Last year, when a friend asked actress Joanna Garcia if she’d be interested in going on a date with Yankee outfielder Nick Swisher, her response, according to Garcia’s mom, Loraine, was “Oh, I don’t want to date a ballplayer.”
But the friend didn’t give up. Next he went to Swisher, offering to set him up with the green-eyed beauty.
“Oh, I don’t want to deal with one of those actresses,” Swisher replied, according to Loraine.
Luckily, the friend was pushy — and a group date was planned, despite the protests. A few months later, Loraine Garcia got a call from her daughter.
“Oh, mom,” Joanna said of Swisher, “you’re gonna love this one.”
Not long after, Garcia became the newest babe to join the bevy of beautiful young actresses on the arms of Yankees — Minka Kelly (Derek Jeter), Kate Hudson (A-Rod) and Cameron Diaz (also A-Rod).
On May 19, Swisher popped the question, and New York Yankees fans will soon welcome their latest player’s wife, a former high school homecoming queen who is now wearing a diamond ring so large “she’ll have to start lifting weights,” says Loraine.
PHOTOS: NICK SWISHER & JOANNA GARCIA
Swisher is already having a hell of a summer. With nine home runs, a .312 batting average and a .394 on-base percentage to his name, the right fielder is earning every penny of his $6.85 million contract. But he uses at least some of that money to spoil his lady, “Jo,” as he calls her. He sent bushels of flowers to her on Valentine’s Day, and a card from each of their dogs on Mother’s Day. (The couple recently added two abandoned dogs to their brood.)
That same charm made Swisher a fan favorite when he arrived in New York from the Chicago White Sox last year. He loosened up the notoriously buttoned-up Yankees with his irreverence in the locker room, and quickly won over the so-called Bleacher Creatures — the rowdy fans in the right field seats who scream his name before every game. He responds to their chants with a crisp military greeting known as the Swisher Salute.
“He understands the folklore of the right-field bleacher fans,” says fan Frank Luna.
“He goes to work every day, plays with passion and energy, and respects the passion and energy of the fans.”
And soon Joanna Garcia will join him as an official part of Yankees royalty. But who is she, exactly?
The 30-year-old redhead, who moved to New York last year, hails from a well-to-do Tampa, Fla., family. Her mother’s a homemaker, dad is a gynecologist, and her brother followed in his father’s footsteps to become an orthopedic surgeon.
Meanwhile, after years of plugging away with roles on TV, Garcia is on the brink of becoming a household name — her sitcom “Better Together,” created by the folks behind “Friends,” was picked up for the ABC fall lineup.
(Garcia declined to be interviewed, and her publicist from WKT Public Relations said: “Joanna is a serious actor and does not want to be in The Post because she’s dating a Yankee. New Yorkers know exactly who she is; she’s been living there for a year now.”)
According to her mother, Garcia knew early on she wanted to act. As a teen she got a starring role in a Nickelodeon show, but stayed enrolled in Tampa Catholic HS, where she was voted homecoming queen. She graduated in 1997.
Garcia enrolled at Florida State University just long enough to join the cool-girl sorority Tri Delt, but left after a year for Los Angeles. She scored parts on cult favorite “Freaks and Geeks” and on “Party of Five,” along with a number of smaller roles before she was chosen to play Cheyenne Hart-Montgomery, Reba McEntire’s daughter on the hit show “Reba.”
When “Reba” was canceled after six seasons, Garcia played the lead on the short-lived CW show “Privileged,” where cast and crew members raved about the hard-working girl from Florida.
They said she was always professional, prepared, decidedly un-diva-like — and had a mouth on her that would make a trucker blush.
“It was the first day on set in the most opulent house you’ve ever seen,” recalls Allan Louis, who acted opposite Garcia. “I was freaking out. I couldn’t remember one line. I turned to her, and I didn’t know her at all, and said, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so nervous and overwhelmed by this house,’ and she said to me: ‘You think you got problems? I haven’t pooped in four days, I’m so nervous.’ I knew then and there I was going to adore her, and I did.”
Executive producer Rina Mimoun said Garcia’s sense of humor reminded her of Betty White in that she has a “pie in the sky demeanor combined with a dirty mouth that catches you off guard.”
And she was always up for some good physical comedy. Once, Mimoun said, Garcia was supposed to act as if she was drunkely seducing a potential suitor for a scene.
“I asked her to slide across the bed and try to fall. Joanna goes, ‘Like this?’ and went flying over the silk sheets so fast that she actually flew right into a crew member standing a few feet away. It was so cute.”
One of the directors of “Privileged,” Liz Friedlander, compared Garcia to Lucille Ball. “And I don’t say that lightly, because I’m a huge Lucy fan,” she says. “She’s an incredible comedic talent, and I’m waiting for the rest of the world to catch up to that fact.”
Garcia has had her share of suitors. She dated tennis star Bob Bryan, and she was briefly engaged to Justin Timberlake’s personal assistant and friend, Trace Ayala. She’s also had her share of animals — including a miniature horse named Dolly and a goat named Honey, plus two Chihuahuas, Tia and Gibson, along with the rescue dogs. But in Swisher, she has met her match — not only because he also has a soft spot for strays.
Loraine says Swisher proposed the old-fashioned way. He was in Tampa for spring training and visited Loraine and Jay Garcia to ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage. “Of course we gave our blessings,” she says of the Yankee. She said he once arranged for the entire family — huge Florida Gator fans — to meet Tim Tebow, the Denver Bronco and former Gator star.
“That’s just the kind of person he is. Caring and sweet,” says Loraine.
“I’m so excited for them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her happier.”
stefanie.cohen@nypost.com