Retired first baseman Steve Garvey will become the second inductee to the Legends of Dodger Baseball before Saturday night's game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium.
The late Brooklyn Dodgers pitching great Don Newcombe was the first inductee, inducted before the April 27 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Fernando Valenzuela will be the final inductee for the 2019 season, July 20 before the game against Miami Marlins.
The team will induct legends on an annual basis in recognition of their impact on the franchise, both on and off the field. Inductees will receive a plaque honoring their Dodger achievements, which will also be on permanent display at Dodger Stadium.
Garvey's induction coincides with the Dodgers Alumni game. Garvey will make an appearance before the Alumni Game, along with the other three members of the team's record-setting infield, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey.
The Dodgers chose Garvey in the first round of the 1968 Major League Baseball draft, the 13th overall selection. However, his first association with the team began in 1956. His father drove a Greyhound bus based in Tampa and the Dodgers often had the elder Garvey as their driver on bus trips through Florida during spring training.
The elder Garvey persuaded the Dodgers to allow his son to be a bat boy during spring training, a role he had for several seasons. He wrote a book about those experiences in 2008, "My Bat Boy Days: Lessons I Learned from the Boys of Summer."
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Garvey made his debut with the Dodgers as a September call-up in 1969 when the rosters expanded to 40 players. He made the team out of spring training in 1970 and was the opening-day starting third baseman.
The day before the opener, Garvey filmed a Vitalis commercial that featured Pete Rose, destined to become MLB's career hits leader.
Garvey was 2-for-23 to start the 1970 season, an .087 average, and was demoted to the Dodgers' Pacific Coast League affiliate in Spokane, Washington. He returned to the Dodgers in July when Russell left for military duty, but demoted again to Spokane later that month to make room on the roster for catcher-third baseman Bill Sudakis when he returned from military reserve duty.
Garvey was again a September call-up in 1970 and would remain with the team through 1982. In his 12 full seasons with the team, he was an eight-time All-Star selection, starting five times and the All-Star Game MVP in 1974 and 1978.
Garvey was the National League MVP in 1974 and MVP in the National League Championship Series in 1978, the second year it was awarded.
He went from a wild-throwing third baseman to a slick-fielding first baseman, receiving four Gold Glove awards and sharing the Dodgers' highest career fielding percentage for a first baseman, .996, with Wes Parker.
He is fifth in Dodgers history in hits (1,968) and runs batted in (992), sixth in home runs (211), extra-base hits (579) and total bases (3,004) and third in doubles (333).
Garvey is the NL's career record-holder in consecutive games with 1,207, the fourth-longest streak in major league history.
Garvey played the final five seasons of his major league career with the San Diego Padres, helping lead them to their first NL pennant in 1984. He retired following the 1987 season.
