THE HISTORY of LATINOS in the MAJOR LEAGUE

Passion and style. That’s what Hispanic ballplayers brought to Major League baseball since 1902, and the league has never been the same. Hispanic players have combined a fervent love of the game, an instinctive grasp of the fundamentals and natural athletic grace to leave a long and distinguished legacy to the sport.

In 2003 their achievements were greater than ever. The Dominican shortstop Alex Rodriguez was selected as the AL MVP. A-Rod was the homerun champ with 47 and he led the league with 124 run scored. First baseman Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League was selected as the “Player of the Year”. He led the league in run scored with 137, 212 hits and 51 doubles. Angel Berroa, shortstop for the Kansa City Royals was selected as the Rookie of the Year of the American League. Tony Peña was selected as the Manager of the Year of the AL, First baseman Carlos Delgado the the Toronto Blue Jays lead the league in RBIs with 145 and he became the first Latino player to hit 4 homers in one game. Dominican Sammy Sosa became the first Latino player to reach 500 homers and Rafael Palmiero became the second shortly after. Colombian Edgar Renteria of the Cardinals had a career season with 194 hits, 100RBI and solid .330 batting average. Venezuelan Magglio Ordoñez continued his torrid batting with his 5th consecutive year of hitting over .300. Mexican Esteban Loaiza, of the White Sox won 21 games with a ERA of 2.90. He also led the league in strke outs with 207. Panamanian Mariano Rivera of the Yankees saved over 40 games for the 4th time in his career. Pedro Martinez led the AL with a 2.22 ERA. Puerto Rican Javy Lopez hit 43 homers, 42 as a catcher which established a new MLB record.

A total of 275 ballplayers from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Panama, Colombia and Nicaragua played in the majors during the 2003 season. It took much sacrifice by many men for these players to get where they are today. We want to go back all the way to 1902 to give recognition to the early players, the pioneers who made this all possible.


The first Latin American to enter the big leagues was Luis Castro, an infielder who played in 42 games with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902.

However, it was during the next decade that Latin American players really “arrived” in the majors, particularly from Cuba, which would in time become a major exporter of baseball players. The infielder Rafael Almeida and the outfielder Armando Marsans played in 1911, but the first bona-fide All-stars were pitcher Adolfo Luque and catcher Miguel Angel Gonzalez.
“Adolfo Luque was the most outstanding Cuban ballplayer before the arrival of Orestes Minoso,” wrote journalist Eladio Secades. “And that was because he happened to be pitching for the Cincinnati Reds at a time when they were one of the consistent competitors in the National League, so he had to have talent to pitch for a team in contention.”
Luque reached the majors in 1914 with the Boston Braves and played for 20 years, including his famous 1923 season with the Reds, when he had a record of 27-8. He also led with a 1.93 ERA and 6 shutouts.

Catcher Miguel Angel Gonzalez appeared two seasons earlier, also with the Braves, for a period that ended in 1932. He was known as the classical defensive player with little power at bat, but this turned out to be one of the great strategist of his generation. In 1938 he became the first Latin American to manage in the big leagues, taking charge of the St. Louis Cardinals in ’38 and ’40.

Other notable firsts included the first Mexican in the majors, Mel Almada, an outfielder who wore the uniform of the Boston Red Sox between 1933 and 1939, and the first Puerto Rican, Hiram Bithorn, a hurler who pitched with scrapping Chicago Cubs in 1942.


In 1939 pitcher Alejandro Carrasquel signed with the Washington Senators to become the first Venezuelan big leaguer. In 1955 the Kansas City Athletics’ utility man Hector Lopez and the Milwaukee Braves’ and hurler Humberto Robinson were the first Panamanians. The next season, the first Dominican, Oswaldo Virgil, signed as an infielder for the New York Giants.
Latin Americans really came on strong in the 50’s, led by a quick and daring Cuban outfielder named Orestes Minoso, who became the first ballplayer to play in five different decades. A line drive hitter with occasional power, Minoso was already 26 years old when he arrived in the majors in 1949 with the Cleveland Indians. But it was two years later with the White Sox that his legend began.

“The Indians signed me, but they were not convinced about me,” he commented. “They thought I couldn’t do it, though in that season of ‘49 I played very little. In just nine games, how could they know whether I could or not! They did not give me a chance next season either. I did not go to the plate once. But in ‘51 they traded me to the Chicago White Sox, and everyone knows what happened then.”

At Chicago, he had eight seasons with batting averages over .300 and 31 steals. He was the first to win three consecutive stolen base titles. “You know, that was cleverness,” the right-handed hitter commented. “At that time the game had gone static with so many home runs and I told myself, Orestes, you don’t have so much power, so you’ll have to do something so these people will take notice of you. Since you can run, why don’t you do that! Then came the steals, the doubles and the triples, as you know. I tell you, those people flipped.” Minoso played until 1964, and once he recorded a double on a bunt. At 54 years old he returned for 8 at-bats in 1976. He was 58 when he returned for two at-bats in 1980 with the same White Sox uniform..
Arriving in Chicago in 1951, Minoso met the White Sox shortstop Alfonso Carrasquel, a Venezuelan, the other great Hispanic Figure in the leagues at that time. During the first five years of that decade Carrasquel was known as the best shortstop in the majors, despite the presence of shortstop like Phil Rizzuto, Johnny Pesky, Eddie Jost, Pee Wee Reese, Alvin Dark, Johnny Logan, Roy McMillan and Dick Groat. In 1951 he became the first Latin American to participate in the All-Star Game, which was held that season at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium.

