The Magic Behind the Game, Harry Garcia.

Harry Garcia, Mets Technical Director coordinating his complex board to entertain fans. (Photo Latino Sports)

Flushing, NY: When fans come to Citi Field to see their team and their favorite players their eyes are always fixated on what’s going on the field.  The entertainment they enjoy from today’s modern jumbo centerfield screen and the countless digital screens throughout the stadium is taken for granted. Very few know that there are countless of behind-the-scenes employees that are responsible for sustaining that entertainment throughout the game and in between innings.

One of those individuals that I want to highlight is Harry Garcia, the Technical Director who manages everything that the fans see throughout the stadium’s digital world. Harry has one incredible and interesting story, and it goes further back than the thirty-two years he has been working for the Mets. This Boricua born here in NYC, but with strong roots in Guayama, Puerto Rico has one incredible trajectory in getting to where he is today and being one of the few who can manipulate a very complex digital, IT board that is the top of the line in digital broadcasting that very few if any other stadiums have.

To be able to understand the complexity of his work, one must understand the complexity of his development. The base being his parents who taught him to always be proud of his Puerto Rican history and culture. Though he was born and raised here in the cement jungle of NYC, his parents never let him forget his roots. His father being a proud Boricua who had played baseball in Puerto Rico was very close to other baseball players and one that left a mark on Harry was none other than Rubén Gómez who was the first Puerto Rican to pitch in a World Series game.

His parents would also send him to Puerto Rico every summer throughout his middle school years where he proudly states how he was the water boy for Guayama’s professional basketball team, Los Brujos. He learned to play flute and is a salsero who played for a popular band, La Charanga Sensual. His parents were smart enough to let him explore the arts, but grounded him with the reality of a trade. He became an electrician and still a member of Local 3.

Harry is perfectly bi-lingual and as the great Cuban patriot stated, “to know two languages is to be twice as smart.” Harry really knows three languages. He knows English, Spanish and the language of advanced Digital Technology.  As I observed him preparing for the opening of the gates, coordinating cameras throughout the stadium and a lot of the moves that indicated a language and skill that very few know.

So next time any fan is entertained not just by the actions of the actual game, but by the growing trend of the advent of the giant screens, music, and digital images, know that in City Field it’s a proud Boricua who coordinates all of that.

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Note: We had a very intensive audio interview with Harry that will eventually be posted on this site under archives.