Former LA Dodger Steve Garvey aims for the wall in U.S. Senate race

In the 1970s and '80s, baseball fans got used to Steve Garvey smashing winning home runs and clutch hits in key games, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a World Series victory in 1981. In a baseball career spanning nearly two decades, Garvey was named MVP for the Dodgers and, later, the San Diego Padres.

Now the former first baseman is headed to a very different kind of competition, a runoff election for an open U.S. Senate seat in California against Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff.

Garvey is hoping to become the first Republican elected to represent California in the Senate since 1988. That won't be easy in a state where registered Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans by nearly two to one.

A political outsider hopes to leverage discontent

Marva Diaz, a political strategist who owns California Target Book, a nonpartisan publication tracking elections in California, says while Garvey hit a home run in the primary, a low turnout affair that skewed older and more Republican, that was the easy part.

"November is a whole new ballgame, right? That turnout is going to be different. There are different things on the ballot that they're going to be turning out for," said Diaz, suggesting that a larger November voter turnout will help Schiff.

Adding to his challenges, Diaz says the RNC is unlikely to spend major amounts of money on a long shot campaign like Garvey's when there are other more competitive races they are facing in November.

Yet Lanhee Chen, who ran an unsuccessful bid as the Republican candidate for California's state controller two years ago, says Garvey's emergence despite his odds is significant.

"His candidacy represents something very different, I think, for California Republicans," said Chen, who is now