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Steve Garvey. | Photo courtesy of Cbl62/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
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Retired Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres first baseman Steve Garvey, a Coachella Valley resident, will be the grand marshal for Monday’s Riverside County Presidents’ Day Parade.
The parade will begin at 9 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Miles Avenue and Deglet Noor Street and is a part of the larger Thrillville activities taking place through Feb. 27.
“On a week where we just crowned the newest sports champions of California, we are tremendously excited that Steve Garvey, another California champion and living legend in Dodgers history, has graciously agreed to be grand marshal for our community parade,” Supervisor Manuel Perez said Friday in announcing that Garvey would be the parade’s grand marshal.
“There is a lot of love for our Dodgers and for this resident of our community who, in my opinion, should be in the Hall of Fame. I thank Mr. Garvey for his dedication to our communities and look forward to a lot of people being there to celebrate him and cheer on local students who this parade is all about.”
Garvey played for the Dodgers from 1969 through 1982. He is fifth in team 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 was the National League MVP in 1974 and MVP in the NL Championship Series in 1978, the second year it was awarded. He was also selected as the 1984 NLCS MVP while playing for the San Diego Padres, where Garvey completed his career from 1983-87.
Garvey’s 1,207 consecutive game streak from 1975 to 1983 was the third longest in major league history when it ended after he broke his thumb in a home plate collision on July 29, 1983. It is now the fourth longest behind Cal Ripken Jr. (2,632), Lou Gehrig (2,130) and Everett Scott (1,307).
The first 1,107 games were with the Dodgers and the final 100 were with the Padres.
Garvey made the first of his 10 All-Star Game appearances in 1974 when he was elected as the NL’s starting first baseman as a write-in candidate. He was selected as the game’s MVP for going two-for-four with an RBI and scoring a run. He was also the MVP of the 1978 All-Star Game.
Garvey 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.
