With an incredible performance that won him the ALCS MVP, Cuban Adolis García guided the Texas Rangers to the World Series. The outfielder for the Rangers now has a sandwich named after him.
Carrollton’s Cuban Dulceria International Bakery has developed a snack to honor the player who has drawn interest from throughout the globe.
The “García Special” was created by Sara and Rita Vázquez, the restaurant proprietors, as a way to honor their countrymen.
Rita praised Adolis’ actions, saying, “It’s wonderful that baseball brings happiness to the community as a whole.” “We are quite pleased with him.”
The Vázquez sisters were in their restaurant working on the final edition of the García Special dish on Thursday morning.
Grilled on real Cuban bread, the sandwich is composed of shredded roast suckling pig, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, mojitos, and yellow mustard.
“It sounds good; I’ll definitely try it [one of] these days,” García remarked upon hearing that a sandwich bearing his name had been created during the Globe Life Field Media Day on Thursday.
The father of the Vázquez sisters, who started the Cuban restaurant in what is now the Denton Dart station in 1979, gave them the recipe for the homemade bread used to make the sandwiches.
The eatery relocated to a 1,200-square-foot space in a Carrollton strip mall in 2003.
“The two greatest passions of the Cuban people are food and baseball. Food and baseball bring back memories of our childhood,” Sara stated.
As Sara made an espresso using coffee beans from a company established in Cuba over a century ago, she thought about the significance of baseball and cuisine to newly arrived Cuban Americans.
“The love of baseball and its cuisine that Cuban immigrants have for our nation connects them. “Food and baseball symbolize a link to the country of our ancestors,” the speaker stated.
“A ray of hope”
Arriving in the United States in 1964, Silvio Canto Jr., a Cuban, was among the first to test the Garcia Special.
Canto, an English professor at Brookhaven College and an avid baseball fan, remarked, “Baseball is in our blood.”
Canto, 71, has seen some of the best Cuban players play in the Major Leagues.
In Canto’s baseball memory are names like Luis Tiant, Mike Cuellar, and Tony Oliva.
Canto stated that the actions of García with the Rangers are well known throughout Cuba.
“The Adolis case is incredibly fascinating. Adolis was well-known in Cuba since he performed there, but more and more, Canto stated, Cubans are falling in love with him for all that he has accomplished lately.
To fulfill his MLB ambition, 30-year-old García had to travel around the globe and back.
In 2016, García left Cuba and signed a contract with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan Professional Baseball.
The Cuban baseball federation permitted players to travel to Japan, while travel to the United States was prohibited.
García was only in Yomiuri’s system for the second part of the season.
García said he had trouble adjusting to the foreign food and culture in a 2021 interview with The Dallas Morning News.
Before the season finished, he ended up playing four games with Yomiuri. But by then, he had already made up his mind to follow his ambition of playing Major League Baseball.
During his journey back to Cuba, which involved switching aircraft in Paris, he disembarked and boarded a flight to the Dominican Republic.
According to García, the scheme had been in the making.
Yasmarys, his wife, left for Haiti and crossed into the Dominican Republic to be with her husband.
It took him six months to become an international free agent and obtain residency in the Dominican Republic.
The St. Louis Cardinals, who believed García had no Major League promise, let him go to the Rangers in 2020 before signing him in 2018.
Garcia declared on Thursday, “I always fought to be here, and I never stopped dreaming.”
“I have experienced numerous circumstances and things, but the payoff has been immense,” stated García, who will start for the Texas Rangers against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday.
García has played in 12 games and collected 52 at-bats throughout this postseason, with seven home runs, 20 RBI, and a.327 batting average.
Adolis is regarded with pride among the North Texas Cuban community as a result of his valiant actions on the field.
Rita remarked, “It is wonderful to see someone from our country succeeding.”
“Adolis is a beacon of hope for every Cuban living in this nation.”