TAKING A SWING AT THE FUTURE : Garvey Ponders Options

Every morning at 6:30, Steve Garvey rolls out of bed. Every morning at 7:15, he’s running the stadium stairs. Every morning at 7:30, he’s sprinting in left field. Every morning at 7:45, he’s riding a stationary bike. Every morning at 8, he’s skipping rope. Every morning at 9, the rest of his teammates show up.

“The single greatest fear I have is not being prepared,” he said.

He is 38, and his million-dollar San Diego Padre contract runs out in October. The Padres say privately that this is his last hurrah. What does Steve Garvey say?

“Two more years . . . maybe three.”

He does not plan to retire after this season, but he did give it plenty of thought. There was a day in Chicago last summer, when he was slumping so badly he couldn’t have hit a slow-pitched watermelon, that he hinted about retiring. But then he got hot. He hit some home runs and tipped his cap a bunch of times, and he realized what a heck of a good time he was having.

He mulled it over this winter, and then he decided.

“Two more years . . . maybe three.”

Here was General Manager Jack McKeon’s response:

“Good . . . that’s nice. . . . He needs to stay in the limelight until election year, right?”

McKeon giggled.

It may not be so funny later, depending on what happens. If Garvey has a great year, the Padres might re-sign him. But if he has a poor year, they can just let him go. They might even trade him. Two sources who have had negotiations with the Padre front office and one inside the organization said the Padres have discussed trading him. Where? He has a no-trade clause in his contract, and although he won’t say it, his friends say there’s only one place he would agree to go.

Home.

Back to the Dodgers.

When rumors of a Padre-Dodger trade started this winter, Garvey was asked to comment.

“It’s not out of the realm,” he said, though he said he knew nothing of a deal. “Let’s just say it would be a symmetrical move.”

Ballard Smith, the Padre president, said he has not discussed trading Garvey. The rumors started after Bob Horner, a free agent, began negotiating with San Diego. Horner asked the Padres where they were going to put him, and Smith said something about trading Garvey, which would have made room at first base. The Padres did not sign Horner, however.

Al Campanis, the Dodger general manager, also said he had not discussed a trade for Garvey. He did say it would happen only if the Padres ate a large sum of his contract.

Fred Claire, the Dodgers’ executive vice president, offered yet another denial, saying the Dodgers have more than their share of first basemen. But Claire also said, “I wouldn’t place anything out of the realm of possibility, because who knows what the future might bring or what circumstances might occur?”

Still, Garvey will be a free agent next fall, and he’s just not ready to quit. He also thought it was great when Pete Rose got to finish his career where he started--in Cincinnati.

“Let’s say (at the end of this season), for instance, the Padres said, ‘Garv, you’ve had a pretty good year, but we’re just going to go with younger players,’ ” Garvey said this week. “So that means I’m a free agent. And what do you think would be the ultimate thing that could happen, that would be great for baseball?”

Going back to the Dodgers?

Garvey would not comment further.

In yet another grueling off-season, Garvey put out another book, constructed his own hitting video and got to play tennis with Martina Navratilova. Every morning, he got up at 6, lifted weights, ran on the beach and did aerobics. He received the “Good Guy Award” from the New York sportswriters, began producing a new TV sports series, taped three specials on ESPN, delivered motivational speeches, tried to interest investors in buying the Padres--angering the team owner, Joan Kroc--and played father to his two daughters.

Recently, he went to Lindsay, Calif., so he could help celebrate the 10th anniversary of Steve Garvey Junior High School. There was a pep rally, and then the students settled down to a quiet question-and-answer session with Garvey. He was thoroughly entertaining. They love him there.

He has planned thoroughly for retirement. Back in 1974--just after his MVP season--he went to work for Pepsi-Cola with the single purpose of learning how to run a company. He learned everything you would ever want to know about Pepsi--how to make it, bottle it, sell it and deliver it. That’s right, for about a week, he went out in a truck and lugged boxes of soda in and out of grocery stores.

Now, 13 years later, he has his own company, Garvey Marketing Group, and there is the continuing lure of politics.

Recently, he was asked, “What’s the state of Steve Garvey, 1987?” And he answered, “You mean you want me to give my State of the Diamond Address? Sure. This is a very interesting period in my life. It’s the late summer of one career, and the spring of others. It’s very challenging to try to get the most out of all these opportunities.”

And opportunities are knocking.

He Could Be a Producer

ESPN isn’t exactly Hollywood, but at least it’s a good start. His celebrity tennis classic was on cable television, as were his fishing tournament and his ski tournament. He was host of all three.

