Steve Garvey

I've learned a lot recently about Steve Garvey from writing this blog. Yesterday I wondered if any former major leaguers had been batboys. Rod from Padrographs pointed out that Garvey had been a batboy for the LA Dodgers. In fact, he even wrote a book called My Bat Boy Days!

That's the second time in a month a commenter had an interesting tidbit about Garvey. Last month, GCRL (who in part named his blog after Garvey) wrote about some great habits Garvey has that players today could certainly learn from: "Garvey would often bunt for a hit to try to break out of a slump. He also had some sort of regimen for hitting the ball to the opposite field."

As a fan who started following baseball in 1986, I didn't realize how big a star Garvey was. In my experience he was a faded veteran on the Padres who only made the news for paternity suits (which embarrassed the people who named a junior high school after him). Kind of obscured his status as one of the biggest stars of the late 1970s.

What other trivia did I not know about him besides having been a batboy?

He now works as a greeter for LA Dodgers VIP season ticket holders. Some retirees become greeters at WalMart - he's got basically the same job with the Dodgers.

He acted on a bunch of TV shows and movies in the mid-nineties. His first credit is as "Dr. Corey" in a 1993 episode of Baywatch.

His daughter Whitney's godfather is Bryant Gumbel.

His son Ryan is a top high school baseball prospect.

He lines up his colognes by the amount unused.