Where have you gone, Carlos Garcia?

This is slightly old news (last Friday), but all of the blogging I did over the weekend consisted of FanHouse chats and prospect writing (it’s taking longer than I wanted, but they should be done soon). I still want to at least mention that the Pirates have hired ex-Pirate Carlos Garcia to take over for Perry Hill, both as first base coach and infield instructor.

My memories of Garcia are entirely composed of two completely different incidents. One is his single at the 1994 All-Star Game. He the only Pirate at the game in Three Rivers and given that that game is one of those indelible baseball memories that I will never, ever forget, it was thrilling to see the lone Pirate represent Pittsburgh that day.

The other memory I have is of a home run he hit at Wrigley Field. I remember almost none of the details; I don’t know what year the game was in, whether the Pirates won or not, or at what part of the season the game took place. Garcia hit five of his 33 homers at Wrigley, so the actual details of the home run are lost to the depths of my memory. What I do remember is Garcia lining a ball down the left field line and that off the bat, it looked more like a single than anything. It just kept carrying, though and Greg Brown was yelling, “Line drive to the corner! This could be two bases! This could be three bases! THIS IS GONNA BE FOUR BASES!!!”

Garcia was not a great player. The best players rarely make the best coaches, though. Garcia’s been coaching infields since 2003, and it seems like he’s done a good job of it. Welcome back Carlos; here’s to the Pirate teams you’re about to coach being better than the Pirate teams you played for.