Steve Garvey
Steven Patrick Garvey (born
December 22,
1948) is a former
Major League Baseball first baseman, and current
Southern California businessman.
A native-born
Tampan, Garvey played his entire career in the
National League West for two teams; the
Los Angeles Dodgers (1969-82) and the
San Diego Padres (1983-87). He batted right and threw right. In a 19-year career, Garvey was a .294 hitter with 272
home runs and 1308
RBI in 2332
games played.
Since
1988, he has been running Garvey Communications, mainly involved in
television production, including
infomercials. He is also the host of "Baseball's Greatest Games." In addition he is hired out to do
motivational speaking, mainly for
corporations.
Steve Garvey is currently married to the former Candace Henderson. For the last five years he and his wife resided in
Kamas, Utah; however, they recently moved back to the
Southern California area, and reside in
Sun Valley. Candace is a former talk show host, who co-hosted
The Home and Family Show in the 1990s with
Chuck Woolery on
The Family Channel (now ABC Family). Candace was a key witness for the prosecution in the "trial of the century" of
O.J. Simpson. Steve proposed to Candace on the field just before the start of the
1989 Super Bowl between the
San Francisco 49ers and
Cincinnati Bengals. Steve commutes to Los Angeles during the MLB season where he works as a greeter for the Los Angeles Dodgers VIP season ticket holders.
Garvey has also been in the news for some controversial issues. He and his previous wife, Cyndy, went through a bitter and public divorce. Several women have claimed that he fathered children out-of-wedlock with them. These accusations were particularly damaging to him because he had previously cultivated a very clean, family-friendly image. As a result of these allegations, which came when he was with the San Diego Padres, people began selling bumper stickers saying:
"Steve Garvey is not my padre."Garvey sued the
Major League Baseball Players Association regarding his dismissal from the Padres. His lawsuit against the MLBPA was part of a class action
collusion suit that hundreds of Major League Players brought against the MLB owners in the late 1980s. Garvey's claim was initially denied by an arbitrator. Represented by famed attorney
Neil Papiano, Garvey appealed the arbitrator's decision and, in an unprecidented, legal-first, successfully had the arbitrator's decision overturned by California's
9th Circuit Court of Appeals. However, in 2001, the 9th Circuit's decision was overturned by the U.S Supreme Court which held that the Court of Appeals had usurped the arbitrator's role. Thus, the arbitrator's denial of Garvey's claim was reinstated. Garvey's collusion claim was the last of the hundreds of claims to be resolved -- well over a decade after it was first filed.
He also was involved in a multi-year lawsuit brought by the
Federal Trade Commission and the
Justice Department over weight-loss ads, against Garvey and one of his companies, Enforma Natural Products. He appeared as the spokesperson in the 30-minute
infomercials trying to tell consumers that "Fat Trapper" and "Exercise In A Bottle" stating:
""With Enforma you can eat what you want and never, ever, ever, ever have to diet again...." Though Garvey was not found personally liable, the legal battles dragged on for five-years, causing harm to his reputation.
*10-time
All-Star (1974-81, 1984-85)
*
Most Valuable Player (1974)
*4-time
Gold Glove Award (1974-77)
*Twice All-Star Game MVP (1974, 1978)
*6-time led league in games played (1977-78, 1980-82, 1985)
*Twice led league in
hits (1978-80)
*7-time hit .300 or more (1973-76, 1978-80)
*6-time collected 200 or more hits (1974-76, 1978-80)
*5-time drove in 100 or more runs (1974, 1977-80)
*Twice
National League Championship Series MVP (1978, 1984)
Facts
*Garvey set a National League record with 1207 consecutive games played, from
September 3,
1975, to
July 29,
1983. The streak ended when he broke his thumb in a collision at home plate against the
Atlanta Braves.
*For most of his career, Garvey had a very clean-cut public image. For example, in a TV interview before the
1974 World Series when he explained that
"I always try to act as though there is a little boy or a little girl around, and I try never to do anything that would give them a bad example." Garvey even had political aspirations, gaining him the
nickname "
Senator." That all changed when two years after he played his last Major League game, it was revealed that he had fathered several children out of wedlock, was engaged to two women at the same time, and admitted in an interview that he enjoyed "pumping chicks." His reputation was further damaged when his ex-wife Cyndy came out with a tell-all book.
*In the
1978 National League Championship Series, Garvey hit four home runs, tying
Bob Robertson's NLCS record (
1971).
Jeffrey Leonard would hit four in the
1987 NLCS.
*On his first trip to
Los Angeles as a Padre, he took out a full-page newspaper ad thanking fans for their past support.
*On
October 6,
1984, during Game 4 of the
National League Championship Series, Garvey hit a two-run walk-off home run off of
Lee Smith in the 9th inning to give the Padres a 7 to 5 victory over the
Chicago Cubs. The next day, the Padres won the National League pennant for the first time in franchise history.
*In
1981, at a point in his career when it looked like he would one day rank among the game's all-time greats,
Lawrence Ritter and
Donald Honig included him in their book
The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.
*From 1993-1998, Garvey served as a color commentator for
CBS' coverage of the
College World Series.
*The
1990 edition of the annual
Steve Garvey's Celebrity Billfishing Tournament was a subject of
ESPN Classic's comedy series
Cheap Seats. The same year's
Steve Garvey Celebrity Skiing special would also be featured in another episode which aired in
July 2006, and featured a cameo by
Michael Floorwax, a comedian and current
Denver morning show host who appeared in both specials.
*Garvey makes an appearance, as a coach, in the
2005 film The Sandlot 2 (
James Earl Jones).
*Garvey, along with figure skater
Oksana Baiul and skier
Jonny Moseley, is a judge on the
ABC reality show
Master of Champions.
*
*
Steve Garvey.com*
Baseball Library - biography and career highlights
*
The Baseball Page - profile and career analysis
*
Garvey's record-breaking 1,118th cover @ Sports Illustrated (25 April 1983)*
The Diamond Angle (article), By Ken Haag with James Floto and David Marasco; should Garvey be in the Hall of Fame*
Steve Garvey Los Angeles Dodgers Online*
Former Dodger Great Facing a Mound of Debt from the
Los Angeles Times
