Local restaurateur and athlete Steve Finley busy on the field and off

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Although Steve Finley had to be away from his family this Father’s Day, he spent the day doing one of his absolute favorite things - prowling the outfield at a ballpark in upstate New York.

The local resident, father of five, and former San Diego Padres star center fielder was invited to play in the inaugural Hall of Fame Classic at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York, the home of baseball’s Hall of Fame. A group of recently retired Major Leaguers mixed it up with five Hall of Famers on the ball field.

According to an account of Sunday’s game posted on the Hall of Fame Web site, Finley missed a home run by inches and later scored a run.

When he’s not hob-nobbing with baseball royalty, Finley, 44, keeps busy here in North County - he owns a restaurant, Flight, in Del Mar, runs a new fitness and training program, gives motivational speeches and keeps one ear on the phone in case a big league club calls. He also heads a charitable program that brightens the Christmas holidays for poor families.

Over a 19-year Major League career, Finley played for the Orioles, Astros, Padres, Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Giants, and last played for the Rockies in 2007. Although he doesn’t expect to be signed this season, he isn’t quite ready to hang up his glove for good.

“I would hate to have a Brett Favre scenario,” Finley joked during a recent interview at the Santaluz Club, referring to the former Green Bay Packers quarterback who announced his retirement in early 2008, then played came back to play for the New York Jets.

Finley made two World Series appearances in his career, one with the Padres in 1998, and one with the Diamondbacks in 2001. Both teams played the New York Yankees, and Finley broke even: the Padres lost, while the Diamondbacks won.

“It’s a matter of who’s hot and who’s lucky,” as to how a given World Series turns out, Finley said. He noted that the 2001 Diamondbacks outscored and dominated the Yankees, but said the momentum of the Padres-Yankees series could have shifted dramatically if a close call at the plate in Game 1 had gone differently. On a 2-2 pitch with the Yankees’ Tino Martinez batting, the home plate umpire called a ball, allowing Martinez to stay alive and hit the next pitch into the stands for a grand slam.

Finley said he wouldn’t trade the experience. “A lot of players never get the chance to play in a World Series, let alone win one,” he said.

On his recent trip to Cooperstown, Finley did have one member of his family along, his 7-year-old daughter Franchesca. He said she was most excited at the prospect of seeing the Statue of Liberty during a stopover in New York City.

Finley’s current endeavors include overseeing the Flight restaurant on Via de la Valle in Del Mar, which includes a lounge where a D.J. often spins records. He described the menu as California contemporary cuisine, with an emphasis on locally grown produce.

Among his favorite dishes, he said, are an arugula and goat cheese salad, the filet, and the mashed potatoes with crème fraîche.

He’s also starting up a training and fitness program with a close friend, Durdam Rocherolle.

“My first passion is baseball and my second is training,” said Finley, who has a degree in physiology from Southern Illinois University.

The Balance Your Life program will involve three sessions each week with Finley and Rocherolle conducting the training. The cost of the program, which includes strength, flexibility and conditioning components, is $960 a month.

Students will also be taught how to relieve stress and improve concentration through meditation and other techniques, Finley said.

“I call it getting in the zone,” Finley said. “Whatever you do, the more you can clearly focus, the better you’re going to be.”

A two-day Balance Your Life training session is scheduled for Aug. 1-2. More information can be found at www.balanceyourlifetraining.com.

For the past eight years, Finley has also organized a “Secret Santa” program, which now has a fund set up with the San Diego Foundation.

Volunteers assemble gifts, Christmas meals and even fully decorated trees, which are set up during brief visits while the families are out of their homes. Finley said the crews can clean and decorate a home in 30 minutes, before heading to the next stop on their route.

Last year, he said, the program helped 10 families, including the donations of two cars to families that needed transportation. This year he hopes to expand the program to 15 families. Finley invited San Diegans to contact him through his Web site, www.stevefinley.com, to nominate families who need assistance.

“Our goal and our mission is to give people a wonderful Christmas, period,” he said.

Joe Tash writes for the Rancho Santa Fe Review where this story originally appeared.

Tags: SDNN

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Local News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.