Ruthford Eduardo "Chico" Salmon (December 3, 1940 – September 17, 2000) was a
Panamanian
Panamanians (Spanish: ''Panameños'') are people identified with Panama, a transcontinental country in Central America (a region within North America) and South America, whose connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For m ...
professional
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
player. He played in
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), ...
as a
utility player
In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water polo.
The ...
from through , most notably as a member of the
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...
team that won three consecutive
American League pennants from 1969 to 1971 and, won the
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 ...
in 1970. He also played 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 F ...
.
Salmon graduated from Abel Bravo High School in
Colon, Panama where he lettered in baseball, basketball, and track. He later attended Abel Bravo College, where he also played baseball. It was as a college student that Salmon played for the Panamanian baseball team during the 1959 Pan-American Games in Venezuela. Shortly after playing in that tournament, Chico was signed by the Pacific Coast League's Denver club of the Milwaukee Braves organization.
Salmon was selected by the
Seattle Pilots
The Seattle Pilots were an American professional baseball, professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington during the 1969 Major League Baseball season. During their single-season existence, the Pilots played their ho ...
in the
expansion draft
An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion ...
following the 1968 season, but was acquired by the Orioles for
Gene Brabender
Eugene Mathew Brabender (August 16, 1941 – December 27, 1996), nicknamed Lurch, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent before the 1961 season. He also was a member of the ...
and
Gordon Lund on March 31, 1969.
Salmon was not particularly well-known for his fielding. While he was still with the team, the Orioles had a mock award named the Chico Salmon No Touch Award "to recognize fielding prowess that had all the deftness of a rhinoceros knitting," according to
Jim Palmer
James Alvin Palmer (born October 15, 1945) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1965–1967, 1969–1984). Palmer was the winningest MLB pitcher in the ...
. He was, however, widely known for his belief in ghosts which caused him to always sleep with the lights on.
He died from a heart attack on September 17, 2000 at the age of 59.
Chico Salmon dies
/ref>
References
Sources
1940 births
2000 deaths
Baltimore Orioles players
Cleveland Indians players
Denver Bears players
Durham Bulls players
Knoxville Smokies players
Major League Baseball first basemen
Major League Baseball players from Panama
Major League Baseball second basemen
Major League Baseball shortstops
Missoula Timberjacks players
Panamanian expatriate baseball players in the United States
Sportspeople from Colón, Panama
Pocatello Giants players
Portland Beavers players
{{Panama-baseball-bio-stub