Playboy Interview: Steve Garvey

The woman in the polyester red polka-dot dress stopped eating her apple pie. Her fork dropped, her mouth hung open and she nudged her womanfriend next to her. In moments the whole place had turned into a real-life remake of the E. F. Hutton commercial. A second of silence and then the buzzing began. In the corner, three men in pinstriped suits stared. Across from them, a boy, probably playing hooky from school, waved. Steve and Cyndy Garvey walked through the room unfazed. Steve sat down at the table and, life being a training table, ordered steak. Cyndy, the adventurous one in the family, ordered a fancy chicken dish.

He is the star first baseman of the Los Angeles Dodgers, his wife a popular local-TV-show hostess. And they look frighteningly like human versions of the Ken and Barbie dolls, a comparison they once embraced and thought "cute." They look happy together. You'd never know they were the same couple written about in the article "Trouble in Paradise," by journalist Pat Jordan, which appeared in the August 3, 1980, issue of Inside Sports magazine. It was that article that they claim falsely reported Cyndy's comments about her marriage and her sex life with Steve, and that made headlines on sports pages and in gossip magazines for months. The Garveys have since filed an $11,200,000 suit for libel, invasion of privacy and breach of contract against Newsweek, Inc.

At home, their two daughters, Krisha, six, and Whitney, four, are home from Catholic school, waiting to be taken to their ice-skating lessons. Yesterday it was gymnastics. The day before it was swimming. Tomorrow it will be ballet. The house sits on a hill overlooking a manmade lake in an exclusive development called Calabasas Park. It is at least a $250,000 home, with a red Spanish-tile roof, a complex security system, a gardener and a pool man. Inside, like the couple, the house is perfectly turned out. Cyndy walks upstairs to change into warm-ups for the skating rink. Steve, aware of his family duties, calls the girls over to brush their hair. He enjoys mothering.

Obviously, it is not Garvey's main role in life. Down at Chavez Ravine, he is known as Mr. Consistency. As of the end of the 1980 season, he had played in 835 consecutive games at Dodger Stadium and away. He was the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1974, the Most Valuable Player for the All-Star Games in 1974 and 1978. In 1978, he was the M.V.P. for the play-offs. He received more than 1,000,000 write-in voles in the 1974 All-Star Game, the highest such tally ever. This season, he received the 11th Roberto Clemente award for sportsmanship, character and humanitarianism.

He is 32 years old and makes about $330,000 a year, a salary he believes doesn't even rank in the top 75 in baseball--a figure he matches with outside ventures. In 1982, he will have honored his six-year contract with the Dodgers and will be eligible to become a free agent if the team doesn't come up with the money he feels he's worth. What is he worth? He says he may be a millionaire after taxis when he retires around 1986.

That's a long way from a crewcut, freckle-faced, pudgy little boy who lugged bats for Gil Hodges of the old Brooklyn Dodgers and rode shotgun for his daddy, a bus driver for the Dodgers during spring training. Garvey grew up in Tampa, Florida, a sprawling middle-class community with lots of grapefruit and orange trees. His mother was an executive secretary. He received enough college offers to be able to choose Michigan. State in order to play both baseball and football. He started in eight or nine games in 1967 for Duffy Dougherty and once tackled O. J. Simpson. But baseball was his game and he signed with the Dodgers in his sophomore year as a fourth-round draft pick. There were no telephones ringing or flashbulbs popping. He read about his selection in the newspaper.

It was just about that time that he met Cyndy in a dormitory food line at school. She was a food server wearing a hair net. They became sweethearts in 1971 and had a big Catholic wedding.

Garvey was up and down during his first couple of seasons with the Dodgers' farm teams. But he was in good company in the minor leagues: He had Tommy Lasorda for a coach and Ron Cey and Bill Buckner for teammates. Known as a "scatter arm," Garvey was held back by his wild throws from third base. (That was because of a shoulder separation from his football-playing days.) In June 1973, Walter Alston was managing the struggling Dodgers and decided to move young Garvey to first base. It worked; by 1974, Garvey was on his way to becoming a baseball star.

From the start, Garvey struck his fans and teammates alike as too good to be true. He was religious, patriotic, charming and always well groomed. He was so nice that once some of his teammates complained to the press that he was a phony and didn't have any friends on the team. The tension grew and three seasons ago it exploded in a clubhouse fight between Garvey and Don Sutton. Garvey still won't talk about the incident other than to say he was protecting the honor of his wife. But along with his detractors, Garvey has also attracted a following that dotes on him and regards him as the sort of person every American mother, father and wife wish their sons and husbands would be. Both Steve and Cyndy admit there has been a strain placed on their marriage because of the article in Inside Sports and the impending trial. But their intense ambition, among other things, has obviously kept them together. He looks to the United States Senate immediately following baseball. She looks to becoming another Barbara Walters.

As Garvey scoffed at the idea of a divorce and prepared for the 1981 season, he agreed to answer questions about his life at Dodger Stadium and away. Playboy sent Samantha Stevenson to talk with the baseball idol. Stevenson is a veteran of two other "Playboy Interviews," with Pete Rose and Terry Bradshaw. She reports:

"The first time I ever saw the Garveys was in an elevator at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. It was after the 1979 play-off games and Steve and Cyndy were rushing to make the bus outside the building. There were a few other players and their wives squeezed into the elevator and I'll never forget the stark difference between them and the Garveys. The Garveys were carrying Louis Vuitton luggage and looked ready for a photo session.

"The first morning I went to Steve's house in Calabasas to begin the interview, I heard Cyndy's program on TV through the door. When I knocked, Steve answered. He had been watching her nine-A.M. show and told me he tried to catch it whenever he was home--which wasn't often, I found out, either during the season or in the off season.

"Yes, I found him to be as nice as everyone has written. He believes in himself and is sincere and reverent about the all-American way of life. He is a grown-up man who plays a kids' game and has never forgotten his manners.

"He has a trophy room in the house, a room he calls his gallery. It is filled with plaques and balls and gold gloves and silver trophies and magazine cover stories--all magnificently framed and mounted. LeRoy Neiman originals hang on the walls. It makes you feel as if you had walked into the Steve Garvey Hall of Fame.

"Through the living room and into the den there is a picture room. Dozens of photos of Steve Garvey and celebrities of every make, all framed in the same wood. Sitting alone on a countertop is a photo of Cyndy in a passionate embrace with Burt Reynolds.

"That first day, Cyndy came home early to meet me and we all went to lunch. She told me that she felt threatened when she drove up in her driveway and saw my car. She said she felt there was an intruder in her home and she told me that she may never trust another journalist again after the Inside Sports article.

"I asked her why she had been so open with the author if she hadn't wanted to see her comments in print. She said that most of the things in the article she'd wanted to get off her chest, and most of the feelings were true but the majority of the quotes were taken out of context and distorted. Cyndy was clearly the dominant member of the family throughout the lunch. I found her to be wide-open to the point of once again being vulnerable to exposing her intimate feelings.

"During my sessions with Steve, there was a distinct indication that Garvey is no longer just Steve Garvey the baseball player. It is Steve Garvey and Cyndy Garvey, a packaged product. I asked Cyndy to sit in on an interview session to get some of her opinions. She liked the idea but couldn't make up her mind to participate. Finally, after going public with my offer by discussing it on her talk show with her co-host, Regis Philbin, she began to demand editorial guarantees that Playboy doesn't give its full-fledged interview subjects, and so negotiations foundered. Still. I thought it was a shame she didn't take the opportunity to speak up. She is clearly Steve Garvey's not-quite-flip side.

"The interview with Steve, however, goes a long way toward confirming what many suspected--and many more doubted: that there are such things as red-blooded all-American sports heroes left; and that as we move into the Reagan age, it can be interesting to listen to a young man's old-fashioned creed."

[Q] Playboy: You've maintained an almost flawless image of the all-American baseball player--

[A] Garvey: I don't use the word image. Everybody else talks about image. I use the word consciousness, consciousness of who I am.

[Q] Playboy: Well, in your consciousness of who you are, do reporters generally ask you if you really live up to your all-American image?

