![\"Rico](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/54UW4OEJTBBWLD2QAJXBATKAVI.jpg\")
Rico Garcia, second from left, with his grandfather Diosdado Buton Nu\u00f1ez; his wife, Nicolette Garcia; and his grandmother Virginia Nu\u00f1eza at his wedding in January 2024. (Courtesy of Rico Garcia)<\/p>\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 In his head, Rico Garcia can still hear him.<\/p>\n
In Hawaii, as Garcia grew up, his grandfather\u2019s voice yelled a frequent soundtrack as he pitched. Diosdado Buton Nu\u00f1eza didn\u2019t know much about baseball. He was a bowler. But, watching his grandson pitch, Nu\u00f1eza knew one thing for sure, and he yelled it all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, strike \u2019em out!\u201d Nu\u00f1eza would call out.<\/p>\n
After Nu\u00f1eza\u2019s death at 91 in October 2024, Garcia grappled with a future in baseball that didn\u2019t include his grandfather yelling in support of a strike. But a way to honor Nu\u00f1eza came to him before the 2025 season, and Garcia still does it after every inning \u2014 good or bad, strikeout or not, Garcia\u2019s routine remains.<\/p>\n
As Garcia leaves the mound, he looks to the sky, lifts his arms and crosses them in an X.<\/p>\n
Nu\u00f1eza loved strikes. In bowling, an X is the shorthand scoring note for a strike \u2014 when a bowler knocks down all 10 pins on their first roll. So, to preserve his grandfather\u2019s presence while he pitches, Garcia combined bowling and baseball into a subtle gesture that his family looks for during each outing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019ll always stick with me,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI know that he\u2019s out there with me every single game, and I can hear him in the back of my head going, \u2018Strike three!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nu\u00f1eza, Garcia\u2019s maternal grandfather, died Oct. 19, 2024, in Hawaii. He was an Army veteran, a musician, a bowler who may have recorded a perfect 300, although Garcia couldn\u2019t recall if that was fact or legend.<\/p>\n
He was also a cherished member of the family who loved to watch his grandson pitch, even if he didn\u2019t play the sport himself when he was young. Nu\u00f1eza and his wife, Virginia, watched every one of Garcia\u2019s home games for Hawaii Pacific University. <\/p>\n
And, although Nu\u00f1eza wasn\u2019t in a position to fly to the continental United States for Garcia\u2019s wide-ranging professional journey, he and his wife found ways to watch Garcia at all of his minor league stops.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t really know a whole lot what was going on,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThey knew when I struck someone out.\u201d<\/p>\n
So they\u2019d yell and clap, at the game or from afar.<\/p>\n
Rico Garcia, second from left, with his grandfather Diosdado Buton Nu\u00f1ez; his wife, Nicolette Garcia; and his grandmother Virginia Nu\u00f1eza at his wedding in January 2024. (Courtesy of Rico Garcia)<\/p>\n
After Nu\u00f1eza\u2019s death, it occurred to Garcia he wanted to do something to memorialize the support he had received all his life. On Garcia\u2019s glove is Nu\u00f1eza\u2019s name, and when he walks off the mound, the X he makes with his arms is a reminder to those left behind how much Nu\u00f1eza meant to the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey kind of wait for it because they want to see that my grandpa is out there with us,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just for him. It\u2019s for my whole mom\u2019s side, as well. He was such a huge part of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the year and a half since Nu\u00f1eza died, Garcia has found his greatest success as a major leaguer. He bounced among several teams last year before sticking with the Orioles, and in Baltimore Garcia has become a critical part of the bullpen.<\/p>\n
In a sense, he wishes Nu\u00f1eza was watching on television as Garcia produces these results. But, with the next breath, Garcia acknowledges that pitching in Nu\u00f1eza\u2019s honor is something he carries \u201cevery single day,\u201d and perhaps that weight has led to this breakout.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just wanted me to be happy and support me,\u201d Garcia said of his grandparents. \u201cEven if something didn\u2019t happen, they\u2019d say it\u2019s OK. They didn\u2019t really care about good or bad. They were happy to see me play. That was the bottom line of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, when Garcia leaves the mound, watch for his X. It will be for Diosdado Buton Nu\u00f1eza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 In his head, Rico Garcia can still hear him. In Hawaii, as Garcia grew up, his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,470,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-666176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimoreorioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-featured-extrawide","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116357138085115913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}