Steve Garvey: 220 Baseball Cards

Steve Garvey

I recently bought a lot of 220 Steve Garvey baseball cards. Steve Garvey is one of those baseball players who I’ve known about since I started following the sport when I was 5 or 6 in 1986-87. Garvey was the kind of baseball player my grandma liked, because he was handsome and polite and always said the right thing. After Garvey’s retirement, he was in the public eye because of paternity suits filed by women that Garvey had out of wedlock children with. Oops. Garvey’s image as the perfect, All-American boy was tarnished.

When Steve Garvey debuted on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1993, he seemed a pretty sure bet to eventually be elected, and he garnered 41.6% of the votes on that ballot. A great start, and Garvey was already more than halfway to the 75% necessary for induction. But Garvey’s candidacy peaked with 42.6% of the vote in 1995, his 3^rd year on the ballot. Suddenly, as players started putting up huge power numbers during the 1990’s, a first baseman with 272 home runs and 1,308 RBIs didn’t seem so impressive anymore. When Garvey hit the Hall of Fame ballot, he was 81^st on the all-time home run list, and 66^th for RBI’s. Now, almost 30 years later, Garvey is 194^th on the home run list and 109^th in RBI’s. Garvey survived all 15 years on the BBWAA ballot, always getting more than 20% of the vote, but never making any progress towards being elected.

In the years since Garvey aged off the BBWAA ballot, he was considered by the 2017 and 2019 Era Committees, the replacement for the “Veteran’s Committees.” In 2019, Garvey got 6 votes, half of the total needed for election. So, there’s still a possibility that he will end up with a plaque in Cooperstown.

As sabermetrics have become more and more popular, Garvey’s Hall of Fame case hasn’t received any additional momentum. Because he hardly ever walked, sabermetrics don’t help Garvey’s case for the Hall of Fame. Garvey’s excellence was summed up by the stats on the back of his baseball card: batting average and RBIs were his strengths. I haven’t read very many articles advocating for Garvey’s election to the Hall of Fame. The old-school scribes haven’t been pouring out columns about his grit, leadership, and clutch playing the way they did for Jack Morris. I feel like Garvey was overrated during his career, and now he’s been underrated by the sabermetric stats, so it’s hard to get an accurate feel for how he should be evaluated.  

Using the JAWS score, a stat developed by Jay Jaffe, Garvey is ranked 51^st in JAWS for 1^st basemen. In the JAWS table on baseball-reference, you can sort it by MVP shares, where Garvey ranks 15^th. This shows how highly valued Garvey was during his career. If you sort it by All-Star games Garvey is tied for 6^th with Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, and Johnny Mize. (JAWS puts DHs like Ortiz at first base.)

I don’t know that Steve Garvey needs to be in the Hall of Fame, but if he was elected, I would understand why. Garvey has the “fame” part of the Hall of Fame covered for sure. Garvey was a 10-time All-Star, the 1974 NL MVP, and the MVP of the 1974 and 1978 All-Star Games. Garvey had 28 at-bats in his 10 All-Star Games, and he hit .393 in those 10 games. I’m not saying how you play in All-Star Games should be a criterion for the Hall of Fame, but it once again shows Garvey’s uncanny ability to play well in big games. Garvey received votes for MVP every year between 1974 and 1981, and again in 1984. In addition to his 1974 MVP award, he had 4 other Top 10 finishes in MVP voting. Garvey won 4 Gold Gloves, from 1974-77. Garvey set a record for consecutive errorless games at first base. Garvey still holds the NL record for consecutive games played, with 1,207, from 1975 to 1983. The only player who has had a longer consecutive games streak since 1983 is the Iron Man himself, Cal Ripken.

Steve Garvey was a clutch player: he appeared in 11 post-season series, and his post-season batting average in 55 games was .338. Garvey hit .368 in the 1981 NLDS, .356 in 5 NLCS, and .319 in 5 World Series, so this isn’t a case of him simply having one monster post-season series that dwarfs all the others. Garvey was selected as the NLCS MVP in 1978 and 1984.

