Garvey Vows He Will Be Back Next Season

For Steve Garvey, the National League’s all-time ironman, the disabled list is an inappropriate place to end his illustrious career.

The 38-year-old San Diego Padres first baseman vows to return next spring from the surgery he underwent May 30 to repair a tendon in his left shoulder.

“One more season,” a confident Garvey said while in New York Aug. 11 to promote his new video ‘Steve Garvey’s Hitting System’. “I know I can be a benefit to some team next year.”

Padres President Chub Feeney has said his club is committed to youth and will not meet Garvey’s huge salary demands.

“I was surprised at the Padres’ timing,” said Garvey, who will thus become a free agent after the season. “But now they’ve taken a stance. The shoulder feels fine. I can’t swing a bat yet, but I’m working out daily. I know I can help some team that needs a veteran ballplayer to help the younger players.”

Like the Los Angles Dodgers, for instance?

“That’s definitely an option,” said Garvey, who won the NL MVP Award as a Dodger in 1974. “But I’m not going to worry about that until after the season.”

Garvey shakes his head and says, “No,” when asked if he could finish his career in uncharacteristic fashion, as Reggie Jackson is doing with the Oakland Athletics.

Retiring now would do just that to Garvey. He was batting .211, with one home run and nine RBI in 27 games before being disabled on May 26.

But the Garvey who played in 1,207 consecutive games, went 193 straight games without an error, accumulated a lifetime batting average a shade under .300 and averaged .300 in All-Star, playoff and World Series play, is determined to exit the game the way he has played -- with class.

While his baseball career is on hold, Garvey is making strides off the diamond. His Garvey Marketing Group, established 2 1/2 years ago, markets athletes for endorsements and public appearances. His autobiography, “Garvey,” was published earlier this year. And now a video on batting in which he takes great pride.

“We used three cameras to show different angles of hitting,” Garvey said. “If one looks at all the videos on hitting, I think they’d have to say that this is the best.”

Quality has always been important to Garvey, especially when he is the product being shopped.

“A friend of mine who’s a sportswriter in St. Petersburg came up to me one day and said he and his wife thought I’d make a good politician,” Garvey said. “Some other writers picked up on it and created a snowball effect.”

But Garvey admits public office is “a definite option.” U.S. Senate talk is premature but Garvey said he would only run for a national office.

“I think one reason athletes do well when running for public office,” Garvey said, “is because people see athletes involved in heroism on a regular basis. When a decision has to be made, they want to have confidence in the individual.”

Garvey has had many heroic baseball moments, but none as thrilling as belting a dramatic ninth-inning two-run homer in Game Four of the National League Championship Series to keep the Padres on the road to the 1985 World Series.

“That’s one of the highlights of my career,” said Garvey, who signed with San Diego as a free agent in December, 1982. “It accomplished what I set out to do when I signed with the Padres -- it helped them win for the very first time.’

The Dodgers’ 1981 World Series victory, and donning the major league uniform for the first time in early September, 1969, are other thrills, but when all is done, the potential Hall of Famer hopes his mark as a role model endures over all.

“I’d like my career to be remembered as one which set a standard for what a baseball player can accomplish on an off the field,” he said.