[A] Garvey: Oh, sure. I've had people start a conversation or an interview by asking, "Are you really that good? Are you really the all-American boy?" No groundwork or anything first. And what I've said to myself is, That's rude. They should ask preliminary questions that would build up to the reasons I've been classified as the all-American boy and Mr. Perfect. What can I say? A lot of times I just say, "Well, I'd rather be the all-American boy than the all-Communist boy," or try to make light of it.

[Q] Playboy: So, Steve, are you really that good?

[A] Garvey: [Laughing] I'm ambitious. And I'm an overachiever. That kind of falls into the area of ambition. Ambition is, I think, an ardent desire for money, fame, power. It used to be fashionable to be ambitious. Remember when people used to say, "He's an ambitious young man"? Sure. Now you say he's ambitious and people are a little leery, because they feel that he might try to use them or step over them. But what would this country be like if you didn't have ambitious people? Ambitious people arc going to keep striving to attain new goals. And each place they stop at, they're going to make it better.

[Q] Playboy: Your all-American image was shaken by an article in Inside Sports that led you and Cyndy to sue Newsweek, Inc. It made you baseball's most famous couple because of Cyndy's allegedly disparaging description of your sex life. Any comments?

[A] Garvey: It's tough for me to comment. It's still in litigation and will be when this interview comes out. And, really, I don't want you to allude to Inside Sports and the situation. It's really tough. Even any reference to it at all, I can't really comment on it.

[Q] Playboy: All right, but without commenting on the contents of the article, what about the rumors that you and Cyndy are supposed to be divorcing as a result of the article?

[A] Garvey: [Laughs] There are odds all over the place of us getting a divorce. I tell people. "Don't bet on it, because you're going to lose."

[Q] Playboy: Does that kind of rumor upset you?

[A] Garvey: Yes. People don't understand. Their perception of Steve and Cyndy Garvey has been a plastic connotation. We're just like any other people: the same problems, raising children, careers, living life, trying to get as much out of it as possible, but having certain times where there are voids, separations. I'm playing somewhere, Cyndy is here. They'll read that we're in different cities and say we're permanently separated. So, hopefully, by the time I'm done with this interview, people will have a better idea about Steve Garvey, about Cyndy Garvey's input, about a professional person who's in the entertainment business and about the humanity of it.

[Q] Playboy: Did you have the feeling that perhaps your private fortress, your home life, had come under attack because of the article?

[A] Garvey: Well, I know my wife better than anybody--except maybe her mother and father--and I feel the fortress was undermined. But my ego was never deflated. I know who I am and what kind of husband and father I am. I would rather have Cyndy be honest than guarded and a little deceiving. But, like I said before, the fortress was undermined, there were bits and pieces and whole statements that weren't in the article....

[Q] Playboy: It was perfect soap-opera material. Why were people surprised that you reacted so strongly--by enjoining the publication and starting a lawsuit?

[A] Garvey: We're supposed to be catatonic, really. We're supposed to just float through and never react to anything. Well, you're dealing with people who do have emotions. I am an easygoing, basically soft-spoken person and will put up with a certain amount of ignorance and disrespect to a point where it affects my family or myself. But it takes a lot really to rile me up.

[Q] Playboy: And Cyndy reacts more strongly?

[A] Garvey: Yeah, she's a little more volatile. She's got a temper to her. But she's also got spirit, and she stands up for those things she believes in. She's also the type of person who can walk into a room and people will focus their attention on her. She can control the atmosphere of a room of people with her presence.

[Q] Playboy: We'll get back to you and Cyndy, but let's move on to a topic you find easier to talk about--baseball. This interview won't be out until after spring training; is it a part of your life you actively look forward to?

[A] Garvey: Spring training is like a cat with nine lives; a baseball player has X number of lives and each spring is the birth of a new life. You're born on March first and that life dies with the end of the season and your epitaph is your statistics for that season. So far, there've been ten lives to Steve Garvey's professional career. They accumulate. I look forward to the next one.

[Q] Playboy: Are your goals already set for this year?

[A] Garvey: I have basic goals every year and they've been the same since I've been in a starting position with the Dodgers: 300, 200, 100--a .300 average, 200 hits, 100 R.B.I.s. I also want to play every day and to hit about 30 home runs. The most important is playing every day. The single most important thing.

[Q] Playboy: You've played in 835 consecutive games. Why is that streak so important to you?

[A] Garvey: What is important and what has always been important is my obligation to myself. Giving an all-out effort. That's what I get paid to do--to play baseball. My teammates depend on me. Since I've decided to be a professional athlete in entertainment, if so much as one person comes to that stadium to see Steve Garvey, I'm obligated to play. I mean, I owe it to that person because he is paying his hard-earned entertainment dollar to see me play. So I'll go out there if I've got to hobble out there. As far as the streak is concerned, now, that is in God's hands.

[Q] Playboy: Well, it's also in the hands of your manager, Tommy Lasorda. Is he going to let you play every day?

[A] Garvey: Our rapport and philosophy is that I will give him 100 percent of my time and effort and all I ask in return is just to play, just let me play. And that's what I would ask from any manager. Just please let me play.

[Q] Playboy: What about injuries?

[A] Garvey: If you worry about getting injured, you're going to be concerned over what you do and the majority of the time you'll get injured. The more you try to be cautious, and not be aggressive, the greater the chance of being injured. I've always set an aggressive field. I call it controlled aggressiveness. Not running through the wall or whatever but being aggressive and under control of what I'm doing. Sliding hard into second base. Worrying about sliding safely can get you a broken ankle. I think I've developed a respect from the opposing infield as being a good, clean slider. In other words, I go in there and if my job is to break up the double play, I'll slide the best, fairest, hardest I can to break up the double play. I'm not going to use my spikes or try to elbow or knee somebody.

[Q] Playboy: What kinds of injuries have you had?

[A] Garvey: The worst injury I've had has been a broken bone in my hand that kept me out for about five weeks in 1971. Since that time, I've been very fortunate. With the streak that's going now, I think I have played with a hyper-extended elbow, with 22 stitches in my chin, pulled hamstring muscles, bruised heels, migraine headaches, flu, 103-degree temperature....

[Q] Playboy: Why would you play with so much pain?

[A] Garvey: It's too easy to sit out. It's my character to go ahead and play, because I'm trying to set an example, trying to show leadership by going out with a little pain and still getting a couple of hits or making a defensive play. We've crossed the line between amateur and professional sports. We're paid to play and to win.

[Q] Playboy: How do you rate yourself and others as first basemen?

[A] Garvey: My analysis of first base is that it's easy to be an average first baseman; it's very, very tough to be a champion first baseman.

[Q] Playboy: Assuming you rate yourself among the championship-quality types, how many are there?

[A] Garvey: Well, you can't take everything away from a player because his team didn't do well, but I would say there are probably two, at the most three, championship-quality first basemen in each league.

[Q] Playboy: Who?

[A] Garvey: Well, the National League has more good first basemen than the American League, OK? [After several long exchanges and with much reluctance, Garvey says that Chris Chambliss, Keith Hernandez and Pete Rose are among the best.]

[Q] Playboy: Is there anything you especially fear playing first base?

[A] Garvey: Well, I'd rather not have to go up the first-base line for a high throw. I do it, but it's a singularly vulnerable moment when you have to leap up three or four feet in the air for a ball and be completely exposed to the runner, who is going full speed.

[Q] Playboy: It must be particularly tough, considering you're not very tall as first basemen go. Ever wish you were?

[A] Garvey: Sure, I always thought, Gee, I'd love to be 6'3". But then you say to yourself, Gee, God had a plan for this body and made it a certain way, and I've had a lot of success with it, so I'd never change it. Kiddingly, Cyndy will say, "Hey, Stumpy," just as when I'm in batting trouble she calls me Slumpy, but at 5'10" I'm taller than the average American. Usually, I try to disarm people who are uncomfortable around me by kidding about my height.

[Q] Playboy: How?

[A] Garvey: Well, a woman may be nervous asking for an autograph, and if she's 5'2" or something, I'll put my arm around her and say, "You know, Cyndy always says I should have a girl your size who fits under my arm." Things like that. I try to make a person comfortable so I can knock down any image he or she may have of me.

[Q] Playboy: Wasn't that part of your recipe for success when you started in the big leagues--"Be nice and you'll go far, kid"?

