Garvey Proves to Be Human, but It’s Not a Laughing Matter

Is it just me, or does it seem that what Steve Garvey is encountering hereabouts is a cross between the mentalities of National Enquirer and David Letterman?

Is this Dallas, the slop opera, or San Diego, America’s Finest City?

Unless you have spent the past couple of days hiking in the back country, you know that the former Padre first baseman is in a pickle the likes of which he never encountered on the basepaths. He has, by his own admission, been accused by one woman of fathering her child and by another of impregnating her. All of this is complicated by the fact that he was married last weekend . . . to yet another woman.

This is not a situation to brighten the day of any of the persons involved.

There will be no humor here. The town is rampant now with Steve Garvey jokes. All are ribald or downright tasteless, the type of stuff that makes morning disc jockeys drool into their coffee.

Let’s try to take a look at a bigger picture with a bit more perspective.

Steve Garvey is not the Wade Boggs of San Diego.

This was not a married ballplayer dragging equally married teammates into a quagmire of controversy after openly consorting with a mistress while on the road.

Steve Garvey is not the Gary Hart of San Diego.

This was not a married politician running for president of the United States while engaging in a clandestine encounter in a Washington D.C., townhouse.

However, as I see it, Steve Garvey is not the Steve Garvey of San Diego either. He has become is a mere mortal . . . a flesh-and-blood human being. If you are thinking that the Garvey image was too good to be true, maybe it was. Images can be mirages.

Those who sympathize with the women involved, and it is hard not to, might argue that Garvey was being a typically opportunistic male.

I hope this in no way sounds like an excuse for Garvey, because my calling in life is not to assess transgressions, but these were a single people behaving as single men and single women are sometimes known to behave.

In fact, I would hate to try to estimate how many single men and single women were involved in just such activities within the past few hours, probably after exchanging a Steve Garvey joke or two. They are either right or wrong according to individual convictions.

The problem here is that the public can become a monster in such situations. No prey is quite so tempting as an invulnerable target suddenly vulnerable.

This, after all, was Mr. Clean.

Only last week, in fact, a couple of family friends were extolling the virtues of Steve Garvey. They had met him at the Pro-Am at the Torrey Pines golf tournament and found him almost unbelievably cordial as he signed autographs and posed for pictures in the middle of his round of golf.

This was a man headed for the Hall of Fame and political office, and it was a toss of a coin which came first. Though none of the revelations will have one iota of an impact on his inevitable election to the Hall of Fame, it is much too premature to guess what influence they might have politically. Again, that’s not my department.

The point, I suppose, is that this brouhaha has escalated as it has because Steve Garvey’s situation is so much at odds with Steve Garvey’s image.

Let’s back up to the concept that Garvey is, indeed, a human being rather than a larger-than-life individual so impeccable in character that he should have played baseball in a robe and halo. I bet he has occasionally had a drink stronger than milk and maybe even uttered an expletive stronger than darn (or even damn).

From what I have heard the past couple of days, it almost seems that this man would not have been subjected to as much ridicule or sensationalism if he had peddled cocaine at a grade school.

People, for some reason, really think this is funny.

It is hardly humorous to the people involved.

Obviously, consensual relationships existed between Garvey and the women in question, one of whom was his fiancee at one time. It is not for anyone to attempt to speculate about who was or was not responsible for what during these liaisons . . . or who did or did not make private promises. Those points seem moot anyhow.

What Garvey has stressed is that he will accept whatever responsibility is his, presumably financially and otherwise. Potentially, this could stir more controversy, because the parties involved do not always agree on exactly what is an acceptable discharge of responsibility.

Meanwhile, a number of lives are being unfairly scrutinized, Garvey’s not necessarily foremost among them.

This is no way for the new Mr. and Mrs. Steve Garvey to start a life together. Candace Thomas, a Palos Verdes interior decorator, has been thrust into this ugly spotlight less than a week after becoming Mrs. Garvey.

This is no way for the two former companions to start the lives they are starting. An unnamed San Diego women has given birth to a baby she says is Garvey’s and Rebecca Mendenhall, the former fiancee, is carrying a baby she says is his.

There is no way this whole situation should be treated either with bar room levity or media sensationalism. These are lives that have been touched . . . and hurt . . . by human beings being human.