His newest venture is producing and acting as host of a syndicated sports series that centers on the turning points in successful athletes’ lives. He already has filmed the first episode at Dodger Stadium, where he recreated his own breakthrough.

“For me, it was the second game of a doubleheader in 1973,” he says. “July 23. I’d gone from sitting on the bench and being the last pinch-hitter to being the best pinch-hitter in the league. In the first game of the doubleheader, I pinch-hit against Freddy Norman of Cincinnati.

“But then Walt Alston came up to me in between games and said, ‘You’d like to start at first?’ I said, ‘I’d love to.’ And I started that game and for the next week, I was very successful. And I started all but two games the rest of the year. That was my turning point.”

He Could Be a Politician

Garvey is still pondering a political career. And no one has won friends and influenced people as he has. In New York, the sportswriters organization gave him the “Good Guy Award.”

He has won similar awards from sportswriters in Los Angeles and Kansas City, and the San Diego writers have just voted him their winner.

Now, what’s a “good guy”? An example: In 1984, the entire Padre team had revolted against a sportswriter covering the team--Barry Bloom of the San Diego Tribune. Bloom had criticized the team for a beanball war in Atlanta, and the players took a vote on whether to keep talking to him.

Bloom lost, 24-1.

Garvey’s the only one who voted in Bloom’s favor. Later, Garvey took Bloom out to dinner so he could explain what the team had done.

And Garvey’s a good guy to anyone. In restaurants, he’s always interrupted by fans, but he always lays down his fork and talks nonetheless.

“When nobody’s with me, it’s easy,” Garvey said. “But when somebody’s with me, it’s much more difficult because I really respect the other person’s privacy and feel they should have that--at least through the meal.

“So I’ll say something to the effect of, ‘If you excuse us, we’ll finish, and when we’re done, I’d love to talk to you.’ Ninety-nine percent of the time, people understand. They just don’t want to lose the opportunity to say something or talk to you.

“See, it’s just like autographs. I’ve tried to monitor this through the years, and I’ve found it (an autograph) doesn’t last very long. It may last 48 hours. It’s lost; it’s torn. But it’s the personal interaction that’s important.”

Here in Yuma, the fans mob him. One elderly woman wanted his autograph but didn’t have a piece of paper. He said to her: “I think I have something better for you.”

He kissed her.

If he were a politician, Garvey wouldn’t be able to kiss off the issues. So recently, he has taken a strong stance against drugs. He agreed with Commissioner Peter Ueberroth’s decision to ban LaMarr Hoyt, a Padre pitcher, for a year. Hoyt had been caught attempting to cross the border with illegal pills. Garvey said all players involved with drugs should have to sit out a year.

Garvey also believes that Hoyt ought to undergo drug rehabilitation--paid for by baseball. He thinks baseball ought to force Hoyt and any other player banned for a year to do some type of work-study program while he’s out of baseball in which he can earn money in a “low-anxiety” situation.

“To have a guy go 23 days for rehabilitation and come out and have the doctors say, ‘Hey, he’s ready to go back into his profession’--I’ve never seen it work. Those doctors know their field very well, but they don’t know the pressures of day-in and day-out professional sports. . . .

“It takes a stable person to do it. Now LaMarr Hoyt will be forced to take a year off. So he may be an example. . . . We’ll see.”

He Could Be an Executive

Buying the Padres is not out of the question, especially if he doesn’t end up with the Dodgers. He is continuing to look for investors. But he refuses to discuss it because Kroc became angry with him this winter when he talked openly about the venture.

Kroc wants to keep it low-key, so he is obliging.

“We’ll try to do it in a quiet manner,” he said. “But it (buying the team) could be a great boon for the organization and the city. We could renew a lot of enthusiasm in town.”

If the sale worked out, he probably would become team president. And he has some ideas about what he would do.

For instance, the owners are in the process of reducing salaries in baseball, but Garvey thinks he could create a happy medium by emphasizing incentive clauses. He might sign a player to a lower base salary, but he figures he could make the player happy by including bonus clauses such as making the all-star team and playing a certain number of games.

He Could Be an Author

He says he wants to write a book a year. He already has published an autobiography, and he just finished an instructional hitting book and video. Now he’s thinking about writing a book on how to discipline yourself.

He’s also planning another book, called “Steve Garvey’s Fan Mail.” It would show the strange kind of letters a famous ballplayer gets.