[A] Garvey: It has nothing to do with success. To me, it has to do with life, having people feel comfortable around you. I've been blessed with athletic ability combined with a personality that has put me at a certain level of visibility. When people visualize you from a distance on TV or wherever it may be, they have a tendency to have a certain amount of hero worship. So when I meet them, I don't want them to feel that when I'm in their presence. I want us to just interact as human beings.

[Q] Playboy: We asked you what you feared most as a fielder. What scares you the most when you face a pitcher?

[A] Garvey: I think in the back of all our minds is this closet fear of getting hit in the head by a baseball. It's back there. Not that it affects us; I put it out of my mind. If I worried about that, I wouldn't be around today. But I think there's the realization that that is the single most terminating part of the game.

[Q] Playboy: Who is the toughest pitcher you've faced?

[A] Garvey: The toughest pitcher? Gosh. Tom Seaver, a couple of years ago, was very, very tough. Steve Carlton from time to time. James Rodney Richard from time to time. And a player that you wouldn't think, but Phil Niekro with his knuckle ball. Sometimes it's just impossible to hit it.

[Q] Playboy: Do you know, as a batter, when a pitcher has got you?

[A] Garvey: [Laughs] Well, I admire Bjorn Borg as much as anybody in sports, because I think I can relate to his philosophy when he's playing. That is, you never know whether he's beating you or you're beating him. And that's what I try to project. But when I know I've been intentionally knocked down or brushed back and I shake that fear, and get a hit--that's a great moment.

[Q] Playboy: What about the greatest moment of all? Which stands out?

[A] Garvey: As far as a personal achievement that goes in the record book, it was the one day in 1976 when I was five for five for five for five. I was up five times, scored five runs and five hits and five R.B.I.s. That was a very special day. It was one of those days in your career when you put everything together. I received six standing ovations that day, and to me that's the greatest accolade an athlete or performer can receive, when people stand and applaud you. What made it also so very special was that it was Nuns' Day at Dodger Stadium.

[Q] Playboy:Nuns' Day?

[A] Garvey: Yeah, and just before the game, our public-relations director came up to me and told me about a girl who was a quadriplegic. He said, "She's a big fan of yours; would you just come over and say hello to her?" I said sure. She was above the visitors' dugout and it was only two minutes before the game. I went over and saw her; she was a very pretty girl, long blonde hair, about 11 or 12 at the time, and she had been in a gymnastics accident that had caused her to be a quadriplegic. I talked to her for a few minutes and I said, "Well, I'll try to get a hit for you today." I probably had the best single day of my career.

[Q] Playboy: That's even more heart-warming than winning one for the Gipper. You spoke about slumps--how badly do they get to you?

[A] Garvey: I've been fortunate through my career to have experienced just a few slumps--a couple of them were rough ones. But because of the type of hitter I am--I hit to all fields and I make contact--I've avoided long slumps that can really turn a season around for you and make it a very bad year. Slumps are psychological the majority of the time. Once they start, they just seem to happen, and you compound them by your own mental approach to them. Your worrying, your anxiety--then overthinking.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of overthinking, many sportswriters feel that among professional athletes, baseball players are the dumbest. What's your opinion?

[A] Garvey: I never like to categorize people and I hate to be categorized myself, but if you look at it realistically, basketball and football both draft from college players. So you're talking about guys who have basically gone at least through four years of college. Now, baseball's a different story. A majority of players are signed out of high school, where they don't have the maturity and the advanced education of college. You may have three players with a college education in the upper 15 percentile of the major-league teams. That, coupled with the fact that baseball, which runs from March first to October first, is programed and has everything provided for the athlete. You go from the airport, you take a bus to the hotel; the next day, the bus picks you up and takes you to the ball park. You know where you're going to be just about every day, every hour for all those months. Now, that's not very stimulating, either socially or educationally. It's your profession, yes, but what it is, I think, is intellectually stagnating. Unless you force yourself to read, to take advantage of some of the cities you travel to, of the arts--whether it's theater, performances, museums, things like that. What I try to do is I try to read all of your major periodicals--Atlantic, Harper's, Business Week, Time--all those. I try to read, I would say, anywhere from five to ten novels a season. Stuff like The Powers That Be, The Kennedy Legacy, A Time for Truth, by William Simon, Gordon Liddy's book, which I thought was fascinating. By the way, his interview in Playboy was fascinating. Anyway, I try to stay abreast of what's going on in the world. So I know what's going on. So I can at least make a knowledgeable statement about world affairs.

[Q] Playboy: We had a lot of trouble getting you to rate first basemen. Let's rate managers.

[A] Garvey: Let's categorize managers. If you rate managers, you have a tendency to lump them all in one category--some are psychologists, some are tacticians. I think a Gene Mauch and an Earl Weaver would be tactical-type managers--they really play the percentages of baseball. They're tactical in their approach to the game--using left-handed hitters against right-handed pitchers, a certain batter who does better against a certain team or pitcher. They're always thinking about the percentages. Other managers seem to be more motivational, more psychological. A Tommy Lasorda is like that. A Billy Martin is a psychologist and a personality who's infectious to his players. Your winning managers every year are the ones who are able to blend a knowledge of the game with a knowledge of the people they have playing with them. I think Chuck Tanner is that way. His players are loose, they're not confined by a set of rules. They go out and they play up to their capabilities.

I think former players, former star players, have a tendency to be much tougher on themselves and find it much tougher to be managers, because they've reached a certain level of success and of achievement and it's very tough for them to teach. They may not understand that others may not have the same abilities or aggressiveness that they have. I see that from time to time. So I think managers fall in different categories.

[Q] Playboy: Mauch, Weaver, Lasorda, Tanner. Would those be your top four managers in the game?

[A] Garvey: I would say in the areas I mentioned they are the best at what they do.

[Q] Playboy: Is a manager necessary? There are those who believe managers are excess baggage if a team has great talent.

[A] Garvey: There always has to be someone in control, in charge. That's what a manager does. He orchestrates. Especially on a professional level. We all basically know the game, but we have to have somebody to look up to--somebody to lead, to tell us what to do--because if you don't, you have chaos. When you play together and live together for seven months a year, it's tough. A manager is the man who can be the brother, the father, the general, the manager--and he is each one of those to every player. So I think a manager is very, very important. I think the manager can mean the difference in five to eight victories a year--which is enough to win when the teams are evenly matched, as they are now.

[Q] Playboy: What about home-run hitters--any favorites?

[A] Garvey: Growing up, I used to love to watch Mickey Mantle. He had the most fluid and powerful swing that I had seen. Your home-run hitters today? Mike Schmidt is powerful. Greg Luzinski is very powerful. Dave Kingman. Willie Stargell through the years. I was fortunate to play against Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. All these fellows get great bat speed. They have a certain amount of strength, especially in their arms.

[Q] Playboy: Is there common strength to being a power hitter and getting those home runs?

[A] Garvey: Bat speed, I think. There are some lighter players I've admired who have hit home runs and generated good bat speed--Jimmy Wynn was a great example of a smaller man who hit for power and hit a very long ball. Then again, I've seen big guys very rarely hit home runs, because they don't generate bat speed. The key, as in some very small golfers, is to get the club or the bat accelerating as fast as possible through the ball, so I think the approach is good strong hands and wrists and forearms--this is what really whips them. And when I want to hit for more power, or when I'm going for the home run, I will take my bat back a little farther, so I have a longer area to accelerate through.

[Q] Playboy: What about the violence in baseball? There may be less than in other sports, but do you think there should be legislation passed to control violence in all sports?

[A] Garvey: I don't think the Government can. I don't think that's its jurisdiction. I think it will be handled if it is flagrant and premeditated, such as clubbing somebody with a bat or just taking a stick and beating him. I think there's a fine line, but as to making it a criminal offense, it would have to be only in those flagrant instances.

[Q] Playboy: Are you seeing more violence as the years pass?

[A] Garvey: No. I don't think so. I think it's tapering off. But all it takes is one incident and then they tighten up, and then it slowly loosens up over a period of time until something happens and then they tighten it again.

[Q] Playboy: Is there a lot of plain dirty play in baseball?

[A] Garvey: I think it goes on less now than it used to in the Fifties and Sixties. But it happens from time to time now and it's up to the umpires to handle it. It's their job. They are the policemen on the field. So when they see something that's flagrant, they have to take it into their hands and stop it at that time. Now what you hear from them is, "Hey, we don't have support from our higherups, from the league president's office or the commissioner's office. Why should we subject ourselves to the possible loss of our jobs?"

