The roar that met Rico Garcia as he exited the bullpen in right field and trotted to the mound at Fenway Park last month washed over the Orioles reliever and fell aside. The shrieks and hisses and imposed will of thousands of voices — a flood of sound that could rattle even the sturdiest of foundations within the most seasoned of pitchers.

Garcia hardly heard any of it.

“It’s almost like white noise,” Garcia said, thinking back to Aug. 19 in Boston, when he entered in the eighth inning to inherit a no-out, bases-loaded situation. “It’s just you and the catcher.”

And the batter, the umpire, the three baserunners, the seven additional fielders, the filled dugouts, all with their eyes on Garcia. There was the crush of humanity in the stands, bellowing for the Red Sox, all pulling for Garcia to fail.

Almost all. In the stands that night, watching Rico Garcia pitch in one of baseball’s most historic cathedrals, were his wife, Nicolette, and his dad, Eddie. The headphones planted firmly over Eddie Garcia’s ears and a hat that read “disabled veteran” played salsa music, failing to drown out the thrum of anticipation.

Nicolette breathed deeply, then found a sense of peace she hadn’t expected given the circumstances — there was her husband, on that mound, the weight of the world pressing on him.

She had grown somewhat accustomed to the high-stress situations of Rico’s late-game appearances when he served as the closer for Triple-A Rochester in 2024, but this was unquestionably different.

Yet the louder the surroundings grew, the quieter it felt within Nicolette.

“Even in all the noise and all the chaos,” Nicolette said, “I felt so at peace.”

Perhaps that is because, for much of Rico Garcia’s career, peace has been hard to come by.

His baseball dreams have driven him across the country, from Division II Hawaii Pacific University to professional baseball as a 30th-round pick in the 2016 draft. Garcia reached the majors three years later, but his time at the highest level of the sport has been of the yo-yo variety.

Throughout all of that, Rico Garcia’s family has accompanied him for the highs and lows, leaving Hawaii for the litany of stops across rural America. The reality for a journeyman is living out of a suitcase, making any place feel like home — no matter how far from the islands in the Pacific where he grew up.

Major League Baseball thrives off the star power in its ranks, but the backbone of the sport rests with the journeymen, who may shine for one night only — if they’re even that lucky.

On this night, in Boston, the crowd shrieked louder than those in Boise or Asheville or Rochester. The lights shined brighter. A 31-year-old who has been here, there and everywhere with his family on his heels to follow a dream dug into the rubber at Fenway Park.

The runners took their leads. Jarren Duran stepped to the plate.

And Rico Garcia threw a pitch.

Deep roots in the game

The best team Eddie Garcia was ever part of wore all-red uniforms with white lettering on the right side of the chest that read “Spank Lords.”

He wore No. 7. He played shortstop and raced around the bases in stirrup socks, as was the way in 1980s baseball. Eddie Garcia was an infantryman, serving in the Army for 10 years, and he’s proud of his service.

He’s just as proud of the Spank Lords, his baseball team at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

“People look at my shirt and see ‘Spank Lords’ on it and say, ‘What does that mean?’” Eddie said. “Well, we spanked everybody’s butts on the field that year. It was incredible.”

Eddie Garcia is full of these stories. His love of baseball goes back to his birth; it’s ingrained in his Puerto Rican blood. He passed that on to his two sons, Eddie Jr. and Rico. They grew up hearing about the 1982 championship he won while stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii — the second-most-important thing to happen in Oahu, behind meeting his wife, Gezlyn.

At 14, Eddie Garcia had moved from Puerto Rico to New Haven, Connecticut. On the mainland, it was easier to watch his New York Yankees play, and he dreamed of his own baseball future before enlisting in the Army.

But from station to station — be it Hawaii, New Jersey, Georgia or Texas — Eddie still got his fix.

“It’s something that just drives me crazy,” Eddie Garcia said. “Baseball, I love it.”

When his younger son, Rico, showed a propensity for the sport, Eddie vowed to be along for the ride.

