Accidentally in the big leagues

Errors are a big part of baseball, and they don t just occur on the field. This year marks the golden anniversary of a gum card goof involving a hometown boy. Aurelio Rodriguez s 1969 Topps baseball card actually shows the image of Angels batboy Leonard Garcia. It s one of the hobby s beloved error cards, and it arguably made Garcia the game s most famous batboy (with the possible exception of Darren Baker, who was saved from being run over at home plate by J.T. Snow in the 2002 World Series). Garcia was a military brat raised in Panama, Texas and California. His family eventually settled in Anaheim just 3 miles from the new stadium still under construction. One day, the Anaheim High School student heard that the California Angels were having interviews for the team s batboy positions. He and 200 other hopefuls showed up at the Anaheim Stadium construction site to be interviewed in a utility trailer near what is today the main entrance. Garcia beat thls batboys for the whopping salary of $5 a game. He servedas batboy in 1966 and as the team s assistant clubby in 1967-68.In 1967, Garcia was 18. Because he could speak Spanish, he was befriended by some of the Angels Latino players, including Jose Cardinal, Ruben Amaro and Aurelio Rodriguez, the Angels third baseman, a19-year-old September call-up. Garcia occasionally would travel with the team. And when the Angels closed out the 1967 season in Detroit with two doubleheaders in two days, he was there. The games had play offimplications as the Red Sox, Twins and Tigers all were vying for the pennant. Usually, Garcia didn t wear a number on the back of his uniform, but that day in Detroit he was given a uniform with a number on it. 34 or 37, he said. I don t really remember. Garcia was down the right field line at Tiger Stadium playing catch with Rodriguez when they were both approached by legendary baseba their names down in a note pad. I could see that he got our names mixed up, but when I told him, all he did was draw a little half-circle reversal arrows by our names, Garcia remembered. In the winter of 1967-68, the newly formed Major League Baseball Players Association wanted Topps to deal with it instead of on a player-by-player basis, as it had in the past. The association promptly forbidits members from posing for Topps photographers during the entire 1968 season. Because of that, Topps had to purchase photos from outsid