Steve Garvey

Steven Patrick Garvey (born December 22, 1948), nicknamed "Mr. Clean" because of the squeaky clean image he held throughout his career in baseball, is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman and current Southern California businessman. Garvey was the 1974 NL MVP, ten-time All-Star, and holds the National League record for consecutive games played (1,207).

Playing career
Born in Tampa, Florida to parents who had recently relocated from Long Island, New York, from 1956 to 1961, Garvey was a bat boy for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers. Garvey played football and baseball at Michigan State University after graduating from Chamberlain High School. Garvey played his entire career in the National League West for two teams; the Los Angeles Dodgers (1969–82) and San Diego Padres (1983–87). He batted and threw right-handed. In a nineteen-year career, Garvey was a .294 hitter with 272 home runs and 1308 RBI in 2332 games played.

Los Angeles Dodgers
Garvey was part of the most enduring infield in baseball history along with third baseman Ron Cey, shortstop Bill Russell and second baseman Davey Lopes. The four infielders stayed together as the Dodgers' starters for eight and a half years.

Garvey is one of only two players to have started an All-Star Game as a write-in vote, doing so in 1974. That year he won the NL MVP award, and had the first of six 200-hit seasons. Only 15 players in all of Major League Baseball history have had six or more 200 hit seasons (as of the end of 2010).

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. It is the fourth-longest such streak in Major League Baseball history.

In the 1978 National League Championship Series, Garvey hit four home runs, and added a triple for five extra base hits, both marks tying Bob Robertson's 1971 NLCS record; Jeffrey Leonard would tie the NLCS home run record in the 1987 NLCS.

In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.

San Diego Padres
In December 1982 Garvey signed with the Padres for $6.6 million over five years in what some felt was a "masterstroke" to General Manager Jack McKeon's effort to rebuild the team. Though San Diego had vastly outbid the Dodgers, McKeon particularly noted Garvey's value in providing a role model for younger players. Additionally, Garvey's "box office appeal"--his impending departure from the Dodgers provoked some Girl Scouts to picket the stadium—helped San Diego increase its season ticket sales by 6,000 seats in Garvey's first year. Sports Illustrated ranked the signing as the fifteenth best free agent signing ever as of 2008.

His first season in San Diego allowed him to break the National League's record for consecutive games played, a feat that landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated as baseball's "Iron Man." (In an unusual homecoming, Garvey tied the record in his first appearance back at Dodger Stadium in Padre gold. )

It was Garvey's second season in San Diego, however, that would provide his highlight in a Padres uniform. Led by Garvey, winning his second National League Championship Series MVP award, the Padres won their first National League pennant over the Chicago Cubs in 1984. Game 4, "the best game of the series, and one of the best games in memory," provided a particularly notable effort by Garvey. His hot bat provided excellent insurance for the top of the order, including future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who drew an intentional walk that Garvey converted into one of his four crucial RBI. After supplying critical hits in the third, fifth, and seventh innings, Garvey capped off his efforts with a two-run walk-off home run off future all-time saves leader Lee Smith in the 9th inning. As he rounded third base, Garvey, who after the game would be compared by teammates to fictional baseball hero Roy Hobbs, was met by fellow Padres who later carried him off the field in celebration. Following the 7–5 Padres victory, grateful fans thronged against stadium barricades chanting Garvey's name. Garvey, about to play in his fifth World Series, called the experience "the greatest playoffs I've ever seen."

Honors
He is a member of the Irish American Hall of Fame and the Michigan State University Athletics Hall of Fame. Steve Garvey Junior High School, in Lindsay, California, is named for him. Garvey's jersey No. 6, worn when he was both a Padre and Dodger is retired by the Padres. His number was displayed at the site of his 1984 NLCS home run in right field at Qualcomm Stadium.

Post-baseball career
Garvey, a Republican who harbored political ambitions after baseball, earned the nickname "Senator" from teammates. Those aspirations diminished after the public learned embarrassing details of his personal life.

