Garcia seems a little concerned about his aim or his Catcher's call for this fastball; over here in the on-deck circle, I am starting to get a little optimistic - maybe I'll have an RBI chance when I reach the plate.
This card is still on the same binder page as the Wainwright card, so St. Louis uniforms will get a good look together whenever and wherever collectors take a look at their Sea Turtles. This card was shot neither on a Sunday (regular interlocking STL logo as on the card), nor in St. Louis - their 'road greys' also say Cardinals on them, rather than St. Louis.
Though the lines and image structure of the photo make for a very good baseball card, the plethora of this type of card in an 'action image' set like this once again leads the collector to ponder the glove. This time it is a cool looking 'team color' glove but also features an unusual logo in that it doesn't have the Swoosh or say "Rawlings." Under a little zoom on the scan, it proves to be the letters "Xdl" at first glance but eventually enough Googling reveals that to be upside down - the true letter combo is T-P-X.
Which is something I discovered via a now partially dated, but still fun little web article called "The 20 Prettiest Gloves in Baseball History."
Uniform Hero? Still going strong here at 54.
Where’d the egg hatch? Although Garcia was born in Mexico, he entered the MLB player system via draft, a bit of a rare combo. He went to High School in Texas and was first drafted by the Orioles in 2004, but elected to go to college for a year and was then drafted by the Cardinals in the 22nd round in 2005.
How about the migrations? Jaime reached the majors in the 2008 season, but didn't 'stick' until the 2010 season. He would be a main-stay (and a popular one) in the Cardinals rotation until they traded him to the Braves after the 2016 season. Like many older veteran 'rentals' none of the following trades involved players with very many, if any, MLB baseball cards ever produced.
At the 2017 trade deadline Atlanta flipped him to Minnesota who in turn quite soon shipped him on to New York. This created a unique situation as explained on Garcia's Wikipedia page: "He became the first pitcher to start three consecutive games for three separate teams since 1895."
After his dizzying 2017 season he would sign with Toronto and then give it one last "go" in Chicago late in the 2018 season, after which he retired.
At the 2017 trade deadline Atlanta flipped him to Minnesota who in turn quite soon shipped him on to New York. This created a unique situation as explained on Garcia's Wikipedia page: "He became the first pitcher to start three consecutive games for three separate teams since 1895."
After his dizzying 2017 season he would sign with Toronto and then give it one last "go" in Chicago late in the 2018 season, after which he retired.
Don’t flip over real Turtles.
What I like most about this card back is a simple pleasant detour in to baseball statistics and pondering how they might show player/team results. In particular what is striking here is Garcia's remarkably consistent WHIP (Walks + Hits / Innings Pitched) ratio but wildly divergent ERA results. A little less obvious is the way the WHIP # stayed the same but Hits / 9 IP increased slightly, but overall those large differences in ERA might well correlate to changes in St. Louis team defense rankings.
Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?
CAREER CHASE: With 34 wins, Garcia is 477 away from Cy Young's all-time record of 511.
As this card was being created, Garcia was firmly established as a member of the Cardinals excellent early 10's rotation, so "W" is again the obvious comp for this.
Garcia would go on to finish his career with 70 Wins.
As this card was being created, Garcia was firmly established as a member of the Cardinals excellent early 10's rotation, so "W" is again the obvious comp for this.
Garcia would go on to finish his career with 70 Wins.
Subspecies? This is the only Jaime Garcia card on the 2013 'Sea Turtle' design.
Bling That Shell This card has a nice, day-game brightness to it that makes the infield grass a nice bright green. Which in turn made selecting the 'Wrapper Redemption' 'Blue Sparkle' parallel my first choice:
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