Manuel Rafael Mota Geronimo, more commonly known as Manny Mota (born February 18, 1938), is a
Dominican 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 cat ...
who played 20 seasons for 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 Yor ...
,
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...
and
Montreal Expos
The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...
, as well as being a
pinch hitting specialist with 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 ...
. He retired as a player at the age of 44.
He was a
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
for the Dodgers from 1980 through 2013. His 34 consecutive seasons as a Dodger coach is the longest in team history and the second-longest such streak in MLB history behind
Nick Altrock
Nicholas Altrock (September 15, 1876 – January 20, 1965) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in the major leagues as a left-handed pitcher between 1898 and 1919. After the 1919 season he continued to make periodic ...
, who spent 42 straight seasons listed as a coach for the old
Washington Senators. Mota is currently a minor league hitting instructor and Spanish language television broadcaster for the Dodgers.
Playing career
San Francisco Giants
Minor leagues
At the age of 19, Mota signed as an amateur free agent with the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...
on February 21, 1957. He began his minor league career that season with the Class-D
Michigan City White Caps
The Michigan City White Caps were a minor league baseball team based in Michigan City, Indiana from 1956 to 1959. The White Caps were a member of the Class C Midwest League (1956–1959). The team set the foundation for today's West Michigan Whi ...
of the
Midwest League
The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...
, where he hit .314 in 126 games. In 1958, he was promoted to the Class-B
Danville Leafs
The Danville Leafs were a professional minor league baseball team that played in the city of Danville, Virginia. During 1935–1942, they were also known as the Danville-Schoolfield Leafs.
History
Professional baseball first made its appearance i ...
of the
Carolina League
The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...
, where he hit .301 in 103 games.
Mota began 1959 with the Class A
Springfield Giants From 1957 through 1965, the Springfield Giants were the Single-A and Double-A baseball team affiliate of the New York/San Francisco Giants in the Eastern League. The team played at Pynchon Park in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Springfield Gi ...
of the
Eastern League and was later promoted to the AAA
Phoenix Giants
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
of the
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...
. In 86 games combined, he hit .304. In 1960, he played in 141 games for the AA
Rio Grande Valley Giants The Rio Grande Valley Giants was an American minor league baseball franchise in the Double-A Texas League located in Harlingen, Texas, that played from the beginning of the 1960 season through June 10, 1961. As its nickname implies, the team was a ...
of the
Texas League
The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...
, hitting .307. In 1961, with the AAA
Tacoma Giants, he hit .289 in 142 games.
Major leagues
After beginning 1962 with the
El Paso Sun Kings
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...
, Mota made his major league debut on April 16, 1962 for the San Francisco Giants against 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 ...
, and hit a fly ball to centerfield in his first at-bat. His first hit was a single off
Jim Brosnan
James Patrick Brosnan (October 24, 1929 – June 28, 2014) was an American baseball player and author who played in Major League Baseball in 1954 and from 1956 through 1963. A right-handed pitcher, he appeared in 385 games, largely in relief, ...
of the
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...
on April 21, 1962. He had 13 hits in 74 at-bats for a .176 batting average in 47 games for the Giants.
On November 30, 1962, the Giants traded Mota to the
Houston Colt .45's
The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...
(with
Dick LeMay
Richard Paul LeMay (August 28, 1938 – March 19, 2018) was an American professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, LeMay appeared in parts of three Major League Baseball seasons (1961–63), but had a long career in minor league basebal ...
) for
infielder
An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field.
Standard arrangement of positions
In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...
Joey Amalfitano
John Joseph Amalfitano (born January 23, 1934) is a former utility infielder, manager and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played a combined ten seasons with the New York and San Francisco Giants (1954–55; 1960–61; 1963), Ho ...
.
