Barbaro Garbey went from Cuba to a World Series title
The Tigers Barbaro Garbey picked up the hit that helped his team sweep the 1984 ALCS and move on to the World Series.
Afterword, amidst the celebrations, he reflected on the moment to The Miami Herald.
"This moment I've never known in baseball," Garbey told The Herald then. "We were champions in Cuba in 1974, but it didn't mean too much. I was happy, but it wasn't like this. This means you are part of one of the best teams in the world."
For that moment to have been possible with Garbey a whole lot of other moments had to happen, including Garbey leaving Cuba four years earlier aboard a boat during the Mariel Boatlift, and then getting found by Tigers scouts in a refugee camp.
Garbey then went on to a career that saw time in two more major league campaigns, a career slowed by a drug charge in Florida that was later dropped. He finally then turned coach.
Garbey's career in the United States began in 1980, signed by the Tigers as a free agent after his arrival from Cuba.
Garbey started playing in Cuba at age 10 and later made the national team as a third baseman. (He also later admitted to run shaving while on the national team.)
He recounted his story to The Atlanta Journal in May 1982, how he tried multiple times to get out posing as a thief before finally being able to get on a boat, leaving behind his family.
"It look to me like that boat should hold 50 or 60," Garbey told The Journal then of the boat that held four times that. "There was not a lot of room. All the time, everybody was saying 'excuse me."
A Tigers scout, who had seen him play in Venezuela, then met him at a refugee camp and got him signed.
With the Tigers, he started in 1980 at single-A Lakeland. He got into 26 games and hit .364.
He moved to AA Birmingham for 1981 and 1982, then AAA Evansville in 1983. He hit .321 in 101 games at Evansville.
Garbey arrived in Detroit for 1984. He saw 110 games and hit .287. He went 3 for 9 in the ALCS, then 0 for 12 in the World Series.
Garbey saw another 86 games with the Tigers in 1985. He hit .257. He then didn't make it back to the majors until 1988, with the Rangers.
In the meantime, he was traded to the Athletics and released. He was also arrested on a drug charge in Florida in November 1986. The charge was later dropped. Still, he played 1987 only in Mexico and wondered what he needed to do to get back.
The Rangers then gave him another look in 1988.
"It's been a rough two years, but I've finally made it back," Garbey told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram that July. "I never thought I wouldn't make it. But I know this is my last shot. I've got to make the best of it."
He got into 30 games with the Rangers that year and hit .194.
Garbey joined the Expos for 1989 and saw 67 games at AA Jacksonville. He briefly joined the Dodgers in 1990 and saw one game at AAA Albuquerque.
Garbey continued playing in Mexico through 1994, with Mexico City, Minatitlan and Yucatan.
Garbey later became a coach in the minors, a hitting coach at Bristol in 2021 and manager there in 2022.
- Atlanta Journal, July 15, 1982: A Cuban dream
- Miami Herald, Oct. 7, 1984: Barbaro Garbey finally takes off his mask
- Harrisburg Patriot-News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 5, 1988: Rangers offer Garbey another ride
Made the Majors:1,451-31.7%-X
Never Made Majors:3,130-68.3%