My Bat Boy Days: Lessons I Learned from the Boys of Summer

On the evening of March 28, 1956, Steve Garvey's father, a Greyhound bus driver in the Tampa Bay area, asked his young son if he'd like to accompany him as he drove the Brooklyn Dodgers to a spring-training game with the New York Yankees. For Garvey, a baseball card collector and an aspiring Little Leaguer, the opportunity stretched beyond his wildest imagination and marked the beginning of a legendary career and life in baseball.

Garvey spent five years (1956-1961) as a bat boy, mostly f...