Luis Gómez (born August 19, 1951) is a Mexican former 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 t ...

player who played during the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco,

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 ...

in 1951 and raised in the

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known f ...

neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, he attended and graduated from Nightingale Jr. High, then attended Belmont High School in Los Angeles, California and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. In 1969 Luis set two records in baseball and football at Belmont High with a .559 batting average and with 2,148 total yards as a quarterback. The 5'9" Gómez played on the UCLA baseball team for three years ('71-'73) at shortstop. There he compiled a batting average of .272, 2 HR, including a grand slam, and 34 RBI. During his senior year, his batting average was .301 in 52 games and 186 at bats. Luis started his

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), ...

career with the Minnesota Twins in 1974, playing with them until 1977. Then in 1978 he signed as a free agent with the Toronto Blue Jays where he set a single season team record of 19 sacrifice bunts ( still stands ). In 1980 he was traded to the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

, playing his two remaining seasons there and retiring in 1982. Luis set an Atlanta record in 1980 with a .968 fielding percentage at shortstop and strung together 42 consecutive errorless games. He played

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

, second base, and

third base 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 ...

in 609 major league games.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Luis 1951 births Living people Atlanta Braves players Baseball players from Jalisco Converts to Mormonism Major League Baseball second basemen Major League Baseball third basemen Major League Baseball shortstops Major League Baseball players from Mexico Mexican expatriate baseball players in Canada Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican Latter Day Saints Minnesota Twins players People from Echo Park, Los Angeles Sportspeople from Guadalajara, Jalisco St. Petersburg Pelicans players Toronto Blue Jays players UCLA Bruins baseball players Orlando Twins players Tacoma Twins players Belmont High School (Los Angeles) alumni