STEVE GARVEY

'Steven Patrick Garvey' (born December 22, 1948) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman, and current Southern California businessman. In 1985, Garvey established a Major League Baseball record for most consecutive errorless games by an infielder (183). Placido Polanco's errorless streak

Contents

Playing career

Post-baseball career

Personal

Controversy

Facts

See also

References

External links

Playing career

Born in Tampa, FL, Garvey played football and baseball at Michigan State University. 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. Garvey was part of the longest starting infield to play together with Ron Cey, Bill Russell and Davey Lopes.
Garvey is one of only two players to have started an All-Star Game as a write-in vote, doing so in 1974.
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.
In the 1978 National League Championship Series, Garvey hit four home runs, and added a double for five extra base hits, both marks tying Bob Robertson's NLCS record (1971). Jeffrey Leonard would hit four in the 1987 NLCS.
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''.
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.
Garvey's jersey #6, worn when he was both a Padre and Dodger is retired by the Padres. His number 6 was displayed at the site of his 1984 NLCS home run in right field at Qualcomm Stadium.

Post-baseball career

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.

Personal

Steve Garvey is currently married to the former Candace Henderson. For much of the last five years he and his wife resided in Kamas, Utah; however, they recently moved back to Southern California, 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.

Controversy

During his playing career, Garvey was widely admired for his gentlemanly qualities on and off the field. Shortly after his retirement, however, his image was tarnished when he publicly admitted fathering two children - out of wedlock -by two women.^[1] More recently, Garvey has been accused of failing to pay a number of personal and professional debts, including child support. ^[2]
The bumper sticker "Steve Garvey is not my Padre" became popular in the 1980s after it was reported that Garvey fathered two children out of wedlock with two different women.

Facts

★ Lindsay (CA) Junior High School was renamed Steve Garvey Junior High School in 1977.

★ 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''.

★ Garvey, along with figure skater Oksana Baiul and skier Jonny Moseley, is a judge on the ABC reality show ''Master of Champions''.

See also

★ List of major league players with 2,000 hits

★ MLB consecutive games played streaks

References

1. Bryant reminds us we...
2. Mr. Clean in Trouble Again

External links

★ Steve Garvey.com

★

★ Baseball Library - biography and career highlights

★ The Baseball Page - profile and career analysis

★ Garvey's record-breaking 1,118^th 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

★ Steve Garvey on Officer Phil's KUSI-TV page

Accomplishments