association.
"I don't get much feedback," says Garvey, who moved to the Park City area several years ago. "But every year, my numbers go down."
Because of Rose's gambling, much has been made about who or what belongs in the Hall of Fame. Debates rage over how much weight should be given to character and citizenship, and how such qualities, or lack thereof, can be measured. You can judge a man's power as a hitter by his slugging percentage. Judging his character has no such barometer.
Garvey was one of baseball's most public ambassadors when he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, visiting hospitals, giving to charities and the community. At one point, he had an L.A.-area school named after him. On the other hand, his first marriage ended in a messy divorce, followed by considerable public scrutiny on his social life.
"I was a single guy and dated two women who got pregnant," says Garvey. "We're human, we're fallible, sometimes we make good decisions, sometimes we don't. But in the end you take responsibility, that's the only answer to those things."
He can only guess that falling on the dark side of the writers' popularity divide has hurt his support for the hall.
"Maybe some writers use that as an excuse," he says, "I don't know. I know that nobody communicated better with the writers than I did, nobody gave them more rainy day stories."
But something happened. That became patently evident last year when Garvey got 28 percent of the vote and watched as Gary Carter was voted in with 78 percent of the vote.
Garvey's and Carter's careers can be easily compared. Both played 19 seasons in the National League over the same era. They played in nearly the same number of games, 2,332 for Garvey to 2,296 for Carter, and had nearly identical plate appearances. In every statistical category Garvey's numbers are superior to Carter's except home runs (324 for Carter, 272 for Garvey). Garvey had more hits (2,599 to 2,092), more RBI (1,308 to 1,225), more runs (1,143 to 1,025), more doubles (440 to 371), more gold gloves (four to three) and in baseball's single most defining stat, Garvey had a lifetime batting average 32 points higher — .294 to .262.
In postseason play, Garvey hit .338 to Carter's .280 and went to five World Series while Carter went to one.
Garvey can only shake his head and wonder. He has two younger sons who are now at ages where a Hall of Fame induction would be especially meaningful to them. He admits it would "an extreme honor" for him. But unlike when he played, there isn't much he can do about it. The past is the past and nobody said life, or Hall of Fame voting, had to be fair. And unlike Pete Rose, Steve Garvey can't even write a book with a deathbed confession to try to close the deal.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.