of the Pacific on July 23, 2017. Amateur career Early life and high school Garko was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of three, his family moved to southern California. He attended Saint Angela Merici Parish School in Brea, California, where his mother was a teacher, and attended high school at Servite High School. He graduated from Servite in 1999 alongside future major league players Ben Francisco and Brian Wolfe. Also in 1999, Garko played for the USA Baseball Junior National Team. He holds numerous records at Servite High School, including the single-season records in, triples (6), home runs (8), RBIs (52), and the career records in, games played (101), at-bats (314), hits (149), triples (19), home runs (24), RBIs (121), and walks (80). He was also the starting quarterback on the football team for two years. In the classroom, Garko had a 4.2 GPA. College Garko attended Stanford University on a scholarship from 1999-03. He led the Stanford Cardinal baseball team in batting average in his sophomore season (2001) with a .398 clip, and was named their Most Improved Player. He helped Stanford reach the College World Series and hit .583 in the CWS. That summer, he played with the Hyannis Mets in the Cape Cod League, an amateur summer league, and batted .233 with 14 runs, 28 hits, 3 home runs, and 19 RBIs while being named a league all-star. Next season, in his junior year, Garko was named a Johnny Bench Award semifinalist. During his senior year in 2003, he won the award and was named a First Team All-American. He also shared the Pac-10 Conference Baseball of the Year Award with Dustin Pedroia, and was named the NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Player and Stanford's Most Valuable Player. In his time at Stanford, Garko batted .350 with 60 doubles, 39 home runs, 191 RBIs in 218 games played. He is as of 2013 fifth all-time in doubles at Stanford, seventh in RBIs, and ninth in batting average and home runs. His only problem at Stanford was that he had trouble with controlling his weight. On May 6, 2010, Garko was voted on to a 28-member College World Series Legends Team as a part of a commemoration of the final College World Series in Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. The team was voted upon by college baseball fans, college baseball writers, and Division I head coaches. Professional career Cleveland