[Q] Playboy: During last year's world series, it sure did look like the Phillies pitcher, Dickie Noles, tried to bean George Brett, didn't he?

[A] Garvey: Well, see, it may be that if he really tried to throw at him, he would have aimed at his body and hit him. What he did was he tried to throw the ball up and in the back away from the plate and George was just going into the ball, and it's just one of those things. If he really wanted to hit him, he would have thrown at his right rib cage and he would have got him. But I'm talking about things that are premeditated. Something happens the night before, the guy comes up the first inning, the first pitch, nobody on, leading off the game, he gets hit--he gets drilled purposely. You got to prethink a little bit on those situations. Joe Ferguson, for instance, last year against the Phillies, with the intention of trying to walk him, bases loaded, he reaches out and hits the ball through the hole and two runs scored. The next batter, Billy Russell, comes up. He gets hit. So a fight starts. I try to keep people off, try to protect people.

[Q] Playboy: Unless, of course, you happen to be throwing a few punches yourself. Which brings us to the famous fight you had with Don Sutton in 1978. A lot of fans were shocked to see you in a brawl. Who threw the first punch?

[A] Garvey: That's a good question. I still can't answer you. It happened so fast. We were face to face and before too many serious punches were thrown, everybody grabbed each of us off the ground.

[Q] Playboy: What happened to provoke the fight?

[A] Garvey: The initial problem was a reference to me in an article about somebody else. The article was on Reggie Smith, about Reggie's season, and being an M.V.P. candidate. I agreed at the time, too, that he was having a great year. There was a reference to Reggie's personality and manner, which was fine. But then Don Sutton was quoted making an allusion to someone's Madison Avenue image and other things--and that someone was me. Now, you don't use an article about one person to get at somebody else. That is the low blow of jealousy.

[Q] Playboy: But Sutton never mentioned your name in the article.

[A] Garvey: No; but 99 out of 100 people who read the article knew who he was talking about. So I confronted him with the article and told him the same thing that I had told jealous people in the past--that he should have more integrity.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't the argument have something to do with Cyndy?

[A] Garvey: Well, I'm getting to that. Then he alluded to Cyndy and some other woman, and I said, "This is not the time or the place. All I'm talking about is this article." But he continued to bring Cyndy into it.

[Q] Playboy: In what way?

[A] Garvey: Just a reference to Cyndy's interaction with some other woman on the team. Anyway, all of a sudden he just exploded. It just happened: the finger on the chest and then my reciprocation or whatever. I had no intention of any fist throwing.

[Q] Playboy: Many star players don't believe in giving autographs, but you make a point of never turning down an autograph seeker. Why?

[A] Garvey: Autographs are truly personal and my philosophy has always been that if somebody wants my autograph, then I'm going to give it to them, because although it may just be a piece of paper or a magazine or whatever, if they feel it's something special and something binding between them and myself, then why not? It's just a fleeting moment of your time and of your efforts--physical and mental--to write your name. And if they want it, then why not? It's a chance to put back something into the game of baseball from the fan standpoint, that we get out of it from their cheers, their applause and their reinforcement of us. Again, a lot of people don't want to take the time, don't feel it's important. But I think it is. That one little piece of paper--although it may be thrown away an hour later--at that moment was special. The fan and the athlete came together in a personal way.

[Q] Playboy: Sometimes the interaction isn't that pleasant. Haven't you also gotten on the wrong side of deranged fans?

[A] Garvey: Well, I had three death threats just last year. Fortunately, none was real. And hopefully there never will be one. But there's the reality--it exists and it has happened before in other professions. I just hope that people put into perspective what we're doing--we are entertainment, we're entertaining others. Fans release their anxiety and some of the problems in their life by watching us and cheering for us. But when it comes to the point where it affects somebody's actions in eliminating a human being--I would hope that that would never come.

[Q] Playboy: Can you feel safe wandering around freely when you visit other parts of the country?

[A] Garvey: You can't. You really can't. Over the years I've had, say, four serious death threats. People who think Steve Garvey's life is very simple and easy. [Laughs] But I've had six plainclothes policemen walking around me out of stadiums. I've had bomb threats in New York and Los Angeles. I have to be very conscious of the security of my family. And what makes me so mad is to have the papers instigate or plant the seed of the thought into the mind of someone with articles. My salary and my whole contract has been listed in the papers with my name in headlines. Steve Garvey makes X number of dollars per day.

[Q] Playboy: It's a good thing you're not paid much.

[A] Garvey: [Laughs] Well, first of all, it's an invasion of privacy. I don't see any publishers or editors putting their contracts in the paper. They put mine in there and then they put my name in the headlines. They separate me and put me in headlines! They think nothing of who they are possibly instigating to jeopardize my family through kidnaping or whatever it may be, burglary.

[Q] Playboy: Kidnaping?

[A] Garvey: Oh, sure. I'm very conscious of it. It's very tough. The very safety of where our little girls are outside my own house. But that doesn't make me down on society. It's just something that's transpired around the world--the threat of kidnaping to executives has forced them to have bodyguards. Security systems at home now. Cars. Bulletproof cars.

[Q] Playboy: We don't want to add to your security problems, but today a lot of talk about baseball centers on money. We understand that the last six-year contract you signed is not up to today's sky-high standard. What is Steve Garvey worth?

[A] Garvey: With free agents and with signings, we are getting a very good idea of what Steve Garvey is worth in baseball. It's going to change even further with each ensuing month and year, so that by the time I start to negotiate for my last contract, I'll have a good idea, an even better idea than when you and I are talking about it today.

[Q] Playboy: You said the papers have already reported their estimates, so let's just ask: How much per year do you make playing for the Dodgers?

[A] Garvey: Three hundred and thirty thousand dollars would be in the ball park.

[Q] Playboy: Since you're not scheduled for the contract table until 1982, why don't you renegotiate? It's certainly in vogue.

[A] Garvey: My philosophy and that of my agent, Jerry Kapstein, is that if we have signed a contract, we'll live by it. You won't hear me complaining about it. You won't hear me talk about renegotiation. But when the time comes, I will have a very, very good idea of what my worth is to the Dodgers or to any team in baseball.

[Q] Playboy: You mean you would say goodbye to the Dodgers and become a free agent?

[A] Garvey: If the Dodgers decided that I wasn't worth what Steve Garvey is truly worth, yes. Now, let me preface that by saying I would never place myself any higher than what I truly am worth, because I just don't believe in that. Who am I to say if this player makes $1,000,000 a year that I want to be the highest-paid player? If the highest-paid player makes $1,500,000, I want $1,600,000? It's not an ego situation for me. I just want truly what I'm worth. If the Dodgers were to say to me, "Steve, this is a business, we appreciate what you've done for us, but we don't feel you're worth that," then my obligation to myself and to my family would be to offer my services to whoever thinks I am worth that. Now, what I am saying would be a last recourse, because I've put in my whole life with the Dodger organization. My life is in Southern California with the people, and every avenue would have to be exhausted before I made that stand.

[Q] Playboy: For Steve Garvey to give up the Dodgers does sound a bit drastic....

[A] Garvey: Well, would they want to give me up? is the question. That's the question. It would be very tough for me to give up the Dodgers. Unfortunately, my naïveté crosses lines into what I always thought was more than a business--that there was a certain amount of feeling, emotion ... what's the word?

[Q] Playboy: In Pittsburgh, it's called being family.

[A] Garvey: Yeah. Somebody who has given basically his whole life to one organization. From the age of six until 32--26 years now, so that's quite a long time. I've given a lot of time, blood, sacrifices, I give my life--I give my life 12 months a year. I think Steve Garvey is synonymous with the Dodgers. They don't usually say Steve Garvey alone, but Steve Garvey of the Dodgers. The Dodgers, Steve Garvey--that goes hand in hand. There are only a few ballplayers who are truly synonymous with their teams. Yastrzemski of Boston, Rose was at Cincinnati, Johnny Unitas was with Baltimore, Bob Cousy was at Boston, Roger Staubach at Dallas. Steve Garvey of Los Angeles. You just hope that there's a mutual respect beyond the financial situation. Beyond the business end of it. There's more of a personal feel for accomplishment and for dedication. I dedicated myself to them.

