THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, Sept. 4, 2015

Serving as a motivational speaker around the country anywhere from 40 to 45 times per year, going back 40 years into his playing days, former Spokane Indian, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres legend Steve Garvey paid a visit to his old Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1970s, the Spokane Indians at Avista Stadium.

Garvey showed up in Spokane on Tuesday as part of the Mobil Super "Go the Distance" Tour, a 23-city tour featuring former baseball players Rollie Fingers, Lee Smith, Frank Tanana, Rick Ankiel and Dale Murphy.

SITTING IN the second row behind home plate - toward the first-base dugout, of course - the 66-year-old Garvey went over quite a few subjects with some of the same confidence evident throughout his 19-year major league career when he blasted 272 career home runs and hit .294. He was part of the 1981 Dodgers team that won the World Series and was a 10-time All-Star and MVP in 1974, retiring in 1987 with the Padres.

And yes, the resident of Indian Wells, Calif., near Palm Springs, has been to North Idaho, including The Coeur d'Alene Resort sometime in the early 2000s, to give a couple of motivational speeches.

"I've been to Coeur d'Alene a couple of times," Garvey said. "I've been there to give speeches, thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been to Boise and I've always enjoyed my visits there."

LAST YEAR on July 8 at an Indians game, Garvey threw out the ceremonial first pitch and got to watch his son, Ryan Garvey, play for the Tri-City Dust Devils.

Garvey remembers his days playing in Spokane quite fondly.

"It's a great American city with great values, great character," Garvey said.

"It's warm and friendly. I was here a couple of times the last 45 years and people come up that had families then and their kids are now old kids who have their own families. So that's a matter of time and it's so nice to see them again. I have lots of invitations to have dinner but unfortunately I only have 36 hours to stay here. But I always think of this area very fondly and I think of this town and people that helped me mature on and off the field and prepare for the major leagues."

Of course, being one of the best ballplayers in baseball history - although he has never received more than 42.6 percent of the vote and would need 75 percent to become enshrined in Cooperstown - Garvey enjoys watching the young guys who try to make it to the big leagues, like he did.

"I love minor league baseball," Garvey said. "It's very American. You're up close and personal, you're watching them develop their skills and it's a business that's done well. You see a lot of young men and women where this is their first entry-level position in the business world and it's sports and entertainment. It's a short, active season where there's a long offseason leading up to it, so it's a great business ... when I was contacted, I asked 'Where is it?' They said 'It's in Spokane' I said 'OK.' So I switched a few things around so I could be here today."

GARVEY WAS selected with the 13th overall pick in the first round of the June secondary phase draft by the Dodgers in 1968 and in the regular draft in June, the team also drafted Bobby Valentine fifth and Bill Buckner was picked in the second round with the 25th overall pick.

The secondary phase part of the draft, which existed from 1966 to 1986, was for players that went unsigned in one draft to be placed in a special pool, or secondary phase, in the following draft, effectively exposing them a wider spectrum of teams. Selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 1966 MLB Draft,, Garvey instead elected to enroll at Michigan State.

"It all started with the 1968 draft," Garvey said. "It was one of the greatest drafts in history. Most of us went to Ogden (Utah) with Tom (Lasorda) and it was Valentine, Buckner and we had quite a team there, won the Pioneer League and then of course, 1970, Bill Buckner and I won positions on the major league team. After a couple of weeks, we came back down, the team (Dodgers) wasn't very good, we started slowly. By the third week of April, Tommy Lasorda met us at the airport, and I thought he'd say 'Let's go to lunch' and he said 'Let's go to the ballpark, I'm going to throw you batting practice for a couple of hours and over that summer, I was up and down (between Spokane and Los Angeles) and in the '70s, we were part of that great (Spokane) team that won the division by 28 games, beat Hawaii for the PCL championship and that was the last step in this ascension to the big leagues."

OF COURSE, nowadays the Indians are the short-season single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. But Garvey's presence made some harken back to the 1970 Spokane infield of future Dodgers like Valentine at short, Davey Lopes at second base, Buckner at first base and Garvey at third. While playing football at Michigan State, Garvey separated his right shoulder, which affected his throwing accuracy and in 1973 he moved to first base for the Dodgers.

And oh yeah, some future Hall of Fame manager known as Tommy Lasorda led the squad.

In 1993, that team that ended up beating Hawaii to win the 1970 PCL title was voted by Baseball America as the best infield in the second half of the 20th century.

GARVEY HAD a few opinions on how the Los Angeles Dodgers currently do things, mostly through free agency as opposed to back in his day, when they filled the roster using the draft and farm systems.

Contrast this to say, the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates, who have been right in the thick of the National League playoff race for the past few years, who grow from within and add a few veteran pieces in the offseason and at the trade deadline here and there.

"It depends on the financial strength of the franchise," Garvey said. "The Dodgers are owned by the Guggenheim Partners and they have a very strong financial balance and they have $306 million in payroll. But they have (president and CEO, former Atlanta Braves executive) Stan Kasten, who's one of the great executives in baseball and who knows that you really need to build a foundation in your minor league system."

Garvey also had an opinion on the Seattle Mariners, who were considered by some baseball writers to be a potential World Series contender but are among the worst teams in baseball.

"It's not necessarily that they failed," Garvey said. "They just haven't been able to succeed at putting together a gameplan and a philosophy. I think it's important to go back to the fundamentals. Some years they've had plenty of pitching and haven't been able to manufacture runs in the wake of the big hit. Do the fundamentals well, hit the ball where it's pitched, go the other way, hit and run, throw strikes, don't go 100 pitches by the sixth inning. These are the things that if done consistently, can win games and then win pennants. But they've got talent."

ONE FINAL note. Back in March of 2003, while working as a sports writer for The Porterville Recorder, just south of Visalia, Calif., I interviewed Garvey in the central California town of Lindsay, Calif. He had a middle school that was named after him and made the trek there for what was then the 25th year in a row. In 1978 - the year I was born, coincidentally - former Principal Bob Edwards, who was a former Dodgers public relations consultant - he was as affable and warm back then as he is now.

On Tuesday, one of the most memorable Spokane Indians returned to one of his minor league roots and hit yet another one out of the park, so to speak.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25