In the seventh inning tonight, the Pirates managed to get a runner on first base with one out after Andrew McCutchen drew a walk. They had runners on base more or less all night and failed to really do much with any of them, but with Tabata up and Neil Walker stinging the ball all night maybe this would be the inning they would break through. Instead, Jose Tabata bounced into a routine 6-4-3 double play. At that point it became obvious that this would be the night that losing season #18 would be clinched.
The reason that I mention this play out of any of a number of plays from tonight’s game is Carlos Garcia. As the play unfolded, you could see Garcia leaning towards the bag with his hands on his thighs (the way he always is), staring intently at first base, willing Tabata to beat the throw. Tabata can fly and he nearly does beat the throw, but he was out by a clear half-step or step. Garcia doesn’t even move from hunched-forwards position; he just hangs his head and stays there as the camera cuts away.
Garcia is a good lens through which to view this losing streak. He made brief appearances for the Pirates in 1990, 1991, and 1992, but he didn’t earn a starting job with the club until 1993. He was 25 that year and though he and Orlando Merced and Don Slaught and Jay Bell and Jeff King and Al Martin fought on valiantly in the absence of Barry Bonds and Doug Drabek, they couldn’t overcome a terrible pitching staff and a devastating injury to Andy Van Slyke and the club won just 75 games and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1989. In 1994, he made the All-Star team as the Pirates’ lone representative in a game they hosted and he singled in front of the home crowd. In 1996, he was traded to the Blue Jays with Merced for, among other players, Abraham Nunez and Craig Wilson. He played his last big league game in 1999. Merced fought on as a bench player for various clubs (mostly the Astros) until 2003. Craig Wilson played his last big league game in 2007 and Abraham Nunez played his in 2008. Garcia bounced around as a coach a bit, but came back to the club he played most of his career with last winter, to teach infield and coach first base. And tonight, he watched helplessly from the first base coach’s box as the club he once played for and is now coaching lost their 82nd game for the 18th consecutive season, a stretch that for all intents and purposes began with his career and has extended far too long beyond it.
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