[Q] Playboy: And you're being underpaid?

[A] Garvey: As far as today's value in market is concerned, yeah, I think I'm a pretty good bargain in 1981. But let me preface that by saying that when I signed in 1976, I signed a contract that was probably one of the ten best at the time. I signed it for security reasons--you know, the length of contract, knowing that my family would have financial security. I was satisfied with it. I signed the contract and will abide by it for six years and you'll never see me go in and renegotiate.

[Q] Playboy: Can we safely guess that 1982 will be your last contract in baseball?

[A] Garvey: Lifetime or career-ending contract? Yes, that would be my last contract.

[Q] Playboy: So a retirement date of about 1985, 1986?

[A] Garvey: I would say 1986 would make me 37 years of age, that's a pretty good career. That will be shortened if I feel that my skills no longer sufficiently let me perform to the expectations of the people.

[Q] Playboy: You could come on as a pinch hitter.

[A] Garvey: No. I performed too long at a certain level. I may have an off year. If I come back the next year and have an off year, then over two seasons you get a pretty good idea if something's happened. It's a feeling of age. Timing. You're not quite as quick anymore, you know. Legs starting to go. Fortunately, I have a good strong body; hopefully, I'll avoid any injury and I'll keep my eyesight, which is the biggest thing.

[Q] Playboy: Pete Rose has certainly set an example for older players.

[A] Garvey: Well, Pete hit .285 last year and you know he's tailed off a little bit. Scored runs as a lead-off man. He's still an excellent ballplayer, but I'm quite sure he feels it now. He played every game and he said that he shouldn't really have played every game, should have taken a day off from time to time. But that's not Pete Rose to take a day off. Pete Rose is going to play every game.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of Pete Rose, he said in his September 1979 Playboy Interview that he took greenies, or diet pills. Anything going on like that on your team?

[A] Garvey: I don't look for it. Maybe it's because I don't want to see it a lot because I'm so concentrated on doing my job that I don't look for it to happen. I know that from time to time it does happen and there is something taken here and there. I can't tell you who, I just can't, I don't concern myself with it. I know it happens, but it is happening less.

[Q] Playboy: So you don't see guys running to first base so loaded up that it's obvious they're on some kind of speed?

[A] Garvey: It's tough enough to hit a baseball with a sound mind and body and a clear head, much less in a state of drug use. I don't see it that often; they don't get to first base that often. [Chuckles]

[Q] Playboy: What about other teams?

[A] Garvey: There are some teams who are maybe much heavier into it than other teams. It's not a big problem in my environment. The only time I see it is if it's obvious. I'm not looking for it. I've got a job to do. I'm not the first baseman who's trafficking potential drug users, you know. "Here, let me check your eyes, your pulse, OK, OK, go ahead and pitch." I don't have time for that. There are times I can tell that somebody may be just a little more high-strung that day due to something he ingested.

[Q] Playboy: But you don't take guesses on what he's ingested?

[A] Garvey: Maybe he had too much coffee. I don't know that stuff, anyhow. Next question. Let's go.

[Q] Playboy: We were talking finances. You have five agents and companies representing you. Just how elaborate are your investments?

[A] Garvey: I believe in the stock market and the development of small business as a financial trend for the Eighties. But as a personal investor living in Southern California, I've primarily invested in land and buildings. On an even more personal basis, I enjoy art. But art is intangible. Art is what appeals to you. I don't invest in art simply for the investment. I like art for what it shares with me. So any art that I have is for enjoying--I am a fan of LeRoy Neiman and his work as an American artist, so I have a collection of his work. But I have also gotten into artists who are developing a name for themselves who have appealed to me.

[Q] Playboy: Any Monets?

[A] Garvey: No; but I have a Picasso.

[Q] Playboy: So you keep your money moving?

[A] Garvey: I'm a low-risk, conservative-type person. I try to get the best advisors that I can find and try to keep my money working for me, but also, I keep a percentage of it liquid, just in case of problems. I would say for someone in Southern California, land is your best bet.

[Q] Playboy: Would you say that by the time you finish your career, you will be a millionaire?

[A] Garvey: I would hope so. It's interesting. When someone signs a $1,000,000 contract, they call him a millionaire. When, in essence, that's not true. To me, a millionaire is someone who has a net worth of more than $1,000,000. Not somebody who's making $1,000,000 a year. A $1,000,000-a-year contract--cut 61 percent of that away for income taxes and state taxes and then take your living expenses and then find out exactly how much net value you have.

[Q] Playboy: So it helps to have Cyndy's salary.

[A] Garvey: Yeah. Every little bit helps. People say, "Well, the more money you make, the more taxes you pay." That's fine, that's OK with me. [Laughs]

[Q] Playboy: Which brings up Dave Winfield, the multimillion-dollar, highest-paid player in baseball--

[A] Garvey: Let's preface that by saying that he has a $1,000,000-plus-per-year contract. Whether he is a millionaire depends upon him and how he invests his money and how he takes care of it. You don't know if he has bonus clauses, or whether it's true cost of living or what; I mean, you really don't know. I would say that there's a difference between being rich and being wealthy.

[Q] Playboy: What is the difference?

[A] Garvey: A millionaire is rich. I would say a rich person can go up to about, say, anywhere from $1,000,000 to $40,000,000. A wealthy person is someone who really has absolutely no concept of economic problems at all. And a wealthy person is someone ... like going through the San Francisco Museum of Art: I would say a vast majority of those paintings are donated by the Rockefellers. It's just mind-boggling, the value of those paintings being donated by those people. A wealthy person probably has $50,000,000-plus. His money has an effect on the financial picture in this country.

[Q] Playboy: So you are in the not-even-rich-yet category.

[A] Garvey: [Laughs] Not even, not yet. Well, maybe borderline. Upper-middle-class.

[Q] Playboy: How do you think those high salaries are affecting baseball?

[A] Garvey: I think that baseball is in a strong position right now. You can look at attendance, you can look at gross revenues, you can look at increased participation, televisionwise--both network and local cable--to see that baseball is very, very appealing to the masses. And I think it's very profitable. It's unfortunate that certain people are alarmists in saying that free agency and lax spending will be the demise of baseball in the near future. That attitude right there is ludicrous, simply because since the onslaught of free agency, you have seen a steady growth in the business. You just have to look at the bottom line to see that baseball is continuing to rise; the components are there.

As long as people keep coming out, and the owners are only going to pay salaries to the players if they can afford them. An owner is not going to give a player $500,000 if he can't afford it. So he must be able to afford it. And I think in the near future they'll be more and more influenced by cable and pay TV. Some of the teams in the major markets--New York, Chicago, Los Angeles--will be heavily influenced by your pay television. And even myself, as a fan of other sports, and as a fan of baseball, would still go out to the ball park to watch a game live. It's still probably the best entertainment dollar in Los Angeles.

[Q] Playboy: The owners say they're losing money.

[A] Garvey: I have respect for the owners and it is a business. In the past, they have had baseball people handling the baseball business, where a lot of times business needs a businessman to administer it. So I think what's happening now is more and more owners and teams are bringing astute businessmen in to work with them on developing better financial situations and public-relations situations and marketing situations because a lot of baseball's marketing is untapped. It's only been in the last three or four years that programs have popped up on TV to promote baseball. OK. If you made $4,000,000 last year and you made $3,000,000 this year and you tell people you're losing, well, theoretically you are, but in essence you're still making a large profit. So it's a slap in the face a lot of times when I hear baseball people say, "Well, I can show you in my books." Well, as anybody knows, a good accountant can alter a book to make a profit into a loss.

[Q] Playboy: So free agency is here to stay?

[A] Garvey: Free agency is here to stay.

[Q] Playboy: The players' association has voted to strike just about when this interview goes to press.

[A] Garvey: Only if the ownership implements compensation.

[Q] Playboy: Would you be behind the strike then?

[A] Garvey: Yes, I would be behind the strike. Because I'm not about to give up something that's been given to me--that's the right to free agency without anything more than a first-round compensation.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever felt owner control in baseball has created a type of slavery for you as a player?

