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 News from Around the Americas | June 2005 
Stars that Shine Forever
 César Brioso - Hispanic Magazine
Whether in the slick, high definition of plasma screens or on grainy film of days gone by, certain images in baseball have become as familiar as the sight of a sun-drenched field on a warm summer day:
Sammy Sosa charging out of the dugout and racing to take his position in right field. Juan Marichal’s trademark high-leg kick.
Roberto Clemente running with abandon from first to third on a single.
For more than a century, Latino players have impacted baseball in ways both large and small. And although only seven Latin American-born players are among the 258 players whose bronze plaques adorn the walls of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, there can be no doubt that their ranks in that shrine will swell in the coming years given the impact Hispanic players are having in the majors today.
Five of the past seven Most Valuable Players in the American League were Latinos, including Dominicans Miguel Tejada, Alex Rodríguez and Vladimir Guerrero the past three seasons. Venezuelan Johan Santana was the AL’s Cy Young Award winner in 2004 after compiling a 20-6 record with a 2.61 earned run average.
All four players certainly are among today’s best Latino players, but any discussion about the greatest Latino players of all time must begin with Puerto Rico’s Roberto Clemente.
Blessed with a canon arm, a keen batting eye and a flair for defense, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ graceful right fielder was a 12-time All-Star who won four National League batting titles, including the first ever by a player born in Latin America when he hit .351 in 1961. The NL MVP in 1966, Clemente failed to bat over .300 only once from 1960-72. He was only the 11th player to ever reach 3,000 career hits. And he earned 12 Gold Gloves.
He also excelled in his two World Series appearances, batting .310 in the 1960 Series and dominating the 1971 World Series with a .414 average while hitting a pair of home runs. Inexplicably left off in the voting for Major League Baseball’s All-Century Team, Clemente was much more than just a great baseball player.
“When I reached the major leagues, one thing that I will always admire, that I live in admiration of , was a person named Roberto Clemente, who was our leader, a leader of the Latino ballplayers,” says Cuban-born Tony Taylor, who played in the majors from 1958-76. “He taught us. He told us things because he experienced so many things. He was a leader for us. Every time I talk to young players, I tell them Roberto Clemente was our leader, a man who defended us and fought for us, fought for the cause of Latin players here in the United States.”
Clemente’s life ended tragically at 38. After the 1972 season, he died on Dec. 31 in a plane crash while flying relief supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims. The five-year waiting period was waived and 11 weeks after his death, Clemente became the first Latin American-born player elected into the Hall of Fame.
The other Latino players joining Clemente in the Hall of Fame are Martín Dihigo (Cuba), Juan Marichal (Dominican Republic), Luis Aparicio (Venezuela), Rod Carew (Panama), Orlando Cepeda (Puerto Rico) and Tony Pérez (Cuba).
Known as the “Baby Bull,” Cepeda in 1967 was the first unanimous NL MVP since Carl Hubbell in 1936. Pérez was a leader on Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine” clubs of the 1970s. Respected for his clutch hitting, Pérez belted three home runs in the 1975 World Series, including a key two-run shot in Game 7.
It’s only a matter of time before the Baltimore Orioles’ Rafael Palmeiro (Cuba) joins his fellow first baseman Pérez in the Hall of Fame. Palmeiro enters the 2005 season 10th on the all-time home run list with 551 and he needs only 78 hits for 3,000 in his career, which would make him one of only four players with 500 homers and 3,000 hits, joining Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray. Palmeiro’s 1,775 RBI rank 17th in major league history and are the most in history by a Latin American player.
Rod Carew’s 3,053 career hits are the most by a Latin American player. His seven batting titles are surpassed only by Ty Cobb, Tony Gwynn and Honus Wagner and equaled only by Roger Hornsby and Stan Musial. The Panamanian second baseman hit over .300 in 15 consecutive seasons with the Minnesota Twins and California Angels. His .328 lifetime average is tops among Latin Americans. Puerto Rico’s Roberto Alomar has the record for most Gold Gloves by a second baseman with 10. He’s a lifetime .300 hitter with 2,724 career hits and 474 career stolen bases.
Venezuela has a history of producing great shortstops, but none greater than the Chicago White Sox’s Luis Aparicio and Omar Vizquel, now with the San Francisco Giants. Each has nine Gold Gloves, which rank second behind only Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, who has 13. Aparicio’s 506 stolen bases rank third behind Bert Campaneris (649) and César Cedeño (550) among Latin American players. Fellow Venezuelan Dave Concepción of the Cincinnati Reds was the best shortstop of the 1970s, winning five Gold Gloves.
Alex Rodríguez, the youngest player ever to reach 300 career home runs, was well on his way to becoming the greatest shortstop ever before being traded to the New York Yankees last season and switching to third base. After winning back-to-back Gold Gloves at short, A-Rod displayed similar skills in his first season at third.
