Convention Notebook : Garvey Goes to Bat for Bush, Tags Political First Base

Steve Garvey has made it to several World Series, but this is his first political convention.

“I always had this other thing to do in the summer,” Garvey said with a wink. “Now I don’t plan to miss another Republican convention.”

For 18 years, of course, Garvey was a major league first baseman, mostly with the Dodgers. When he wound up his career with the San Diego Padres last year, he had 2,599 hits, including 270 home runs, and had played in 1,207 consecutive games--a National League record.

Now he will help raise money for a project to aid another first baseman, Vice President George Bush (who played at Yale).

Garvey is a co-chairman of the Committee for the Presidency, which will raise and spend money independently of the Bush campaign in California.

“We hear that Bush plans to spend about $4 million on paid media (ads) in California, and that just isn’t enough,” said Fred Karger, a California consultant helping Garvey. “We hope to add another $2 million, at least, to that effort.”

The exposure won’t hurt the 39-year-old Garvey’s hope of eventually running for office himself. Although he insists he has no timetable for that, many political professionals believe he may run for the U.S. Senate in 1992.

As for Bush, Garvey said he envied him his political career and allowed as how Bush probably envies his baseball career.

“But you know,” Garvey said, “Bush was too tall to be a major league hitter. His strike zone is too big.”

As he tried to plant the seeds of a possible career change, Garvey wandered the periphery of the convention hall, receiving perhaps less recognition than he was once used to.

“Hey, you’re . . .” one delegate said, but never actually found the name as he passed Garvey on his way into the Superdome.

“Could I get your . . . ?”

Garvey, brightening, didn’t wait for him to finish the sentence.

“Sure. Gotta pen?”

New Orleans, like New York, is a hustling town.

A group of journalists heading to dinner in one of the city’s many great restaurants found themselves so many that they filled two cabs. Traveling in convoy, they followed the same path to the same restaurant at the same time--where the meter in the first cab showed $4.10 and the fare in the second read $5.70.

“It’s hard to keep these meters calibrated,” the driver of the second cab said laconically.

New Orleans is also a city whose natives, although proud of their hometown’s special qualities, make no secret of the fact that a high rate of street crime and violence make it a place where the unwary can come to grief. At more than a few of the best restaurants, armed guards as well as doormen greet customers at the curb.

And, tucked among the guidebooks extolling the sights in the French Quarter, the Garden District and Faubourg Marigny are parenthetical warnings to watch out. The wooded vastness of Audubon Park is an urban treasure, one guide warns--”for day time strolls.”

Another concludes a paean to the glories of New Orleans’ architecturally fascinating above-ground cemeteries by warning that “visitors should be careful about walking into cemeteries alone.”

Although his surname was once synonymous with Yankee in these parts, Iran-Contra defendant and former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North is finding a following here.

The Oliver North Youth Corps is mustering support--and donations--this week. Sales of a videotape of North’s congressional testimony, titled “Fight for Freedom,” are doing OK, and the best-seller among all the Bush-plus-almost everyone election buttons is the one pairing Bush with North. Said a Democratic-minded vendeuse with the North Carolina souvenir seller: “Kinda scary, isn’t it?”

A national political convention always has a theme--usually, a jaunty slogan.

And while the themes are quickly forgotten after the conventions, they usually are kept in mind at least until the event begins.

But the 1988 GOP convention may be an exception: on Monday, an hour before the opening gavel, convention manager Fred Malek told reporters: “The theme for this convention is ‘Experienced Leadership for a Changing World.’ Or, excuse me--’Experienced Leadership for a Better America.’ ”