Also, starting in the mid 1980s he began the Steve Garvey celebrity Blue Marlin tournament, as well as the Steve Garvey celebrity skiing challenge. These were featured on episodes of the ESPN Classic show Cheap Seats during its four season run.

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.

Garvey spent 15 years in the Community Affairs department for the Dodgers, where he was a greeter for VIP season ticket holders and a consultant for community relations. He was fired by the team on July 8, 2011 after some very public comments he made critical of Dodger owner Frank McCourt and his involvement in a group trying to take over ownership of the team. Garvey subsequently put together a group, that also included fellow former Dodger Orel Hershiser, that became involved in the bidding process for the Dodgers when the team was later put up for sale in 2012. His group did not make it past the first round of the bidding.

Garvey, who made over $10 million in his career only to go broke afterwards, currently serves as a member of the board of the Baseball Assistance Team, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping former Major League, Minor League, and Negro League players through financial and medical hardships.

He currently resides in Los Angeles and Palm Desert, California.

Personal
Garvey, known as "Mr. Clean," carried such a record for unblemished personal behavior during his playing days that manager Tommy Lasorda once commented, "If he ever came to date my daughter, I'd lock the door and not let him out." In the mid to late-1980s, however, Garvey engaged in a series of simultaneous romantic relationships, fathering of children with multiple women that led to him being the subject of national ridicule.

At the age of 22 Garvey married Cyndy Garvey, "a prospective medical-school student, who dropped that ambition to be at Steve's side as he pursued his baseball career." They had two children, Krisha and Whitney. Their marriage lasted from 1971 until their divorce in 1983. Following a tempestuous marriage, she left Garvey for famed composer Marvin Hamlisch. (Cyndy would later claim Garvey "gave me away" to Hamlisch after a private two hour conversation. ) Garvey later became romantically involved with his secretary, Judy Ross. Hiding it from Ross, Garvey began a simultaneous affair with CNN correspondent Rebecka Mendenhall. Garvey then added a third relationship when he became involved with San Diego medical products sales representative Cheryl Ann Moulton. Garvey discovered in July 1988 that Moulton was pregnant with his child, a pregnancy Garvey subsequently contended was intentional on Moulton's part but without his consent. (It ultimately took a court order before Garvey paid child support to Moulton. ) He then proposed to Mendenhall because of what he termed her "ultimatum" in November 1988, while Moulton was several months pregnant with his child. Ross asserts that during this period—engaged to one woman and having a child with a second—Garvey then told her that he wished to be married to Ross and had broken up with Mendenhall. In January 1989, less than two weeks after nonetheless announcing his engagement to Mendenhall, Garvey became involved with a fourth woman, Candace Thomas, whom he met at a benefit for the Special Olympics. Over the next few weeks, Garvey and Thomas began a whirlwind courtship that included trips to the inauguration of President George H.W. Bush and the Super Bowl. Mendenhall, unaware that Garvey was romancing a fourth woman and believing she and the former All-Star were to be married, then discovered she, also, was pregnant with Garvey's child.

When these details became public, Garvey became the object of comedians' jokes and satirical bumper stickers as his post-baseball political ambitions were widely seen to have disappeared under the weight of the sex scandals. Garvey, in the midst of what he later termed a "midlife disaster," sued Cyndy, his ex-wife, for access to his two children. His daughters, who found his protestations of affection insincere, testified in court that they did not love their father and did not wish to see him. (Cyndy was briefly jailed for her refusal to allow Garvey access to the girls. ) Under the shadow of multiple lawsuits and damage to his reputation, Garvey lost business opportunities, declared himself broke, and found himself paying half his monthly television earnings in child support. He and Candace Thomas married in 1989. That same year Cyndy Garvey published a tell-all book in which she revealed the details of her marriage with Steve.

In the fall of 2012, Garvey underwent an operation to treat prostate cancer, and continues to raise awareness for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.