Baseball star Steve Garvey plagued by tax debt as he pursues GOP Senate run: analysis

A former Los Angeles Dodgers player who hopes to be California's next Republican senator hasn't been able to dodge the tax problems as he pursues his campaign, according to a new analysis.

Steve Garvey, once a Major League Baseball first baseman, and his various businesses have been named in more than 40 tax liens totaling about $3.85 million in federal and state taxes, according to Politico's reporting on county records.

"Twelve of Garvey’s federal tax liens totaled more than $3.2 million since 1994," Politico reported. "Much of the rest of the debt in Garvey’s name, about $575,000, was in state tax liens. Six of the state tax liens were executed between June 2018 and October 2023 that total more than $250,000 and the Los Angeles and Riverside county records show they haven’t been satisfied."

The 75-year-old Garvey, known as "Mr. Clean" during his playing days, retired from baseball in 1987 and attempted to make a living from infomercials and motivational speaking, but his political aspirations were dashed by custody battles and other legal problems as part of what he called a "mid-life disaster" in a 1989 interview.

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Garvey has made some progress on his debts by clearing four federal liens totaling nearly $2 million in 1998, and about $47,000 in the state tax liens were released between 1985 and 2010.

The most recent federal tax lien was executed in November 2018 for $324,628 for the tax periods ending in December 2005 and December 2006, while his most recent state tax lien was executed in October for $25,742 due to unpaid obligations from the 2012 tax year.

“Do I expect to pay every debt? Do I want to? Absolutely,” Garvey said in a 2006 interview. “The day I’m able to be debt-free is the day I’m going to be the happiest guy around.”