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Gone But Not Forgotten RIP Damaso Garcia
Former Toronto Blue Jays All-Star second baseman Damaso Garcia has passed away at the age of 63. #BlueJays



The man known as "Damo" made his major league debut with the New York Yankees in 1978 and spent parts of his first two seasons in the Bronx before being traded to Toronto with Chris Chambliss and Paul Mirabella for Rick Cerone, Tom Underwood and Ted Wilborn. Garcia finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting in 1980 but really arrived on the scene in 1982 by winning a Silver Slugger and finishing 26th in AL MVP voting after hitting .310 and stealing 54 bases. The Dominican batted .307 in 1983 during the Blue Jays first winning season and followed that up with consective appearances in the All-Star Game in 1984 and 1985, helping the Jays clinch their first American League East division title in '85.

The 1986 season was Garcia's last year with the Jays as he was traded to Atlanta with Luis Leal for Craig McMurtry. He did not resurface to the bigs until 1988 where he played in Atlanta. His final year was with in 1989 with the Montreal Expos where he batted .271 in 80 games. His career batting average was .283 and he stole 203 bases, 194 of them with the Jays.

RIP Damo. Condolences to his family and friends.
Posted by #2JBrumfield on Wednesday, April 15 2020 @ 02:07 PM EDT.
RIP Damaso Garcia | 14 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mike Green - Wednesday, April 15 2020 @ 03:28 PM EDT (#386970) #
Damo like Fernandez gone too young.  

I guess it's time to hold on tight to our memories of the other fine players on the 1985 club. 
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John Northey - Wednesday, April 15 2020 @ 05:03 PM EDT (#386972) #
Sad to hear, but I know he has been sick for years.  The double play combo of the first great Jays team is now gone far too soon.  Lets hope the outfield of the 80's can last a lot longer.
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Gerry - Wednesday, April 15 2020 @ 06:28 PM EDT (#386973) #
That's some bad news. He was a long time Blue Jay and the Garcia, Alfredo Griffin double play combo was a staple for a long time.

Is it too soon to talk about burning his uniform?
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Magpie - Wednesday, April 15 2020 @ 06:41 PM EDT (#386974) #
Damaso Garcia wasn't nearly as good as we thought he was at the time, not by a long shot. But back in 1982, he was the first Blue Jay - ever- who felt like an honest-to-goodness major league player. Like a star. You actually waited for his turn in the batting order to come around. "Damo's up this inning, something might happen."
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Nigel - Wednesday, April 15 2020 @ 10:42 PM EDT (#386977) #
Thank you Magpie. That is exactly the place in Blue Jays lore that Garcia holds (at least for me). He was in the vanguard; the player who foretold that better days were ahead. I’ll admit that this news makes me feel an uncomfortable mixture of nostalgia, sadness and my age. Sail on Damo.
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electric carrot - Wednesday, April 15 2020 @ 11:50 PM EDT (#386978) #
Damo was my first favorite Jay. He was fun to watch -- especially on the base paths.
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85bluejay - Thursday, April 16 2020 @ 09:30 AM EDT (#386979) #
Sad news indeed - Condolences to his family - Magpie and Nigel sum up my feelings about Damaso very well - that breakout 1982 season was a breath of fresh air.
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bpoz - Thursday, April 16 2020 @ 10:10 AM EDT (#386980) #
RIP. He came from NYY. For who?
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hypobole - Thursday, April 16 2020 @ 10:30 AM EDT (#386981) #
bpoz

https://www.baseball-reference.com/

Use the search, and when you're on Damaso's page, scroll down and all his transactions are listed.

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ISLAND BOY - Thursday, April 16 2020 @ 11:23 AM EDT (#386983) #
It's also shown in the first two lines of the write-up below his picture,
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bpoz - Thursday, April 16 2020 @ 11:47 AM EDT (#386985) #
Thanks hypobole.
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bpoz - Thursday, April 16 2020 @ 11:50 AM EDT (#386986) #
Thanks ISLAND BOY. I can't believe I missed that. Very well written #2.
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ISLAND BOY - Thursday, April 16 2020 @ 12:32 PM EDT (#386987) #
You're welcome,bpoz. As an aside, when I saw Chris Chambliss's name I couldn't remember him playing with the Jays. In looking him up, I saw that he was traded that same offseason along with Luis Gomez to Atlanta for Barry Bonnell, Joey McLaughlin (Blech!) and Pat Rockett.
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Lylemcr - Friday, April 17 2020 @ 01:27 AM EDT (#387003) #
Rough year to be a former Jay Shortstop.

Damaso to me was the start of the wave of hispanic Jay players that built the juggernaut they became
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RIP Damaso Garcia | 14 comments | Create New Account
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