It was one of those things which, for the most part, flew under the media radar. Oh sure, there was mention of it during Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ morning media scrum outside the Dodgers Camelback Ranch clubhouse that generated a few tweets from a couple Dodgers beat writers on hand. But it didn’t get the love and attention that it certainly should have, especially when you consider who it was about.

The ‘who’ was 69-year-old longtime Dodgers first baseman and fan favorite Steve Garvey, and he had been invited into the Dodgers clubhouse to address the entire group of Dodgers players and coaches prior to last Saturday’s spring training game against the Chicago White Sox. He did so while decked out in his familiar number 6 white home uniform that even included a green St. Patrick’s Day Dodgers cap.

“We had Steve Garvey talk to the guys, which is great,” Roberts said. “Steve came in and talked about his days as a bat boy and got a chance to bat boy the Brooklyn Dodgers for a couple days, and talked about what it meant to be a Dodger, what it meant to him.

“It was good, he captured the room and he nailed it,” Roberts added. “So it was really cool for me to hear what he had to say, and I wanted to share that with you guys. This is the first time he’s been back in years.”

Former Dodger great Steve Garvey addresses the 2018 Dodgers in their Camelback Ranch clubhouse.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

And that was that.

No one made any further inquiries about a guy who spent 19 seasons in the major leagues (14 as a Dodger), was a World Series champion in 1981, was a 10-time All-Star, a National League MVP, a four-time Gold Glove winner, a two-time NLCS MVP, and a two-time All-Star Game MVP. No one except yours truly, that is. I mean, we’re talking about one of the greatest Dodgers of all time here. There was no way on earth I was going to let this golden opportunity pass.

Much to my surprise, not only did the man who was affectionately known as ‘Popeye’ for his massive forearms agree to speak with me, he was genuinely pleased that I had asked him to.

(Author’s note: I am very well aware that clubhouse meetings are very private and I informed Steve that I fully respect this privacy, and fully understood if he did not wish to discuss it with me. He informed me that it was not a confidential meeting and that he would love to share what he had said in the meeting with me).

“Two themes today; number one, the evolution of our lives and careers, and in the blink of an eye,” Garvey said. “You start out as a young boy playing Little League and then a traveling team, and all of a sudden you blink and now you’re in college and you’re being drafted.

“Now you’re with an organization and you’re on the journey trying to get to the Major Leagues, and you blink and you’re there,” he continued. “And then all of a sudden you blink again and you’re halfway through your career, and you blink again and now you retire. The most important thing is to nurture and nourish each one of those steps.”

“But then the second part was, you should feel something special when you put a Dodger jersey on,” said Garvey. “And yes, there are historic franchises; everybody thinks of the Yankees, the Cardinals, and maybe the Tigers. But nobody over the last 70 years has influenced the game more than the Dodgers.

“There have been good times and bad, but now they’re consistently competitive year in and year out. The evolution from bankruptcy to where the franchise is, I said ‘I’m proud of it.’ But I said ‘It’s all about each of you feeling something when you put [the uniform] on and creating more history,’” he said.

Nailed it indeed.

Even though the Tampa, Florida native and Dodgers first round draft pick in 1968 out of Michigan State University acknowledged that he was preaching to the choir, the sincerity and emotion in his words not only captured the Dodgers clubhouse, as Dave Roberts had said, but they also fully captured me and national baseball columnist Barry Bloom, who was listening in on the interview.

Garvey never misses an opportunity to put a smile on kids faces wherever he goes.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But it’s what Garvey shared with Barry and I next – about his father, a charter bus driver – that put a smile on our faces that quite possibly may never come off.

“March 28th of 1956, [my dad] comes home and he said ‘You want to skip school tomorrow?’ and I said ‘Wow!,” Garvey recalled. “He said ‘I’ve got a charter to pick up the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Tampa Airport, take them to St. [Petersburg] to play the Yankees in an exhibition game, and it might be fun for you and I tomorrow.’ My dad was a Dodger fan, my mom was a Yankee fan.

“The next day at 8:15 at Tampa Airport, the Kay O’Malley 1 lands – the Dodger plane – and off comes Alston, and Reese, and Hodges, and Furillo, and Snider, and Robinson, and Campanella,” Garvey said. “And that day I got to bat boy for them, and fell in love that day. That was my epiphany.

“And 12 years later out of Michigan State I get drafted in the first round, a year and a half later I’m up for the first time and strike out on September 1st of 1969,” said Garvey. “My bat came out of my hands over the third baseman Wayne Garrett‘s head and lands in left field, and Alston says ‘That was a pretty auspicious first at-bat, that’s a record for keeping a bat fair.’

“And then he says ‘But you’ll probably get a couple thousand hits when it’s all said and done,’ and I ended up with 2,600 and a lot of great moments,” Garvey concluded.

It was great seeing Garvey in home whites in the Dodgers dugout again. It was also great watching several Dodgers prospects picking his brain … at least the smart ones did. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But here’s the kicker. When asked when he last addressed the Dodgers as a team, the same team that he had played with for 14 of his 19 major league seasons, his answer absolutely blew Barry Bloom and me away.

“This is the first time I’m in uniform here,” said Garvey. “I kept offering to come, and then finally eight days ago (longtime Dodger PR executive) Steve Brener called me and said ‘You want to be a guest instructor?’ and I said ‘Did somebody cancel?’ (drawing a laugh from all three of us), and he said ‘No, no…’ I was scheduled for a speech in Scottsdale yesterday, so I said ‘Yeah, I’d love to come.'”

Based on his reception by the Dodgers players, coaches, and most certainly by Dave Roberts (and a couple of media types), it’s probably safe to say that the Dodgers organization won’t go another 31 years before inviting one of the greatest and most popular Dodgers of all time back to spring training to speak with today’s new breed of Dodgers.

If they do, shame on them.