Former MLB MVP Steve Garvey Advances to Election For California Senate Seat

Former National League MVP Steve Garvey is the latest former athlete to move into politics.

Garvey finished second in the California open primary on Tuesday night, making him the Republican nominee for the United States Senate in November.

Democrat Adam Schiff was the top overall vote-getter, but it was a close race with Garvey finishing 27,040 votes behind.

Schiff and Garvey were the only two candidates on the ballot who received more than 1 million votes from the California electorate. The two will now square off in the general election on Nov. 5.

They are competing to fill the seat vacated by Dianne Feinstein, who died last September at 90 years old after serving three decades in the Senate.

Since Garvey is a former baseball player, of course he had to work in an analogy from his career to express his excitement.

"Let's celebrate," Garvey told his supporters Tuesday night. "Welcome to the California comeback. What you all are feeling tonight is what it's like to hit a walk-off home run. Kind of like San Diego in 1984."

This is a reference to Garvey's walk-off homer off Chicago Cubs closer Lee Smith in Game 4 of the NLCS that tied the series 2-2. The Padres went on to win the series with a 6-3 victory in Game 5 that sent them to the first World Series in franchise history.

Garvey had a 19-year MLB career from 1969 to '87. He was a first-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1968 and played 14 seasons with them before signing with the Padres as a free agent in December 1982.

The Padres retired Garvey's No. 6 in 1988, making him the first player in franchise history to receive that honor. He was a 10-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner and won a World Series with the Dodgers in 1981.