Garvey is a curious player, as he had so much recognition and fame during his career, yet he remains outside of the Hall of Fame. If you just recite his awards, it seems impossible that he’s not in the Hall of Fame. 10-time All-Star, MVP winner, 4-time Gold Glove winner, played in 5 World Series, 2-time NLCS MVP. It’s hard to think of another baseball player who has a similar resume and isn’t in the Hall of Fame, besides players like Pete Rose, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, who remain outside the Hall of Fame because of their connections to gambling and steroids.

Garvey was one of the active players included in Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig’s 1981 book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. Ritter and Honig knew they were taking a chance by including active players on their list, and some of their selections, like Dave Parker, Fred Lynn, and George Foster, were replaced in the 1986 edition of the book. But Steve Garvey survived the cut and was included in both editions of the book. The book basically touts Garvey’s ability to hit .300 and get 200 hits every year—skills that are somewhat out of fashion in 2021. But it speaks to Garvey’s fame and reputation during his career that two widely respected baseball historians ranked him among the 100 greatest players.

Steve Garvey's 1971 Topps card. It's such a great rookie card. (All photos of baseball cards in this post by Mark C. Taylor)

But enough about Steve Garvey and the Hall of Fame. Let’s talk about Steve Garvey’s baseball cards, because the man had a lot of very cool baseball cards. In the world of rookie cards, Garvey’s rookie card, 1971 Topps #341, is pretty famous. It’s also a great example of a solo rookie card from that era. Garvey poses with his hands on his knees, giving us a half-smile as he gets ready to field an imaginary ground ball. The picture was taken during the 1969 season, as Garvey sports the then-new MLB logo patch on his left arm. When I was a kid during the 1980’s, this was one of the coolest rookie cards from a great year of Topps cards. My 1988 book Baseball Cards: 300 All-Time Stars says that Garvey’s rookie card is worth $48 in near mint condition.

Steve Garvey had an uncanny knack for always knowing when there was a camera pointed at him, and I would guess that’s a big part of the reason why people either loved or hated him. Unlike most baseball players, Garvey doesn’t have any awkward baseball cards where he looks like he has no idea someone is taking a photo of him. If it’s a posed photo, Steve Garvey is smiling. Always.

Steve Garvey's iconic 1974 Topps card. A work of art.

The lot I bought didn’t include Garvey’s rookie card, or his 1972 and 1973 cards. But it did include Garvey’s iconic 1974 Topps card. This baseball card is simply a work of art. Poems and sonatas have been written about the beauty and perfection of this single baseball card. Okay, that’s a lie, but still, it’s an amazing card. Garvey’s 1974 card is a horizontal photo, something of a rarity in that set. The photo captures Garvey in the follow-through of his swing, with just his left hand on the bat. You can see the crowd in the background, but their faces are blurred and indistinct. We expect photos to always be super sharp, to show us the world in greater clarity, so the blurred background gives Garvey’s card the effect of a painting. It’s the only baseball card that could be mistaken for an Edvard Munch painting. (Well, maybe Dave Kingman’s 1974 Topps could have been painted by Munch as well.) It’s a terrific image, and what makes the card even cooler is that 1974 proved to be Steve Garvey’s breakout season. In 1974, Garvey became the second player ever voted to the All-Star team as a write-in candidate. (Rico Carty was the first, in 1970.) Garvey would win the All-Star Game MVP award, lead his Dodgers to the World Series, and win the NL MVP award, firmly establishing himself as a star player. He also won his first Gold Glove award. All in all, Steve Garvey’s 1974 season was one of those special years where everything comes together for a player in a spectacular fashion.

Steve Garvey, 1981 Fleer, "Most Hits NL." This is the closest Steve Garvey comes to not smiling for the camera.