[A] Garvey: Less now. It's been a self-inflicted slavery through the years, because you've developed your skills and you sold yourself to a team. But it was an income and a livelihood and a profession. Now you have the opportunity, as in any democratic society, to move laterally if you want to. But again, we're still keeping a basic obligation of six years, which I think is OK. We've given an organization six years of our playing abilities and they said, "Well, we took this much money to develop you" and, well, OK, you're getting six years from us in the long run.

[Q] Playboy: Let's return to the subject of your good-guy image. Hasn't that aroused a lot of resentment among some of your more irreverent teammates? Some have even denounced you in public.

[A] Garvey: Wait. At one point, that may have been true, but that's diminished. It's diminished as my career has progressed and my consistency has continued and people have seen me year in and year out in different situations. The cynics and critics and jealous people are suddenly realizing that their attempts have failed to stop me from accomplishing what Steve Garvey wants to accomplish. Those people are now more or less in a purgatory position because they're saying, "Well, geez, maybe we're wrong, he hasn't changed." And maybe they've matured in their own lives, so they know more about people; they know somebody can be the way I am.

[Q] Playboy: And yet there have been stories in the past quoting some teammates to the effect that you had no friends on the team.

[A] Garvey: Yes, and they knew better. To think someone would say that in the paper, where 1,000,000 people could read it. [Shakes his head.] It was like somebody hit me in the stomach. To be critical of your family, of all things.... I've never criticized a player in the paper or on the air; I've never criticized my managers, the decisions of coaches. You get paid to play together as a team. So when you start to criticize each other, you're tearing down the basic concept of a team sport.

[Q] Playboy: What did you do about all that?

[A] Garvey: I stood up at a team meeting and I said, "Here's an article. I want you to read this and when you're done, tell me why you weren't men enough to come up and tell me if you had a problem. Come up and confront me."

[Q] Playboy: Did anyone say anything?

[A] Garvey: I think they were too surprised. I said, "Whose are the anonymous quotes here? Stand up right now and say it. I know you're gutless, because you wanted it made anonymous to begin with, but why don't you stand up right now?" Nobody stood up, of course, but I eventually knew who they were. See, that's my journalistic pet peeve--the anonymous quote.

[Q] Playboy: Sometimes they're necessary. That's how Watergate unfolded.

[A] Garvey: Sure, it's a gutless form of journalism that helps no one.

[Q] Playboy: That obviously depends on circumstances, but you must admit that with your Goody Two-shoes image, you're a tempting target for writers.

[A] Garvey: Yes, I would imagine it would be very tough to write about me now unless you wanted to do something specific on my opinions about things--like I've mentioned to other writers. I mean, it's 1981. What are my thoughts on this decade and my feelings on the remainder of my career, what I've accomplished, or could I have personally done more or less or better? Let's not dwell on things that have happened in the past.

[Q] Playboy: And what do the writers say?

[A] Garvey: [Laughing] They nod their heads and agree, then go ahead and write about the past.

[Q] Playboy: After the publication of the Inside Sports article, you were quoted as saying you were "concerned" about some of the older sportswriters and their opinions. Why?

[A] Garvey: Yeah, I said I was concerned that some of the sports journalists who had been around for a number of years and knew me pretty well couldn't perceive that an injustice had been done. When everything is said and done and the final story told on that article, I'd like them to come back and admit how wrong they were. Or at least admit that they didn't give the whole situation time to develop or unfold.

[Q] Playboy: How do you feel about taking the position of restricting freedom of the press, so to speak, with your lawsuit against Newsweek and Inside Sports?

[A] Garvey: In dealing with court cases, and so forth, I can understand the First Amendment and a kind of restraint. I also can understand a respect for privacy and safety of the individual. But if the press is protected on one side, then the individual has to be protected on the other side. So there's an inequality there. You can't write about somebody and just say, "Hey, that's my opinion," if it's slanderous and false and the person who is written about has no recourse at all. I am for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and all those things, but still, the individual has to have some protection.

[Q] Playboy: Do you feel any embarrassment about dragging the Inside Sports article through the papers again?

[A] Garvey: No, because how often do you have two individuals suing something as large as Newsweek? We set a figure of $11,200,000, but money is not the thing. We're spending $200,000 out of our pocket on a matter of principle. For ourselves, primarily, but also so that this case will set a precedent for others in the future.

[Q] Playboy: Was it a difficult decision to make?

[A] Garvey: It was easy. After it sunk in, we said, what can we do? The best thing is not to battle it in the paper but to make a public statement as to our feelings that Steve and Cyndy Garvey feel that malice, defamation, obstruction has been the case here and are suing Newsweek for libel, slander and $11,200,000.

[Q] Playboy: Are you prepared to settle out of court?

[A] Garvey: They'll try to have the case thrown out of court somehow, but so far they've lost on all points. See, what we did, we got a restraining order to prevent its being reprinted in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner through two local courts. Then, of course, it was overturned in the court of appeals in Sacramento. But we got five days. The Pentagon papers only got two days. Isn't that amazing? The only way we would settle would be a total retraction. Plus remuneration at this point for what we already spent.

[Q] Playboy: Since you have mixed feelings about the media, why are you doing this interview?

[A] Garvey: I hope the reason I'm doing the Playboy Interview is so people will get a better idea of Steve Garvey's thoughts and opinions and know that I am sincere in my feelings about myself and my family and the people that I associate with and how much I truly respect and enjoy being an American in this country.

[Q] Playboy: Well, you're certainly sounding like a good patriot.

[A] Garvey: Yes, I am.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have a real sense of being regarded as a sports hero?

[A] Garvey: Yeah. We are in the entertainment business, but we still perform heroic deeds. I understand that certain things I do are inspirational to people. And I would like to see the emergence of the political hero, of the business hero, the military hero. I know we're not involved in war now, and I hope we never are, but we've diminished our heroes in those three areas. And those three are more important than a sports hero.

[Q] Playboy: Who is your political hero?

[A] Garvey: I was personally influenced by John Fitzgerald Kennedy at a very young age. Now it's Ford.

[Q] Playboy: Gerald Ford is your hero? Why?

[A] Garvey: Well, what President Ford did--and not many people realize this--he took an office, the single most important office in the land that was totally discredited, and in the two years there, he put credibility back into the office of the Presidency. He took a devastated White House and made it respectable again. He took a foreign policy and worked with it and made it strong. And he did it while being ridiculed as a klutz and clumsy and he may have mispronounced a word now and then, but he was the people's President. He did more in two years than 90 percent of the people realize. He got people to work for him. He got people to instigate his programs. It takes more than two years. Lots of times it takes more than four years to get this accomplished. But I think he did more in two years than, geez, who knows how many Presidents? The majority of them.

[Q] Playboy: Did you get close to him?

[A] Garvey: I know him personally and I stood up for him at the tail end of his campaign in 1976. Voted for him. It's tough for me to declare one way or the other--Republican or Democrat--because when you play for a public team, it's tough to alienate yourself one way or the other. I don't think it's fair to my employer to be hard-line Republican or Democrat. But I am influenced by the individual.

[Q] Playboy: And you didn't come out for anyone in last year's election?

[A] Garvey: No. I was hoping, well, I had a feeling that President Ford was going to get into the race. And I thought that the Ford-Reagan ticket would have been even stronger. But I think, all in all, I was impressed with the people of this country and their decision to make a change. That's happened so infrequently in our history. The incumbent has always won. People have said, like President Reagan the last two weeks of his campaign, 'Are you any better off now than you were four years ago?"

[Q] Playboy: Did you vote for Reagan?

[A] Garvey: Yes. I think he was a very good governor. I think his policies now are solid and he also made a statement that's true: We're not better off now than four years ago. Therefore, it was our prerogative to change. And for the first time in history, we did make a change with an incumbent President. People are concerned now whether the President will be taking a strong, active position on things, will he be in the forefront at all times? Well, I think Reagan will, but he won't be out there as visible. He'll have all his people surrounding him and working--knowledgeable people. I think he's selected some great people for his Cabinet. I think we'll see more done in a wider variety of areas.

[Q] Playboy: Is there any truth to the rumors you might want to try to run for the U. S. Senate when you've hung up your spikes?

[A] Garvey: It's an option I would hopefully have at the end of my professional baseball career. It's a stimulating thought to me, because I feel I have something to offer people--and that is a willingness to make this society a better place to live in for all of us. That's what I'm doing now, what I've done all my life: develop ideas and principles that will set examples for people and also that will stimulate me to improve our society in areas that I feel have to be improved. So if I was to run for an office and to be elected, people would know they have, number one, somebody who is dedicated to them, number two, somebody who would be willing to sacrifice principles and ideals and to work tirelessly to improve our society.

