Results tagged ‘ jesse barfield ’
October 29 – Happy Birthday Jesse Barfield
Born in Joliet, IL on October 29. 1959, Jesse Barfield came to New York from Toronto in exchange for Yankee pitching prospect, Al Leiter, during the 1989 season. Jesse had some great years as a Blue Jay, winning two Gold Gloves and capturing the 1986 AL home run title with a career-high 40. He also had one of baseball’s best throwing arms.
The Yankee team he joined in ’89 had little power from the right side and Jesse provided some, hitting 17 home runs that first year and then 25 more during his first full season in pinstripes. Since he walked a lot also, the Yankees lived with his propensity to strike out a lot and his sub-.250 batting average but when that average slipped to .225 in 1991, Barfield’s days in the Bronx were numbered. He was released by New York in November of 1992 and retired from baseball after a twelve year career that included 241 big league home runs.
During his playing days, Jesse gained a degree of fame by designing furniture. Many of the Jesse’s creations sit in the homes of his ex-teammates. After retiring, Jesse became a hitting instructor, serving in that capacity for both the Astros and Mariners. His sons Jesse and Josh both played Minor League ball.
Jesse shares his October 29th birthday with this former Yankee outfielder and this former Yankee shortstop.
October 29 – Happy Birthday Karim Garcia
When I saw that today was Karim Garcia’s birthday it brought back memories of the Yankee’s classic 2003 ALCS series against Boston. I watched and enjoyed every single inning of all seven games in that series and I will never forget the Game Three confrontations that all began when the great but sometimes too emotional Pedro Martinez hit Garcia in the back with one of his fastballs. That started a chain reaction of reactions that included the threatening hand signal communication between Martinez and Posada, Garcia’s hard slide into second, Manny Ramirez ducking away from a Roger Clemens pitch that was nowhere near him followed by a bench clearing scuffle during which Pedro pulled his famous matador move on the bull-rushing “Popye” Zimmer, who had forgotten for a moment that he was 72-years old. Then later on, Garcia and Jeff Nelson got into a surreal fight with a Red Sox groundskeeper in the Yankee bullpen. What tends to be forgotten about that series was how competitive it was. Four of the last five games were decided by a single run and the seventh contest was one of the most dramatic extra inning affairs in big league history, ending with Aaron Boone’s majestic blast off of Tim Wakefield.
Garcia made that postseason roster by hitting .305 for Joe Torre in 52 games of action during the regular season. Torre had made Garcia his starting right-fielder for the remainder of that season, replacing Raul Mondesi, who was traded to Arizona just before the 2003 trading deadline. During the Yankees 2004 spring training, Garcia again paired up with a Yankee teammate in a tussle with a non-baseball player. This time his tag-team partner was Shane Spencer and their opponent was a pizza delivery guy. Shortly after that incident, Garcia was released by the Yankees and he signed with the Mets. He finished his decade-long big league career in 2004 with 66 lifetime home runs and a .244 batting average.
This Yankee outfielder, who came to New York in a 1989 trade for Al Leiter, also celebrates his birthday on today’s date. This former Yankee shortstop also shares Garcia’s birthday.
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