Wednesday, October 22, 2014

no. 341 - steve garvey


Who is the man: Steve Garvey played in 34 games for the Dodgers in 1970. He spent most of the year at Triple A Spokane, tearing up the Pacific Coast League.

Can ya dig it: Check out the black batting glove he's wearing on his glove hand. Also, "third base" does not compute.

Right on: Rookie card! Probably the biggest one in the set.

You see this cat Garvey is a bad mother: Garvey has done a lot of bad things, if you know what I mean, but I still think it's very cool that he won the start in the 1974 All-Star Game strictly on write-in votes. And then won MVP honors in the game.

Shut your mouth: Don Sutton's quote to writer Thomas Boswell: "Reggie Smith is the leader of this team, not Steve Garvey" led to a famous locker room dust-up between Sutton and Garvey and absolutely horrified a 12-year-old night owl.

No one understands him but his woman: Garvey's famous ex-wife, Cyndy Garvey, claimed in her book "The Secret Life of Cyndy Garvey" that she didn't know about her husband's affairs until stumbling across a calendar kept by Steve's secretary. Later, during interviews to promote the book she said, "If Ted Bundy is a 10, Steve's a 7."


(A word about the back): I didn't see this card until the late '70s when Garvey was a well-established all-star. Seeing teeny tiny stats and a .269 batting average made me think I was looking at a completely different ballplayer. It didn't help that this card lists him as a third baseman.

2 comments:

  1. One of the most prized cards of my youth.

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  2. In the late 70's, I heard the play-by-play men say that he was originally a third baseman, but he couldn't throw across the infield very well. They made this comment after he threw wild to the third baseman during a game.

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