[Q] Playboy: You probably don't mean you'd sacrifice ideals and principles, but spoken like a true politician. In fact, you seem to be throwing your hat into the ring. Have any political pros approached you?

[A] Garvey: Very high-profile people in both parties.

[Q] Playboy: Who?

[A] Garvey: I'd rather not say.

[Q] Playboy: What have they said?

[A] Garvey: They feel that I would be a very big asset to their party and to whatever party I ran for, because of personality, accomplishments, ideals, and so forth.

[Q] Playboy: What do you think?

[A] Garvey: I'm confident I could run. I really am. I think that I could be an influence, I could make an impact.

[Q] Playboy: You don't feel you should start with local politics?

[A] Garvey: I wouldn't have time for that. Either I start at the U. S. Senate or nothing. Because I wouldn't have time to work my way up. I'd be 36, 37 or 40, whatever my age might be.

[Q] Playboy: If you were successful in the Senate, would you think of running for the Presidency?

[A] Garvey: Oh, if you've ever thought about political office, and if you brought yourself to a point where, as a person and a politician, you felt you could do the job, I think you'd consider it. I'd consider it. I'd consider it because I know myself as a person and I know if I were elected to that position, it would be nothing short of my complete, total dedication.

[Q] Playboy: We may have a movie actor as a President now, but don't you think there's something odd about a professional athlete's running for the Presidency?

[A] Garvey: I think, sure, there will be a time when an athlete will be running for the Presidency. There are people who could very well be qualified in the near future. You know, I read the other day that there've been five athletes who have run for political office and won. And there have been five journalists who have run for political office and lost. So [laughs] the dumb-jock syndrome is diminished and the intelligent journalist may have been tarnished.

[Q] Playboy: In your opinion, what's the greatest political problem our country has?

[A] Garvey: We need an all-out effort to reestablish the strength of the United States militarily. What concerns me is all the articles and all the news that we're no longer the strongest country in the world. That to me is the beginning of the end, when you become a second-rate power that has diminishing resources and is striving for survival. The United States, I really feel, is the most powerful in the world, but without a proper defense we've become susceptible to being overtaken. Economically, too, we're in trouble. When Japan becomes the largest auto maker in the world by a noticeable difference, it makes you sit down and say, "Wait a second, we invented the automobile." Through all those years we were the greatest auto maker in the world. Now Japan has taken over the spot. Something's happening. We're starting to slip, to lose perspective about growth. We have to project growth in this country. But what has happened is, because it's so competitive and all those outside sources come into our country and saturate each market, we have now driven ourselves to the point where we have to show profit in a relatively short time, so that our executives are forced to show a profit in a short time or they will be gone. How do they do that? They develop short-range programs for success. I think a lot of times we've forsaken our long-term projects and set ourselves back.

[Q] Playboy: We began this discussion with the subject of heroes. Getting back to that, besides yourself, who is a sports hero?

[A] Garvey: Oh, there's a lot of them, really. I think Roger Staubach is a legitimate hero because of what he stands for. Julius Erving is a hero to a lot of people.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a hero. Terry Bradshaw is a hero. Probably an Earl Campbell, if you're talking about people who perform on a level of excellence. But, to me, a true superstar is somebody like Joe DiMaggio, who performed at the top of the game for a number of years and then transcended into retirement, but still maintained dignity and class and popularity 25 years later.

[Q] Playboy: Don't you find it sad to see him shilling for Mr. Coffee?

[A] Garvey: No, I don't find it sad. I still admire him. People criticize him for doing Mr. Coffee or Bowery Bank commercials, but they are two good products--one is a very good bank and the other is a coffee machine, and how many million people drink coffee? He's making a nice income and living and he's living well, as we want our heroes to live. We don't want our heroes to fall. He's the same person today he was 25-30 years ago. But he is a superhero who is still the same in the minds of the public as he was when he played.

[Q] Playboy: Would you like to be like him someday?

[A] Garvey: What? Selling products nationally? Or a legend?

[Q] Playboy: Both.

[A] Garvey: Well, the family philosophy is not to endorse a product that we wouldn't want our children to use or use in the future.

[Q] Playboy: How about the part about being a legend?

[A] Garvey: I would like people to remember me for what I contributed to my profession; maybe I made my profession a little better by my presence and by my actions. And that once off the field, I was an example for people as to how a human being might give back to his society, his community, what he got from his profession; that I shared my life with people.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have some memories to share of your childhood? You started as a bat boy for the Dodgers at the age of six, didn't you?

[A] Garvey: My dad started with the Greyhound Corporation as a bus driver. The spring I was six years old, he had to drive the Detroit Tigers and the Cincinnati Redlegs to their spring-training sites. Then came a trip to Tampa to drive the Brooklyn Dodgers and he took me along. Well, I thought, Oh, geez, great, because the Brooklyn Dodgers were my grandfather's favorite team--he was from Brooklyn--and I was getting into sports at that time. We met the team at Tampa, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges--the real Brooklyn Dodgers--people like Roy Campanella, Johnny Podres. They had just won the world series. So I became a bat boy that day. I did that for the next six or seven years, until I got to be about 13.

[Q] Playboy: What was it like on the bus with them?

[A] Garvey:[Laughing] They were great to me. You know, I got patted on the head so much that if I didn't have a little flattop crewcut then, my hair probably would have been flatter. I had freckles. I was a cute little kid. I was a little pudgy at the time.

[Q] Playboy: Do you remember any scenes vividly?

[A] Garvey: I remember playing catch with Gil Hodges on the side lines before a game and sitting next to Jim Gilliam. And Leo Durocher arguing with an umpire. I can still vividly remember the smell of the fresh leather gloves, the cowhide, the new balls, the pine tar, the rosin. I remember taking broken bats home, big bats for me, and swinging them outside. They were heavy, but I'd swing them around.

[Q] Playboy: Sounds like you had a terrific father.

[A] Garvey: I think all in all my father was the perfect role model as a father. He exposed everything to me as far as sports go, as well as cub scouts, playing the trumpet. And he got me the best possible equipment they could afford and encouraged me. Dad was a traveling man. He'd go to Tallahassee and Jacksonville, to Miami, to Gainesville and all those places. He was a very hard-working man. And my mother again--nine-to-five secretary. Notary public. She's been an adjuster in insurance most of her life.

[Q] Playboy: How did she influence you?

[A] Garvey: Very strongly. She did more of the disciplining than my father did. I was an only child. I helped make the dinner and when Mom and Dad came home, we'd have dinner, do the dishes and I'd take garbage out. I mowed the grass, I washed the car. I had my chores. Things to do. We did them as a family. We were a family unit. I was a postwar baby. I was one of those babies who arrived when America had settled down again into a respect for the family unit.

[Q] Playboy: How about your grandmother? You've said she was an important part of your life.

[A] Garvey: My grandparents lived close to us in Tampa. After my grandfather died, my grandmother moved in with us. When she was a young woman, she and my mother were walking down the street one day and a tire came off a truck and it hit her. That caused complications of her neurological system that limited the use of her hands and arms, so she was a semi-invalid. She learned to do a lot of things, though. She was an inspiring woman because she said, "Hey, I can't use my hands, but I'm going to learn how to do things."

[Q] Playboy: We can probably assume that in high school, you maintained your clean, upstanding image.

[A] Garvey: [Laughs] Yeah. I was a perennial vice-president. A lot of the times I ran for office, kids said, "Hey, Steve's involved in a lot of things. I'll vote for the other guy." I remember there was a certain amount of jealousy--always. I could feel that even then.

[Q] Playboy: Were you considered good-looking?

[A] Garvey: Yeah. I didn't have too much acne and I was always neat, fastidious. I always used to have the Gant shirts with the little monograms on them. It took all my allowance. I bought those myself. I'd work, mow lawns, wash cars, to buy the Gant shirts. That was big in high school. And a certain type of sweater. And a certain type of loafer. Mom and Dad would help from time to time, but if I wanted something, I worked for it.

[Q] Playboy: What was your love life as a teenager? A lot of locker-room stuff?

