Benjamín Valenzuela Beltrán (2 June 1933 – 24 October 2018) was a Mexican

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

, a

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

who appeared in ten

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

games for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

during the 1958 season. Nicknamed "Papelero" in his native

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, he threw and batted

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

, stood tall and weighed .

Career

His abbreviated MLB service notwithstanding, Valenzuela played 20 years in professional baseball (1952–71), with the last decade spent exclusively in the Double-A

Mexican League The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country. The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...

and lower-classification Mexican

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

. He began his pro career with the Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings, an unaffiliated team in the Class C

Arizona–Texas League The Arizona–Texas League was a Class D level American minor league baseball league that existed for nine seasons, from 1931–32, 1937–41, 1947–50 and 1952-54. In 1951, the Arizona-Texas loop merged with the Sunset League (based primarily ...

, then was drafted into the Cardinal organization in 1955. After hitting .314 and .286 in consecutive seasons with the Double-A

Houston Buffaloes The Houston Buffaloes, Houston Buffalos, or Buffs were an American minor league baseball team, and were the first minor league team to be affiliated with a Major League Baseball, Major League franchise, which was the St. Louis Cardinals. The clu ...

in 1956–57, he received early- and late-season auditions with the 1958 Redbirds, spending the bulk of that year with Triple-A Omaha. He singled in his first MLB at bat off

Johnny Podres John Joseph Podres (September 30, 1932 – January 13, 2008) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in the majors from 1953 to 1969, spending most of his career with the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers. Podres ...

of the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

on April 27, but overall collected only three hits in 14

at bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

with a base on balls during his lone big-league campaign. At the close of the 1958 season, Valenzuela was traded to the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

in a five-player transaction that netted the Cardinals right-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Ernie Broglio Ernest Gilbert Broglio (; August 27, 1935 – July 16, 2019) was a professional baseball pitcher. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball from 1959 to 1966. After attending high school and junior college i ...

. Valenzuela owed his nickname, "Papelero", because he worked as a

paperboy A paperboy is someoneoften an older child or adolescentwho distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th ce ...

; he also worked as

batboy In baseball, a batboy or batgirl is an individual who carries baseball bats to the players on a baseball team. Duties of a batboy may also include handling and preparing players’ equipment and bringing baseballs to the umpire during the game. ...

for the Cañeros de Los Mochis before turning into a professional baseball player. After his playing retirement, he became

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

of the Alijadores de Tampico in the Mexican League, winning one title in 1975. He was inducted into the

Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame The Salón de la Fama del Beisbol Profesional de México (in English, Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame), commonly called the Salón de la Fama (Hall of Fame) is a baseball hall of fame and museum located in Monterrey, Nuevo León. ...

in 1986. Valenzuela died on 24 October 2018 in his hometown

Los Mochis Los Mochis () is a coastal city in northern Sinaloa, Mexico. It serves as the municipal seat of the municipality of Ahome. As of the 2010 census, the population was 362,613, which was 61 percent of the municipality's population. Los Mochis is th ...

, Sinaloa.

References

External links

1933 births 2018 deaths Baseball players from Sinaloa Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings players Fresno Cardinals players Houston Buffaloes players Major League Baseball players from Mexico Major League Baseball third basemen Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Mexican expatriate baseball players in the United States Mexican League baseball managers Omaha Cardinals players Petroleros de Poza Rica players Phoenix Giants players Rio Grande Valley Giants players St. Louis Cardinals players Sultanes de Monterrey players Tacoma Giants players Venados de Yucatán (minor league) players Victoria Giants players {{Mexico-baseball-third-baseman-stub