“It was a dream come true, but I wasn’t nervous,” Carrasquel reported, winning the vote of the fans with 1,213,774 after being elected Most Valuable Player in American League the previous season with the Yankees. “Playing every day got me acclimated, and I was psychologically prepared for special moments like this one. The choice didn’t surprise me, either. I was aware of my qualifications for the game, and by now my talent was recognized by everyone.”
Carrasquel was in manager Casey Stengel’s line-up until the sixth inning, when he left so that Minoso could bat for him. Rizzuto came in at shortstop. In the end, the National League won 8 to 3, but that didn’t tell the whole story.

“From the very start I felt like a winner. Even before the game started,” Alfonso asserts. “To be at the hotel and on the playing field with Ted Williams, with Stan Musial, with Jackie Robinson, with Duke Snider, with Pee Wee Reese…that was enough. Just imagine, today all of them are in the Hall of Fame.”

The second big news of the decade for Latin America was the Mexican Beto Avila. A second-baseman who batted right-handed, Avila averaged over .300 in 1952 and 1953 before his .341 averages in 1954 earned him the American League batting crown. He was the first Hispanic to win it.

With this title, Avila even surpassed Minoso in his career; though his most important contribution was helping the Cleveland Indians win 111 games, the most by an American League team. The Aztec shared his talents with hitter Larry Doby, third-baseman Al Rosen, outfielder Al Smith, and that celebrated group of hurlers Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, Mike Garcia, bob feller, Don Mossi and Ray Narleski. Interestingly, the Indians never again won the pennant, and Avila never again batted 300.

Two seasons later there was a furor in Chicago when Aparicio was brought in to play shortstop, sending Carrasquel to Cleveland. Within six months, Aparicio had dispelled all doubt with his “Rookie of the Year” performance, the first ever by a Hispanic. “I wasn’t totally sure I could’ be elected Rookie of the Year,” Aparicio commented, having batted .266 and leading the league in putouts and assists. “I had started the season a little weak with the bat, but then I got the feel of the league. I didn’t really feel pressure. I was very young, but Alfonso Carrasquel had already given me an idea of what I could achieve.”


If Minoso shook up the American League with his speed, Aparicio marked the point of the resurgence of speed as a lethal weapon. He was the #1 base-stealer in his first nine seasons, something no other player has achieved, and even subsequent baseburners like Maury Wills, Lou Brock, Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines and Vince Coleman.

“I always had very good reflexes, and I learned the motions of the pitchers too,” said Aparicio; whose highpoint were 57 steals in 1964. “The more I knew the pitchers, the easier it was for me to steal. Then came Wills, Brock, Henderson and the others, because the steal became an offensive weapon. Now all the teams are going around looking for one or two guys who can steal 40 or 50 bases a year.”

After the dexterity of Minoso, the defense of Carrasquel and Aparicio, and the batting of Mexican Beto Avila, Hispanics in the 60’s added power hitting and throwing consistency. Shortstops like Cubans Leonardo Cardenas and Zoilo Versalles, hurlers like Puerto Rican Juan Pizarro and Cuban Camilo Pascual, hitters like Venezuelan Victor Davalillo and the brothers Felipe and Mateito Alou, Cuban Dagoberto Campaneris and Venezuelan Cesar Tovar played all nine positions. But the story of the 60’s was Puerto Ricans Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda, Dominican Juan Marichal and Cuban Tony Oliva.

Clemente was originally signed by the Dodgers, but his contract was sold to the Pittsburgh Pirates, because with Duke Snider and Carl Furillo there was no room for him. The Dodgers came to regret this when in 1961 Roberto Clemente got the first of his four batting crowns. His career would culminate with three thousand hits, a lifetime average of .317 and a place in the Hall of Fame.


Clemente was a reserved individual who spoke with his bat, as he did in the 1971 World Series against the Orioles when he helped the pirates win by hitting in each game for an average of .414 with 2 home runs and 4 runs driven in. “I don’t like to make comparisons,” Cepeda said of Clemente. “Roberto-more than anything else-was my friend. My personal friend, but for me the only things that separated Mays from Roberto was his power and a little more speed on the bases.”