[A] Garvey: No, it was never talked about that much. I think it was before it was fashionable to have to, you know, go all the way. I didn't have to impress the guys by having sex with another girl. To me, there was no need for me to impress anybody that way. My form of impressing somebody was personality, what I did for them and what I did athletically.

[Q] Playboy: Do you remember the first time you made love?

[A] Garvey: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember my first love. In college. Freshman year. I was 17 or 18.

[Q] Playboy: Was it traumatic?

[A] Garvey: The first time was educational, I think, more than anything else.

[Q] Playboy: When did you meet Cyndy? Was it a torrid romance?

[A] Garvey: We never lived together. Any physical relationship we had was a period of adjustment to find out if we had this spiritual feeling of love, as well as a physical feeling that was compatible. It became very evident to me that this was the girl who I wanted to marry, and the following summer she came to visit me in Spokane, and I was up and down in 1970, and then she came to Los Angeles and we were sitting talking and I just said, "Will you marry me?" I think she was prepared for it. She said yes. They announced it that night at Dodger Stadium. I was on the on-deck circle, just getting up to home plate, and they said, on the loud-speaker, "Steve Garvey announces his engagement to Cynthia Ann Truhan, Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan."

[Q] Playboy: Why is there so much gossip about you and Cyndy--other women, other men?

[A] Garvey: I feel that people don't understand. Perhaps as they get older they'll understand that it's possible to have a friendship with someone of the opposite sex and to enjoy conversation or dinner without sexual involvement. It amazes me the number of people who, if they were to see you with some woman other than your wife, would immediately assume that that is a sexual relationship. And I feel it's unjust. But the gossip still amazes me.

[Q] Playboy: Have you considered having an affair?

[A] Garvey: It's a feeling I've had for, gosh, a couple of years now. Anything is possible. But given the relationship I have with my wife and the feelings we have for each other, the odds against it are lopsided. Of course, I've had thoughts about having an affair, but, in essence, the actuality has never happened. I'm still basically a romantic. Kissing somebody goodbye, touching them ... I'm a touching person. A certain amount of charm is sexual, romantic. To me, a laugh and the use of language could be romantic, very sensual. I've always said you don't necessarily have to have the physical act to really experience a sexuality and sensuality. The carnal act itself is pure and as much as I enjoy it with my wife, again, it's only part of human sexuality. A lot of times a good woman-friend may be more loyal and trusting than a man. So as far as my marriage is concerned, and my love for my wife, our relationship has never reached a point which has forced me to go out and have a sexual affair with another woman. And since I've never answered this question before, it's tough.

[Q] Playboy: Well, you've answered it, even if you are blushing a lot. And that brings us back to Cyndy. Do you wish she wouldn't speak so frankly about herself and your relationship?

[A] Garvey: No. Because I know exactly what she's saying. I've never cautioned, coached, prodded or sanctioned. I think that happens too much. Husbands are so scared of what their wife may say they put them in a different image or light. They put a lock and key on the verbality of the woman or her expressing her own opinion. But when you continuously keep someone from expressing her opinions, suddenly you're turning her into a monotonous, thoughtless, expressionless person. Both Cyndy and I have received awards from different E.R.A. groups, women's groups, about opinions we've expressed. I worry for people who don't understand.

[Q] Playboy: Does it bother you that Cyndy doesn't often go to your games?

[A] Garvey: No. She's never gotten a hit for me or made an error or struck out or hit a double, so it's nice to see her there when she is there, but when she isn't, I mean, I've played too long and we've been married nine years now and I don't need her there at every game. She went simply because that was her time to be with me. As time went on and I started having success, and then a family, the girls kept her from going a lot. Then her career. It's been a gradual progression. And she's changed as a person. The same foundation, but the priorities have changed. She went from Mrs. Steve Garvey, Mrs. Cyndy Garvey, to Cyndy Garvey.

[Q] Playboy: So you don't feel threatened by her new emergence?

[A] Garvey: Oh, I saw a bumper sticker the other day and it said, "A man of quality is never threatened by a woman of equality." So, in essence, what it says is a man who feels good about himself, is confident in himself, should never be threatened by a woman but can cohabit and work and be successful with a woman.

[Q] Playboy: Even though you are surrounded by a family, a lot of friends, fans and teammates, we get the feeling that you are apart, almost lonely.

[A] Garvey: I think because I was an only child and I did a lot of things by myself that I became very independent. I've gone through so much in my career and outside of my career--people constantly trying to attack or whittle away at Steve Garvey and my family and my feelings--that at times I can detach myself. You and I have talked about why people have to criticize, why people have to attack. I know that they do and there are times that I can stand alone and battle all these people. I don't want the people that I love and are close to me to be affected by it. So that's why there are times when I am lonely.

[Q] Playboy: Whatever people think of you, you seem to have been blessed with more than your share of luck.

[A] Garvey: Yeah. A big part of my life, I've been blessed. Blessed with being in the right place at the right time.

[Q] Playboy: Is it straight luck, or is it from God?

[A] Garvey: Oh, I think luck is dictated from the gates of heaven, definitely, for sure. But I've always been prepared for luck, too, which is maybe why I got my share of it. I never cheated myself. I was never not in shape for the game or the season, or I never didn't read the book, or I was never not in the right place when the girl walked by [laughs] or things like that. I think that no matter how we feel about luck itself, in the end, the final decision is made by us. We truly control our destiny.

[Q] Playboy: You certainly control yours. And except for a few sparks here and there, we get the feeling, after talking with you for many weeks, that you've controlled your words in this interview very strictly.

[A] Garvey: Well, let's go back to where we were talking about a certain image that I try to protect. I've tried to say that it isn't an image, it's a consciousness. I've tried to laugh and kid around as we did this, but because of the magnitude of the interview itself, I have to be conscious of what I'm saying. What I told you is what I really believe. I know this will be read by teenagers and maybe by senior citizens, and many people may agree or disagree. But I think people will know that these are my sincere feelings; this is who I am.

[Q] Playboy: Do you ever bust loose? Lose your temper?

[A] Garvey: Yeah, once in a great while, I have to get away to be strictly by myself. Or something that upsets me, I may confront it briefly or walk away from a situation.

[Q] Playboy: Do you cry?

[A] Garvey: Yeah. Yeah. I've cried at movies, or over emotional events. I think you can be more of a man for crying in certain situations, because you're showing your true feelings. Machoism can stop you from it, but shedding tears shows that you're human and capable of loving.

[Q] Playboy: Do you agree that this is an appropriate time to be talking with someone who is seen, at least by many sports fans, as a hero?

[A] Garvey: I think that in the Sixties and the early Seventies, it was not fashionable to be a hero. Then, in 1974, when I won the Most Valuable Player award and did things heroic in the baseball profession, people wanted to know more about me and more about my thoughts and beliefs. People found out just who Steve Garvey was and what I believed in. Then, through the Seventies, there was a gradual shift: people getting away from drugs and demonstrations and going back to beer and patriotism. I think that culminated with a couple of events: the winter Olympics of 1980, where the U. S. hockey team--true heroes--defeated the Russians. Then the country said, "Hey, we haven't really changed in the last four years with President Carter: Let's try somebody new." That was a show of patriotism in voting for President Reagan. There were also the hostages--a lot of patriotism over that long ordeal. So I think the hero has become more and more prominent in the last five or six years. Maybe I was at the very start of this new feeling, this new wave of patriotism, this feeling of being glad that I am an American. Maybe I was just a forerunner in the new era.

[Q] Playboy: Maybe. This has been a lot of serious talk with a baseball player. Hero or not, aren't you still just a boy?

[A] Garvey: Yeah. Any time you earn your living by wearing pajamas and getting dirty, you maintain a relative amount of boyhood in you.

"I'm ambitious. Remember when people used to say, 'He's an ambitious young man'? Now you say he's ambitious and people are a little leery."

"Don Sutton was quoted making an allusion to someone's Madison A venue image--and that someone was me.... That is the low blow of jealousy."

"You won't hear me talk about renegotiation. But when the time comes, I will have a very, very good idea of what my worth is to the Dodgers."

"I remember in high school there was a certain amount of jealousy--always. I could feel that even then."

"Maybe I was at the very start of this new wave of patriotism, this feeling of being glad I'm an American. Maybe I was a forerunner in the new era."