For instance, he recently received this letter from a fourth-grade boy:

Dear Steve,

I’m a big fan of yours and the Padres. I really admire you. I think you’d make a great owner. I thought I’d send this dollar along to help you buy the club .

Sincerely . . .

He Could Be a Coach

Coaching was Garvey’s ambition when he attended Michigan State. When he retires, he’d like to work with younger players in spring training.

He helped Steve Sax, the Dodger second baseman, for instance. When Garvey played with Sax, Sax didn’t have as many problems throwing the ball accurately. Garvey would talk to him, give him confidence.

But Garvey left for San Diego in 1983, and Sax kept throwing wildly.

“I couldn’t be there next to him on a daily basis to keep reinforcing,” Garvey said. “That’s what you had to do in that situation, because it was all psychological.

“It was very hurtful for me, because--liking Stevie and thinking of him as a younger brother, so to speak--and then not being able to help him. . . .

“In the 1983 All-Star game, he threw one away, and NBC had a film clip of him doing it during the season ready to go. That was cruel, heartless. I turned the TV off. I just left. . . . I knew I could have helped him.”

Garvey also feels for Greg Brock, who never was able to take Garvey’s place and who was traded this winter to Milwaukee.

“Nobody really understood except me what he was going through,” Garvey said. “I knew the pressures that were on him and the demands. It wasn’t fair. No human being should have to go through that. It’s tough enough winning the job and playing the position without having to fill the shoes of somebody who had the career that I had there.”

With the Padres, he is taking a special interest in Kevin Mitchell, who will be playing third base this year for the first time in the major leagues, and rookie Joey Cora, who may start at second base.

“If Joey does get in there, he’ll need help on both sides (from Garvey and shortstop Garry Templeton), and Mitch will need help, too. He’ll need me to dig balls out of the dirt.”

He Could Be a Dodger

For this to happen, a certain scenario would be necessary. First, the Dodgers would have to struggle. Their first basemen--Franklin Stubbs, Len Matuszek, Mike Marshall and Pedro Guerrero--would have to struggle. If Garvey wanted to return as a free agent, he would have to accept less money, not the $1.25 million he gets now.

The Dodgers harbor no hard feelings toward Garvey, although his departure in 1983 was emotional. Remember the Girl Scouts picketing the Dodger offices and saying, “Please Sign Steve”? Remember the subsequent “Dodgers Blue It” bumper stickers?

Since that time, Garvey has grown even closer with Peter O’Malley, the team president. Every Christmas, they run into each other at a ski lodge where they both regularly take vacations.

“This year, we had a couple of friendly discussions. I enjoyed seeing him,” Garvey said. “It was probably the first time time we spent more than a brief encounter. I’ve probably spent more time recently with him than I did when I was playing there. Because that was his style of ownership. Rarely seen, but his door always open. You never saw him in the clubhouse, except for a victory celebration.”

Claire said of Garvey: “Steve’s relationship with the Dodgers has always been a good, solid relationship. He has a lot of friends in this organization because of all the good work he’s done for the Dodgers and for baseball. In terms of hard feelings, there isn’t any of that that exists whatsoever as far as I know about.”

Garvey makes it clear that he is content in San Diego. Talk of his departure depends a lot on how the Padres feel.

“I’m very happy here,” he said. “We’re talking about (leaving) if they don’t want me. And it wouldn’t necessarily be, ‘I’ve got to make $1.3 million to stay here,’ either. I’m realistic, and I know the situation.

“I feel quite sure I’m Larry’s (Bowa, the Padre manager) first baseman. I’m the one who controls how much I play--with my bat. After that, it depends on the progress of the youth, and the team itself. If the team has a good year, it enhances (his returning) more. If the team doesn’t, and I have a good year, well, where am I, really?

“But you need a balance. We have only three guys over 10 years of experience (himself, Templeton and reliever Goose Gossage).”

If the Padres decide they don’t want him for 1988, Garvey has three avenues to pursue: returning to the Dodgers, buying the Padres and playing for them again, or signing with another team.

In the meantime, he says he’ll never subject himself to a tryout--as Graig Nettles is with the Atlanta Braves.

“No, there are some things you can count on that I will not do, and that’s one of them,” Garvey said. “I won’t go somewhere to try out. And that’s no offense to Graig. He just wants to play baseball any way he can. I’ve just played for so long, and it’s been for only two teams. Even though I love the game, if that (going to a team like the Braves) was the next step, it would have to be somebody who really wants me.”

So, just to make sure he’s wanted, he’s out of bed every morning at 6:30.

“I’ve got to get up and work,” he says. “I’ve got to.”