Off the field, Garvin was prone to fighting and excessive drinking, and Garvin\'s behavior led to the end of his MLB career in 1904. Over the course of his career, he was implicated in the assaults of a team traveling secretary and an insurance salesman, the shooting of a saloonkeeper and the attempted murder of a black man at a barber shop. Garvin died of tuberculosis less than four years after his last major league appearance.\n', '

Garvin was born in Navasota, Texas. He entered professional baseball in 1895 with a Texas League team in Sherman, Texas. After playing for part of the next year with a minor league team in New Haven, Connecticut, Garvin made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1896. He returned to the minor leagues with a team in Reading, Pennsylvania, where he played in 1897 and 1898.\n', '

Near the beginning of the 20th century, Garvin developed an unusual pitch that curved in the opposite direction of the typical curveball thrown by a right-handed pitcher. Garvin\'s long fingers allowed him to hold the ball with a unique grip. Sportswriter Hugh Fullerton described the pitch, writing that "the ball appeared to be moving with great speed. As it came near the batter the ball seemed to hesitate in the air and then suddenly curve down and in, just as a left hander\'s slow curve does. The ball was a freak. Garvin did not understand its full worth and it remained for [pitcher Christy Mathewson] to develop and use it intelligently."\n', '

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