“That baseball culture was so deeply rooted from a young age, and he carried it on to his adult years, even into when he had kids, with Rico,” said Nicolette, who went to elementary school with Rico and reconnected with him by chance years later at church in Hawaii, when her now-husband had reached the lower levels of the minor leagues. “The love for the game was there.”

And because of that love — for the game and for his son — Eddie spent much of Rico’s sophomore season at Hawaii Pacific emailing anyone he could find affiliated with the Northwoods League, a wood-bat college summer league in the Upper Midwest.

He sent scouting reports and videos, asking them for a chance. Meanwhile, Rico pitched to a 2.68 ERA in 84 innings that season for Hawaii Pacific.

“He knew from a very young age what his son was capable of, and I think a lot of people overlooked him,” Nicolette said, “but it was his dad who really helped put his face and name out there.”

Added Rico: “He basically emailed everyone in the Northwoods League, from the GM to the janitors. Whoever was on the website, he was emailing them all the way.”

They only needed one yes. They got it from the Kenosha Kingfish, a team in the small Wisconsin town along the Lake Michigan shore halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee.

Rico had never been anywhere near there before. And the prospect of leaving Hawaii for the summer? That was a hard sell.

But he wouldn’t be going alone.

Adventures in baseball

The summer weather in Wisconsin grows cool enough at night, especially along Lake Michigan, that Eddie Garcia didn’t mind the elements. He pulled into a rest station and picked a spot. He dropped his driver’s seat back, and he closed his eyes, settling in for another night’s sleep in his rental car.

Rico Garcia was either staying with his host family in Kenosha or bunking with roommates in a hotel on the road. That’s life in the Northwoods League — get used to close quarters with teammates, because there’s more of that to come in the minor leagues.

For Eddie Garcia, summer ball with the Kingfish meant sleeping in his car.

“At the time, I didn’t have any money, so we couldn’t get hotel rooms and whatnot,” Rico Garcia said.

But he received daily assurances from his dad, who had retired from a post-military career with the government and was focused on economizing his travels.

“I’ll survive. I’m a military man. I know how to survive,” Eddie Garcia said. “I told Rico, ‘Don’t worry, I’m fine. Just go do your thing.’”

And in the meantime, Eddie would do his thing. When the morning light rose over the Lake Michigan horizon, he opened the car door and began his day. He had a gym membership — a military discount helped — and, as Eddie describes it, the two summers following his son from city to city across the Upper Midwest were one of life’s great adventures.

“They had everything — a pool, weights, all that,” Eddie said of the gym that also, luckily, had a shower for him to use. “Then I’d hang out somewhere, go to a laundromat, wash my clothes. Go back to the game and keep doing what I love to do: baseball.”

One day, an assistant coach for the Kingfish found Eddie Garcia in the stands four hours before the game, watching as pitchers began their stretching routines in the outfield and before the hitters even picked up their lumber for batting practice.

Why are you here so early? The coach wondered.

Where else would Eddie rather be than the ballfield, following his son?

And any initial hesitation from Rico about leaving Hawaii for Wisconsin vanished. Named Kenosha’s opening day starter his first season on Lake Michigan, Rico looked up the colleges at which his teammates and opponents played.

He saw Ohio State, Louisiana State, Creighton and other large Division I programs. He pitched for Hawaii Pacific — a solid program but a far cry from the brand names those around him boasted.

That didn’t matter. He walked off the mound on May 27, 2014, with two runs against him in six innings.

“I thought, ‘Maybe a Division II kid out of Hawaii is good enough to be up here and compete with these guys, no matter the level,’” Rico said. “From there, I kind of just took off.”

He earned an All-Star nod in 2014 when he pitched to a 1.90 ERA in 11 starts. Rico followed by helping the Kingfish win the championship in 2015.

In doing so, Rico Garcia realized he belonged.

Still, he waited until the 30th round of the 2016 MLB draft — that’s when the Rockies took a chance on him. Garcia was otherwise thinking of pursuing a baseball opportunity in Germany if he went overlooked by major league teams.

Instead, he departed on another adventure — with his dad in tow, trekking across Idaho, North Carolina and Connecticut. And, after years of up-and-down experiences, Rico Garcia landed in Boston with the chance to pitch at Fenway Park.

