The 18th most-common North American surname is "Garcia" -- and it's the highest-ranking non-Anglo surname on the list; yes, yes, we've already unveiled the All-Martinez team, but keep in mind that Martinez ranks 19th, or just behind Garcia, among North American surnames.
Latino naming conventions are somewhat different, of course, so we will make some allowances for what "surname" means by focusing on those players who commonly used the name as the "second" or "family" name -- you know, the one that appears on the back of the jersey. That means that former All-Star middle infielders Carlos Jesus Garcia Guerrero and Damaso Domingo Garcia Sanchez are eligible. They'd better be ..
... because once we eliminate former CAL and CLE skipper Dave Garcia, who will manage the club but who never appeared in a big league game as a player, we are left with precisely 25 Garcias who have played while wearing a MLB uniform, meaning we have to use every single one to fill out a 25-man roster.
Given how many of those Garcias, not limited to the two already mentioned, were primarily middle infielders -- I count eight of the 25, or nearly a third -- filling out that roster could be quite difficult.
It's worth noting that no Garcia played in the major leagues before Ramon made four appearances with the Senators in 1948, and only three had appeared in the big leagues by 1976.
As limiting as that may seem to be, we'd love to include BOS/CHC SS Nomar Garciaparra on the team, but he's not on parra with this team's qualifications; and though Ralph Garr was fast enough to be nicknamed "The Roadrunner," not even the echoes of "Ralph Garr, See Ya!" will get the 1974 NL batting champ onto this roster. That's okay -- even without Nomar and Garr, we have four former All-Stars available to the roster -- the aforementioned Carlos and Damaso, along with RHSPs Freddy and Mike.
But wait, which Freddy is that? Well, Freddy A. of course ... but wait, which Freddy A. Garcia? Yes, there have been two, and both are (obviously) going to make this roster. In fact, that's a good example of a problem with our Garcia team -- while, as mentioned, it's the 18th most-common North American surname, of the 25 players with that surname who played in the big leagues, we have two Dannys, two Freddys, two Luises, two Mikes (and a Miguel) and two Ramons (and a Rosman).
So we'd better be pretty clear as we meet ...
THE CHERRY GARCIAS
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
MGR Dave Garcia (307-310, 1977-82 CAL, CLE)
Lineup
C Guillermo Garcia (8-for 40 with 1998 CIN and '99 FLA)
1B Danny R. Garcia (2-for-14 for 1981 KCR; 6 games in OF, 2 at 1B)
2B Damaso Garcia* (.283, 203 SB, 1978-89)
SS Carlos Garcia* (.266, 1990-99, mostly a 2B, 67 games at SS)
3B Freddy Adrian Garcia (.222, 1995-99 PIT/ATL)
LF Karim Garcia (.241, 66 homers, 1995-2004)
CF Luis Garcia (1-for-3 in six games with 2002 BAL)
RF Leo Garcia (.172 with 1987-88 CIN)
DH/UTIL Kiko Garcia (.239, 1976-85)
Pitching
RHSP Edward M. "Mike" Garcia* (142-97; 79-41, 1951-54 CLE)
RHSP Freddy Antonio Garcia* (99-62 through 2005)
RHS-RP Ramon A. Garcia (17-16 with 1991 CHW, '96 MIL, '97 HOU)
RHRP Rosman Garcia (1-2 in 50 games with 2003-04 TEX)
RHRP Reynaldo Garcia (0-0 in 20 games with 2002-03 TEX)
LHRP Miguel Garcia (0-2 with 1987-89 CAl, PIT)
GarCia-Notes: Let's not kid ourselves about building a bench; of the five Garcias not in the starting lineup, three played 2B (Danny J. hit .227 with the 2002-03 Mets, Amaury was 5-for-24 with the 1999 Marlins, and Chico hit all of .113, 7-for-62, for the 1954 Orioles), one has been a 2B/SS (Jesse is at .216 through 2005) and just for variety's sake, the other was a SS/2B (Luis "no middle initial" was 1-for-9 with the 1999 Tigers) ...
Nine of the 10 Garcias who have taken to the mound have been right-handed ... The two best have clearly been former Indian All-Star Mike, whose 142 career victories, at least for a few years more, continues to outpace CHW hurler Freddy Antonio Garcia, another All-Star who is 99-62 through 2005 ... The only lefty on the staff is cup-of-coffee reliever Miguel, who was 0-2 with the Angels and Pirates from 1987-89 ...
There have actually been quite a few right-handed relievers among the Garcia crew, including two were briefly were teammates, Rosman and Reynaldo, with the 2003 Rangers ... Given the lack of depth with this crew, we'll limit ourselves to half a pitching staff, five guys -- two starters, a swingman and the two Texas boys in the bullpen ... actually, after Mike's 142 wins and Freddy's 99, you've got Ramon A. with 17 and then seven short-timers who have combined for a career mark of 2-6 in various brief flings in the majors ...
So that's it, Bauxites ... do you Garcia-ny better options?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20051010235009440