Former Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey failed to receive enough votes Sunday to be elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Garvey was among six candidates on the 10-man Modern Baseball Era ballot to receive fewer than seven votes from a 16-member committee. The exact total was not released by the Hall of Fame. Twelve votes were required for election.
Pitcher Jack Morris, who spent most of his career with the Detroit Tigers, and shortstop Alan Trammell, who played for the Tigers for his entire 20-year career, were both elected to the Hall of Fame. Morris received 14 votes and Trammell 13.
Ted Simmons, a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and two other teams during a 21-year career from 1968-88, fell one vote short of being elected.
The late Marvin Miller, who headed the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966-82, received seven votes, the only other person to receive at least seven votes.
Others failing to get at least seven votes included Tommy John, who pitched for the Dodgers from 1971-78, part of a 26-season career where he won 288 games, 26th most in baseball history, and former Dodger manager Don Mattingly, whose candidacy was based on his playing career with the New York Yankees.
The committee appointed by the Hall of Fame to evaluate the Modern Baseball Era candidates included Don Sutton, a teammate of Garvey’s on the Dodgers from 1969-79, George Brett, Rod Carew, Dave Winfield and Robin Yount and three other Hall of Famers; five major league executives and three media members or historians.
Voting was conducted at baseball’s winter meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
The Hall of Fame defines the Modern Baseball Era as from 1970 to 1987. Figures from the era will again be considered for the Hall of Fame in 2019. Individuals whose greatest contributions to baseball came from 1988 to the present will be considered next year.
John’s victory total is third-most among pitchers not in the Hall of Fame. The only pitchers with more victories than John not in the Hall of Fame are Roger Clemens, ninth on the list with 354 victories who has been dogged by suspicion he used performance-enhancing drugs, and the 19th-century pitcher Bobby Mathews, 25th on the list with 297 victories, who played his entire career when the pitching mound was 50 feet from home plate, 10 feet, 6 inches less than the current distance.
The closest John came to be elected to the Hall of Fame by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America was in 2009, his final year of eligibility, when he received 31.7 percent of their votes, the only time he topped 30 percent.
Votes from 75 percent of those voting is required to be elected to the Hall of Fame.
Garvey received his highest percentage of votes in 1995, his third year of eligibility, when received 42.6 percent. He received over 40 percent two other times.
Garvey played with the Dodgers from 1969-82, is fifth in team history in RBIs and hits and was the 1974 National League MVP.
Garvey’s 1,207 consecutive game streak from 1975 to 1983 was the third longest in major league history when it ended when he broke his thumb in a home plate collision on July 29, 1983. It is now the fourth longest behind Cal Ripken Jr. (2,632), Lou Gehrig (2,130) and Everett Scott (1,307).
The first 1,107 games were with the Dodgers and the final 100 were with the San Diego Padres, where Garvey completed his career from 1983-87.
—City News Service