Day 4: 30 baseball books in 30 days of April
The book: "My Bat Boy Days: Lessons I Learned from the Boys of Summer"
The author: Steve Garvey (with Ken Gurnick and Candace Garvey)
How to find it: Scribner Publishing, 149 pages, $21
Where we'd go looking for it: You'd have thought on his own website, but no. We'll go back to Powell's online bookstore link. There's also, in the Garvey library, this one simply called "Garvey" from 1986, if you're looking for some context.
The scoop: As the story goes, Garvey, growing up in Tampa, Fla., spent five years (1956-61) as a fill-in bat boy during spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers (as well as the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees) between the ages of 7 and 12, because his dad drove a Greyhound bus that often transported teams between the airport and ballfields. Garvey's grandfather was a Brooklyn policeman who used to have Ebbets Field on his beat. So when Steve grew up to be a Dodgers All-Star first baseman, it was pretty much how the family line was meant to be.
So, what did little Steve really learn?
From Pee Wee Reese, leadership.
From Gil Hodges, dignity.
From Carl Erskine, honesty.
From Jackie Robinson, passion.
From Duke Snider, persistence.
From Roy Campanella, compassion.
From Sandy Koufax, faith.
From Mickey Mantle, fortitude.
And from Al Kaline, perfection.
Now, do you believe it?
Garvey admits his wife, Candace, helped compile the list for him to form the book. And Ken Gurnick, currently the MLB.com writer covering the Dodgers, filled in all the background on each player. It's not really clear how much time Garv actually spent with each of these guys -- it seems mostly he played catch with Hodges, but beyond that, there isn't much detail.
"How lucky was I!" he wrote. "Just a kid who got a chance to be close to greatness. To learn from the best, not just how to play the game, but how to live life with grace and character. Even with their flaws, which made me blush as a kid, it didn't change the greatness of who these men were in their souls."
So, flash forward to the Garvey of today -- a flawed man, sure. One who, despite his many accomplishments on the field that should have put him in the Hall of Fame, had some nutty things happen to him in his personal life. His perfect image was tarnished.
But should that be his legacy? Is he trying to make a connection there, between himself and those other great stars who also had their issues?
In the epilogue, the very last paragraph of the book is the most revealing:
"My personal philosophy is to live life with a winning lineup of virtues, supported by a bench full of motivation and execution skills, all for the glory of God and my family. To be perfectly honest, I have failed miserably at times during my life, but when I realized that we are on this earth to serve, I was able to get up each time and go to bat for what I believed in, wiser and stronger."
How's that for some introspection? Any reaction from Cyndi Garvey?
See how far that takes him in the public eye.
How it goes down in the scorebook: Definitely not E3. A clutch hit in a big game, more likely.
By the way: Garvey will be signing this book tonight (7 p.m.) at the Borders in Torrance (near Hawthorne and Torrance Blvds) and Saturday (1 p.m.) at the Barnes And Noble in Palm Desert.
Leave a comment