The 1981 Fleer card of Steve Garvey “Most Hits NL,” is the closest he comes to not smiling on a baseball card. Both Fleer and Donruss gave Garvey 2 baseball cards in their inaugural 1981 sets, indicating his star power. Garvey left the Dodgers as a free agent after the 1982 season. The Padres made Garvey a better offer, and he moved down the California coast to San Diego. How much did the Padres have to shell out for Garvey? $6.6 million over 5 years. Shocking, I know! If Garvey were a free agent today, he’d get a nine-figure deal for sure.

Garvey's 1985 Topps card is a little cheesy, but I like it.

Even though it’s jarring to see Garvey trade in his Dodger blues for the yellow and brown of the Padres, he still had some very cool cards with the Padres. Garvey’s 1985 Topps card is perhaps a little cheesy, as it’s a posed photo of him holding a bat and smiling broadly. But I think it’s better than all those cards of players staring off blankly into space, seemingly unaware that a photographer is there. I’ll take a cheesy grin over obliviousness.

I think Garvey's 1986 Topps card is very cool.

Garvey’s 1986 Topps card is a great one. He’s holding up his first baseman’s glove, as though he’s expecting a throw. But he’s looking in the opposite direction that a throw would be coming from. Maybe that’s just how cool Steve Garvey is—he doesn’t even need to look at a throw to be able to catch it.

Power hitters come in all sizes.

In this 1986 Fleer “Super Star Special,” 5’10” Garvey looks tiny next to 6’5” Dave Parker and 6’4” Dale Murphy. It feels like Garvey should be a perfect 6 feet tall, especially considering the power he had as a hitter. Garvey played college football at Michigan State, and he just looked powerful, with those giant forearms.

Going into the 1986 season, Garvey had 2,441 hits. Over the 12 previous seasons, except for the strike-shortened 1981 season, and 1983, when Garvey broke his thumb and only played in 100 games, Garvey’s lowest hit total was 175. 1986 was Garvey’s age 37 season. It’s not crazy to project Garvey getting to 3,000 hits at that point. Let’s say he plays until age 40. That’s 4 more seasons. Let’s say he gets 175 hits each season. That gives him 700 hits, for a grand total of 3,141. Let’s say Steve gets less hits each season, say, 4 more seasons of 150 hits. Then he’s at 3,041. Of course, that’s all projection, but it wasn’t crazy to think that Garvey had a good chance of getting to 3,000 hits. What happened was that he only got 142 hits in 1986 and 16 hits in 1987 before he went down with a torn biceps tendon in his left shoulder. It was a season-ending injury, and Garvey had surgery to repair the torn tendon. The Padres didn’t offer Garvey a contract for 1988, and neither did any other team.

This is what I picture when I think of Steve Garvey.

Garvey’s 1987 Topps card is the picture that pops up in my head when I think of Steve Garvey. The photo shows Garvey stretching before a game. His hat is off, and in true Steve Garvey fashion, he’s smiling. Not a full, mouth-open, teeth-showing smile, but a smile nonetheless, showing off the dimple in his cheek. This one baseball card told me a lot of information about Steve Garvey: he’s flexible, he’s handsome, he has a great head of hair, and he looks more than a little pleased with himself. It’s a very cool card, and one of my favorites from the 1987 Topps set.

Steve's always smiling, even in this 1987 Donruss action shot.

Garvey’s 1987 Donruss card is an action shot that shows Garvey tracking the flight of a ball he has just walloped. Even in this photo he’s smiling. Because rule number one of being Steve Garvey is: Steve Garvey always smiles for the camera. Rule number two of being Steve Garvey is: Steve Garvey’s hair is always perfect.

My Minnesota Twins drafted Garvey in the June 1966 draft, but he didn’t sign, and the Dodgers got him in the first round in June 1968. In my mind, I like to imagine what would have happened if the Twins had managed to sign Garvey and also held onto Graig Nettles, instead of trading him to the Indians in 1969. Visions of a 1970’s Twins infield of Garvey, Nettles, and Rod Carew dance in my head. Oh well, it wasn’t to be. Garvey was simply meant to play for the Dodgers.