“Yes, with Clemente there was always some complaint,” relates Marichal. “One day his neck would hurt him, and the next it would be his back. He had a thousand pains, but they all went away when it came to bat. He was a great competitor and was always mentally prepared when it came to game time. He always made time for the things that were important. He was proud, and he had reason to protest the little recognition he got. He’s the best of examples for all of us.”
With as much talent at the plate as Clemente, Cepeda had a personality that was diametrically opposite. Immediately upon arriving, he challenged Willie Mays for leadership among the Giants players and for favorite of the San Francisco fans. But he was more than just congenial. Initially purchased by the Giants in 1958 at 20 years of age, he became the first Hispanic Rookie of the Year in the National League. At 21 he finished his first season with over 100 runs driven in, and at 23 he batted .311 and led the National League with 46 home runs and 147 hits. In his first seven seasons he hit more home runs than Henry Aaron, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays did in their first seven. Cepeda played with the Giants, and he batted fourth behind Willie Mays and in front of Willie McCovey. He played with the St. Louis Cardinals, and he batted fourth behind Lou Brock. He played with the Atlanta Braves, and he batted fourth behind Luis Aparicio and Carl Yastrzemski. And he played with the Santurce Cangrejeros in Puerto Rico, where he was fourth behind Robert Clemente. Except for Cepeda, all of them are in the Hall of Fame.


“It is only now that I take stock of the fact that I played at the side of some of the greatest players of all time,” Cepeda said recently. “At the time, I was just proud to be with them. And I also learned a lot of things with Mays and with Aaron, but at no time did I feel inferior to them. I was always confident of my talent.” As it happened with Cepeda, so it happened with Marichal that he was to play in a time of abundant hurlers like Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale.

“They were something special,” Marichal once admitted, with six 20-win seasons in his record. “Of all of them, Koufax was the one I admired most. I don’t think there has been anybody like Sandy, especially a left-hander. He only had three pitches, the fastball, the curve and the changeup. All of the batters knew it. They waited for them, and they went down. He was a very gifted pitcher.” And Marichal? “I don’t like to talk about my virtues.”

If there is one Latin American hitter whose naturalness as a batter can compare with the likes of Ted Williams, it was Tony Oliva, the only one in the entire history of the majors to win batting crowns in his first two full seasons in the big leagues. His 217 hits in his rookie year with the Minnesota Twins is still an American League record. He received other titles, five for hits and four for doubles in a career that was halted before its time due to a serious injury to the left knee.
In the 70’s, Panamanian Rod Carew got six of his seven batting titles, Cubans Luis Tiant and Miguel Cuellar totaled six 20-win seasons, Dominican Ricardo Carty hit .366 (an average not since equaled in the National League), Venezuelan David Concepcion began his rise to the elite of the shortstops of both leagues, Dominican Manuel Mota and Venezuela Victor Davalillo showed their stuff as emerging batters, and to many the Cuban Tony Perez became the main axle of the Big Red Machine in Cincinnati, the most powerful team of the decade.

“The journalists and the people came to the conclusion that I was the pivot point of everything,” said Perez, who never drove in less than 90 runs between 1970 and 1976 and in four seasons drove in more than 100. “I was the leader of the team, and I think I achieved this with my work on the playing field and with my personality. I was a kind of contact point between the Latins and the Americans, and between the manager and the players. And I also achieved it because I treated everybody well. Everybody was a star for me, and everybody was equal.”
During this seven-year span, the Reds – also with Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Ken Griffey and David Concepcion – won five division titles, four National League pennants and two World Series. But when Perez was sent to the Expos, the Reds could not catch the Dodgers in ’77 and ’78.

The Eighties witnessed the establishment of the Dominicans as the largest Hispanic group in baseball, the rise of charismatic Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela with his lethal corkscrew pitch, the RBI championship of the Venezuelan Antonio Armas, the dexterity of his fellow country-man Oswaldo Guillen at shortstop, the appearance of talented catchers like Dominican Tony Pena, Venezuelan Baudilio Diaz and Puerto Ricans Benito Santiago and Sandy Alomar. But perhaps the most noteworthy was the appearance of Jose Canseco, the quintessential baseball player, the first Latino to reach the 400. Canseco never reached 500 homers due to injuries that shortened his career. He ended his career with 462 homeruns. 

In his first three seasons in the majors Canseco hit at least 30 home runs and drove in at least 100 runs, something no one else has done in this century. In 1988 he stole 40 bases and hit 40 homers, another feat never before achieved. On a more practical level, he was the first to make 5 million dollars in a single season. In recent years, the number of Latin American ballplayers has grown every season, and 2004 will be no exception. A total of 362 Hispanics are spread out among the MLB spring rosters, 178 in the American League and 184 in the National league. In every MLB team there are at least 8 Latinos.

The Hispanic contributions to baseball has been great, but there is a lot more to come. There are ballplayers in the farm systems ready and eager to make their mark. Also, with the Major Leagues expanding, there may even be a franchise in a Latin American City. No one knows where yet, but when it becomes a reality, it will have as it’s cornerstone the quality and tradition established by all the Latino ballplayers that have played in the past. Nevertheless Puerto Rico will host 22 MLB games, when the Expos, for the second consecutive year, will play part of their home games in San Juan. And it is important to mention that the Expo’s GM Omar Minaya was the first Latino General Manager in MLB.

And Mr. Arturo Moreno, of Mexican descent, purchased the Anaheim Angels and has injected his new team with a wealth of talent…with Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colon which is sure to spice things up in the West.

From the early beginnings to today, Latinos have and continue to contribute greatly to the legacy of the great sport of baseball.