LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Former San Diego Padres star Steve Garvey has announced Tuesday he is running for U.S. Senate, according to media reports.
Garvey, who also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, will run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican, the Los Angeles Times is reporting. He will be vying for the office that Dianne Feinstein previously had before she died last month.
Garvey joins a race for senate against three popular Democrats, Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, all current members of the House of Representatives.
Laphonza Butler was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Gavin Newsom following Feinstein's death. Butler, 44, has not indicated whether she will run for a full term in November.
Garvey, 74, told the Times he has been planning a run for senate for months.
"In those 20 years that I played for the Dodgers and the Padres, played up in cold Candlestick Park, I never played for Democrats or Republicans or independents," Garvey told the Times. "I played for all the fans, and I'm running for all the people."
Garvey lives in Palm Desert and has never been elected to public office. He played for the Dodgers from 1969 to 1982 and for the Padres from 1983 to 1987 before retiring from baseball. He won a World Series with the Dodgers in 1981 and was a 10-time National League All Star.
He collected 2,599 hits in his major league career, including six seasons of at least 200 hits, and hit 272 home runs with 1,308 runs batted in. He finished with a lifetime batting average of .294.
Garvey's No. 6 is among the six jersey numbers retired by the Padres.
Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, along with fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer. Garvey will be entering a U.S. Senate race in California that has been won by a Democrat since 1992.
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