No catcher in history has won as many Gold Gloves as the Detroit Tigers’ Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez (Puerto Rico) with 11, breaking the record held by Hall of Famer Johnny Bench. And few have been as much of a force at the plate as Rodríguez, who enters 2005 with a .306 career average, 250 home runs and 1,000 RBI.
The outfield has produced some of the greatest Latin American players ever, including Sammy Sosa, the only player ever to hit 60-plus home runs in three separate seasons. After 13 seasons with the Chicago Cubs, Sosa, whose 574 home runs rank seventh all-time, joins the Baltimore Orioles where he’ll try to regain his form after three consecutive seasons of declining offensive production.
Although he has become more famous—or infamous—for his recent tell-all book in which he admits to using steroids and accuses numerous other star players of using performance-enhancing drugs, Cuban-born José Canseco’s 462 home runs rank third behind Sosa and Palmeiro among Latin American players. Canseco also is one of only three players—Barry Bonds and Alex Rodríguez are the others—to ever hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season.
Other Cubans such as Minnie Miñoso (.298 career average, 1,023 career RBI) and Tony Oliva (.304, 220 home runs, 947 RBI) were among the best outfielders of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Edgar Martínez, a New York native of Puerto Rican descent, is the greatest designated hitter in baseball history with his .312 lifetime average, 309 home runs and 1,261 RBI.
The first Latino pitcher voted into the Hall of Fame was Marichal, the high-kicking San Francisco Giants right-hander infamous for an ugly incident in which he went after Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro with a baseball bat during a 1965 game. Marichal, the Dominican Dandy, was nonetheless an outstanding pitcher, widely acknowledged as the greatest Latin American-born hurler.
He won 243 games, second among Latino pitchers, over 16 seasons. He recorded six 20-win seasons, threw a no-hitter against Houston in 1963, and was named to nine All-Star teams. Twice Marichal led the NL in wins—25 in 1963 and 26 in 1968—and finished his career with a 2.89 ERA. From 1963-69, Marichal never had an ERA higher than 2.76. For 23 years, Marichal was the winningest Hispanic pitcher, until Nicaragua’s Dennis Martínez passed him in 1998 to finish his 23-year career with 245 wins. El Presidente remains the only Latin American pitcher to throw a perfect game, completing the feat as a member of the Montreal Expos on July 29, 1991 against Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium.
After Martínez and Marichal, Cuba’s Luis Tiant, a four-time 20-game winner with a 3.30 career ERA, is next on the career list with 229 wins. Tiant gained his notoriety in the 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox. With his Fu Manchu mustache and unorthodox pitching style—he completely turned his back to home plate before delivering each pitch—Tiant won two games in three starts for the Red Sox, who lost the Series, perhaps the greatest in history, to the Reds in seven games.
Pedro Martínez, the three-time Cy Young Award winner who last season helped the Boston Red Sox win their first World Series title since 1918, signed a four-year, $53 million contract with the New York Mets. Despite having the highest ERA of his career (3.90) last season, Martínez won 16 games, giving him a 182-76 lifetime record with a 2.71 ERA and 2,653 strikeouts.
Although he was the first great Latino player in the majors, Cuba’s Adolfo Luque, who pitched for the Cincinnati Reds during the Roaring 20s of the post-Deadball Era, remains one of American baseball’s more obscure figures, better known for charging the New York Giants dugout and decking a young Casey Stengel with an errant punch than for winning 194 games or posting a 3.24 career ERA.
He was the first Latino to pitch in the World Series, tossing five shutout innings in two relief appearances in the 1919 Series against Shoeless Joe Jackson and the infamous Chicago Black Sox. He also earned a victory in the decisive fifth game of the 1933 World Series. The “Pride of Havana” also put together one of the most dominating seasons ever by a pitcher in 1923, when at age 33, Luque led the NL in wins with a 27-8 record, winning percentage (.771%) ERA (1.93) and six shutouts.
Other starters who merit consideration among the greatest Latin American pitchers are Mexico’s Fernando Valenzuela (173-153 with a 3.54 ERA), New York-born Puerto Rican John Candelaria (177-122, 3.33) and fellow Cubans Mike Cuéllar (185-118, 3.14) and Camilo Pascual (174-170, 3.63).
New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera (Panama) ranks eighth all-time among closers with 336 career saves and has been the most dominant postseason closer ever. With an average season—he has averaged more than 40 saves a season since taking over the role in 1997—Rivera could move into fifth place behind Lee Smith (478), John Franco (424), Trevor Hoffman (393) and Dennis Eckersley (390).
Though he never played in the majors—the color of his skin prevented that—the Cuban Dihigo starred in the Negro Leagues, Cuba, Mexico and elsewhere during the 1920s. 30s and 40s. Known as El Maestro in Mexico and El Inmortal in Cuba, Dihigo was perhaps the most versatile player in baseball history, excelling at every position except catcher. In 1977, by a vote of the veteran’s committee, Dihigo was elected into the Hall of Fame, becoming the only player inducted into the halls of fame in Cuba, Mexico and the U.S. |
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