Cándido Maldonado Guadarrama (born September 5, 1960) is a Puerto Rican former
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), ...
outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...
who played from to for 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 ...
,
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 ...
,
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...
,
Milwaukee Brewers,
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...
,
Chicago Cubs, and
Texas Rangers.
Chris Berman
Christopher James Berman (born May 10, 1955), nicknamed "Boomer", is an American sportscaster. He has been an anchor for ''SportsCenter'' on ESPN since 1979, joining a month after its initial launch, and hosted the network's '' Sunday NFL Count ...
, a fellow
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
analyst,
nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
d him the "Candyman". Maldonado holds the distinction of having struck the first game-winning hit outside the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
play,
and was the only Giant to hit a
triple
Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble":
Sports
* Triple (baseball), a three-base hit
* A basketball three-point field goal
* A figure skating jump with three rotations
* In bowling terms, three strikes in a row
* ...
in the
1989 World Series
The 1989 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1989 season. The 86th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Oakland Athletics and the Nat ...
.
[
]
San Francisco
Maldonado, also known as "The Candyman", was a major part of the Giants success in the late 1980s as a part of the 1987 NL West Champions and the 1989 National League Champions.
Although Maldonado had statistically good seasons in San Francisco, he was involved in one of the most infamous plays in Giants history. In game 6 of the 1987 National League Championship Series
The 1987 National League Championship Series took place between October 6 and 14 at Busch Memorial Stadium (Games 1, 2, 6, and 7) and Candlestick Park (Games 3, 4, and 5). It matched the East division champion St. Louis Cardinals (95–67) agai ...
, he lost Tony Peña
Antonio Francisco Peña Padilla (; born June 4, 1957) is a Dominican former professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball for the Pirates, Cardinals, Red Sox, Indians, White Sox, and Astros. ...
's 2nd inning fly ball in the lights. This play resulted in a triple for Peña. Peña scored on a sacrifice fly for the only run of the game, which 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 ...
won to tie the series at 3 games each, before going on to win Game 7.
Career highlights
Maldonado was a better hitter on the road than at home, with a batting average which was 51 points higher in road games than in home games.
On May 4, 1987, he became only the 16th player in 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 ...
franchise history to hit for the cycle
In baseball, hitting for the cycle is the accomplishment of one batter who hits a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. Collecting the hits in that order is known as a "natural cycle". Cycles are rare in Major League B ...
.
Then in 1994, Candy scored the first-ever run for the Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...
at Jacobs Field.
In Game 3 of the 1992 World Series
The 1992 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1992 season. The 89th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Toronto Blue Jays and the Na ...
, playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, he hit a walk-off hit Walk-off may refer to:
*an event in a sporting event where the game-winning score immediately ends the game, such as a walk-off home run in baseball, a touchdown or field goal that's scored when there's no time left on the clock or during the overt ...
off Atlanta Braves closer Jeff Reardon
Jeffrey James Reardon (born October 1, 1955) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1979–1994 with the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta B ...
and also hit a solo home run
In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...
in Game 6 of the series.
Maldonado was noted as a good home run hitter who did not usually hit for a high batting average
Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic.
Cricket
In cricket, a player's batting average is ...
, finishing at .254 for his MLB career.
He played in eight different postseason series for three of his teams and won the World Series with the Blue Jays in .
Recent career
Maldonado provided color commentary
A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...
for ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes (, ''ESPN Sports'') is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications ...
' coverage of the World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Lea ...
and regular season games. He was named general manager of the Gigantes del Cibao of the Dominican Baseball League. Maldonado contributed a video to "La Esquina de Candy" (or "Candy's Corner").[
Also, in 2011, Maldonado was inducted into the ]Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame
The Pabellón de la Fama del Caribe (In English, the ''Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame'') was established in 1996 by Juan Francisco Puello Herrera, commissioner of the Confederación de Béisbol del Caribe (''Caribbean Confederation of Profession ...
with former teammate and National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Roberto Alomar
Roberto "Robbie" Alomar Velázquez (; ; born February 5, 1968)
is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball player for the San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and Arizon ...
, Carlos Baerga
Carlos Obed Ortiz Baerga (; ; born November 4, 1968) is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball player. Baerga was known for his superb hitting abilities during his first stint with the Cleveland Indians in the early-to-mid-1990s, accumulatin ...
and Luis "Mambo" DeLeón for the 2011 Caribbean Series. He was also inducted into his native Puerto Rico Baseball Hall of Fame.
See also
* List of Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico currently has the fourth-most active players in Major League Baseball (MLB) among Latin American jurisdictions, behind the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba. More than three hundred players from the archipelago have played in t ...
* List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
In baseball, completing the cycle is the accomplishment of hitting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. In terms of frequency, the cycle is roughly as common as a no-hitter; '' Baseball Digest'' calls it "one of th ...
References
External links
, o
Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maldonado, Candy
1960 births
Living people
Albuquerque Dukes players
Chicago Cubs players
Cleveland Indians players
Clinton Dodgers players
Lethbridge Dodgers players
Lodi Dodgers players
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball outfielders
Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico
Milwaukee Brewers players
People from Humacao, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican expatriate baseball players in Canada
San Francisco Giants players
Texas Rangers players
Toronto Blue Jays players