Hearing that, Nicolette and Eddie Garcia hustled to New England, hoping to see Rico in that historic venue.

As it turns out, they were two years early.

‘Journey continues’

Rico Garcia has grown numb to the conversations.

Hours after his family arrived in Boston, he received a call from his manager with the Oakland Athletics to stop in for a meeting. Rico had a feeling of what was to come, but even he was caught by surprise.

“Not DFA’d [designated for assignment], not optioned,” Rico said. “Straight released. I was like, ‘All right, that’s cool, whatever. Journey continues.’”

But, before he could pack his bags, he had to call his family, letting them know he wouldn’t be pitching at Fenway Park after all.

There have been plenty of these calls across Rico Garcia’s major league career. He has jumped from Colorado to San Francisco to Baltimore to Oakland to Washington. This year alone, Rico has pitched for both New York clubs. After the Yankees designated him for assignment, he wound up back on the Mets, only to be put on waivers once more.

That’s how he wound up in Baltimore for a second time in his career. But before landing here all of this movement even got to Rico — who Nicolette said is the most determined person she knows.

“The past five years have been: throw a game or two, not do that great, and either get optioned or DFA’d,” Rico said. “Then it was that constant wheel of emotion of, ‘Am I even good enough to still play this?’”

After a full season at Triple-A in Washington’s organization last year, Rico Garcia began 2025 shakily for the Mets’ Triple-A squad. He told Nicolette and his parents, if he didn’t get called up soon, his career might be over.

“Thirty-one years old, out of options, not doing great in Triple-A,” Rico said. “It’s just one of those things where I kind of want to take the next step in life. But of course, them, they love me and they know I still have more in the tank, even if I don’t think so. They definitely bring the best out.”

His mom, Gezlyn, said whatever he thought was best, she would support. His dad, Eddie, emphasized how Rico’s perseverance has gotten him this far, and the breakthrough he desired could be just around the corner. And Nicolette?

“She was always there reminding me that, ‘No matter what, everything is going to be OK. I’m going to be here,’” Rico recalled.

Rico stuck with it, and the slew of roster moves eventually led him to Baltimore, where he earned the longest stint in the majors of his career. And last month there was a particularly interesting matchup on the docket.

Rico Garcia was headed to pitch at Fenway Park.

“Looking back at it right now, I’m very emotional,” Nicolette said. “I could literally cry.”

Grateful to be here

In the quiet of their hotel room that night, after Rico Garcia walked off the mound at Fenway Park, Nicolette didn’t even get a chance to tell her husband how calm she felt in the moment before he sat her down and told her the same.

The bases had been loaded. There were no outs. And yet, with the tempest swirling around Rico and Eddie and Nicolette, the eye of the storm settled on the mound at Fenway Park.

Strike three. Three times.

Jarren Duran, Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida attempted to send the Red Sox crowd into a frenzy. Instead, they trudged back to the dugout. Rico Garcia struck out the side to strand bases loaded.

“At that moment, at that time, it was one of those things where I felt like I was really locked in and calm,” Rico said. “Almost everything coming to fruition — last year, this year, just for that one moment right there.”

“My heart,” Eddie said. “I was so emotional.”

“Oh my gosh,” Nicolette said, “it was special.”

Aug. 19 will live forever within the Garcia family. Everything else that has come for Rico over the last month has been a bonus.

The next day, he said he watched highlights of his high-wire act “a million times.” He told his wife, “I can’t believe a Division II guy from Hawaii just went out there and did that.” And even amid the uncertainty that is life in Major League Baseball — and Rico knows that uncertainty more than just about anyone — there’s none about that inning.

There’s no taking that away from Rico Garcia and his family.

Whatever comes next — and with the offseason rapidly approaching, Rico will be sent spilling into the whirlpool of insecurity yet again — the two months he has spent with the Orioles have been among the best of his baseball career.

“You look back at it and, in a way, you really had to have experienced all the lows in order for you to be so grateful for where we are — where he is now, especially,” Nicolette said. “There are so many unknowns in baseball, but even that adds to the fact that, every day, we’re so grateful, so thankful to be here.”

The Garcias, together, as ever.