Dámaso García

Dámaso García
Second baseman
Born: February 7, 1955 (1955-02-07) (age 56) Moca, Dominican Republic
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
June 24, 1978 for the New York Yankees
Last MLB appearance
September 12, 1989 for the Montreal Expos
Career statistics
Batting average	.283
Hits	1,108
Runs batted in	323
Stolen bases	203
Teams
New York Yankees (1978–1979) Toronto Blue Jays (1980–1986) Atlanta Braves (1987–1988) Montreal Expos (1989)
Career highlights and awards
2× All-Star selection (1984, 1985) Silver Slugger Award winner (1982)

Dámaso Domingo García Sánchez (born February 7, 1955 in Moca, Dominican Republic) is a former Major League Baseball player best known for his time spent with the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1980s.

Originally he played soccer. In 1974, he was the Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra soccer team's captain. That year he played too as the captain for the Dominican Republic national football team at XII Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo.

Playing career

García made his major league debut in 1978 with the New York Yankees He played in 29 games over the following two seasons before being traded with Chris Chambliss and Paul Mirabella to the Toronto Blue Jays for Tom Underwood, Rick Cerone and Ted Wilborn prior to the 1980 season.

As Toronto's second baseman through 1986, García batted over .300 twice (1982 and 1983); stole 54 bases in 1982 (2nd in the American League) and 46 in 1984 (6th in the AL), and was an All-Star twice (1984–85). He also won the Silver Slugger Award in 1982.

After being traded with Luis Leal from the Blue Jays to the Atlanta Braves (for Craig McMurtry) in 1987, García struggled to find a major league home. He played some time with the Braves in 1988 and the Montreal Expos in 1989, but failed to make the cut during the same period with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. He retired having compiled a .283 career batting average, 36 home runs, 323 RBI, 490 runs and 203 stolen bases.

Illness

A year after he retired, Garcia started to have double vision and was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. In 1991, Garcia had the tumor removed, and was told that he only have six months to live ^[1] The effects of the tumor left him with limited speech and certain movement. He recovered enough to throw out the first pitch of a Blue Jays playoff game in 1992.^[1] His oldest son suffers from hemophilia.^[1] and now runs a baseball camp for hemophiliac children in the Dominican Republic.

See also

• List of players from Dominican Republic in Major League Baseball
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} White, Paul. "Garcia still making a difference". USA Today, February 26, 2002. Retrieved on January 6, 2009.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference

Persondata
Name	Garcia, Damaso
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 7, 1955
Place of birth	Moca, Dominican Republic
Date of death
Place of death