Pittsburgh Pirates
![Manny Mota 1965](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Manny_Mota_1965.jpg)
Before he appeared in an official game with Houston, Mota was dealt to the
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...
for outfielder
Howie Goss
Howard Wayne Goss (November 1, 1934 – July 31, 1996) was an American professional baseball, professional baseball player who appeared in two seasons (–) in the Major League Baseball, Major Leagues as an outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and ...
and cash on April 4, 1963, and he quickly established himself as one of the National League's premiere hitters. In six years with the Pirates, Mota appeared in 642 games and hit .297. His first career home run was hit off
Chris Short
Christopher Joseph Short (September 19, 1937 – August 1, 1991), nicknamed "Styles", was an American professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (1959–1972), and Milwaukee Brewers ...
of the
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...
on May 26, 1964.
Montreal Expos
On October 14, 1968, Mota was the second player selected 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 expansio ...
by the
Montreal Expos
The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...
. In 31 games, he hit .315.
Los Angeles Dodgers
On June 11, 1969 Mota was traded to 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 ...
(along with
Maury Wills
Maurice Morning Wills (October 2, 1932 – September 19, 2022) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) primarily for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1959 through 1966 and the latter part of ...
) for
Ron Fairly
Ronald Ray Fairly (July 12, 1938 – October 30, 2019) was an American Major League Baseball player and broadcaster. Combining playing and broadcasting appearances, Fairly was involved in over 7,000 major league games from 1958 through 2006.
Ea ...
and
Paul Popovich.
Dodgers finally bring Wills back home
/ref> Once in L.A., Mota became their number one pinch hitter and hit over .300 during the next five seasons.
On May 16, 1970, Mota hit the first batted ball in major league history to cause a fatality. In the bottom of the third against the Giants at Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ( ...
, Mota fouled one off of Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Jackson Perry (September 15, 1938 – December 1, 2022) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher for eight different teams from 1962 to 1983. During a 22-year baseb ...
along the first base line. The ball struck 14-year-old Alan Fish in the left temple. Four days later, Fish died of an inoperable head injury.
In 1973, Mota was selected to the National League All-Star team after leading the league in batting average. From 1974 through 1979, Mota was continuously called upon for late inning heroics, where he averaged 10 pinch hits for six straight seasons. The Dodgers appeared in the 1974, 1977, and 1978 World Series
The 1978 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1978 season. The 75th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion New York Yankees and the Natio ...
. In 1979, he established his place in the record books by becoming the all-time leader in pinch hit
In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, Americ ...
s. He had a compact swing and often half-swung just to push the ball beyond the reach of the first baseman for a hit.
In 1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...
, Mota appeared in his fourth World Series, this time as a coach. Mota retired as a player from the Dodgers after the 1982 season, a year in which he had only one plate appearance. He ended his playing career holding the all-time major league record for career pinch-hits (150), which has since been broken by Mark Sweeney
Mark Patrick Sweeney (born October 26, 1969) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman who played for several teams from 1995 to 2008. He is best known for his skill as a pinch hitter, where he ranks second in career pinch h ...
and Lenny Harris
Lenny or Lennie may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Lennie (surname), a list of people
* Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''L ...
, an overall lifetime batting average of .304, and a .297 pinch-hitting average. His .315 batting average is second best (1,800 or more at bats) in Los Angeles Dodgers history, trailing only Mike Piazza's .331.
Post-playing career
Mota served as a player-coach for the Dodgers during his final seasons on the diamond, then remained a coach after retiring as a player. Mota coached Los Angeles in the 1988 World Series, his fifth in Dodger uniform. He retired as a coach in 2013 to become a full-time broadcaster (see below).
Mota's fame as a pinch-hitter was immortalized in the 1980 movie ''Airplane!
''Airplane!'' (alternatively titled ''Flying High!'') is a 1980 American parody film written and directed by the brothers David Zucker, David and Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams in their directorial debuts, and produced by Jon Davison (film prod ...
'', when Ted Stryker tries to "concentrate!" on flying the plane, then hears an echo in his head ("''concentrate...!''"), which morphs into a baseball public address announcer intoning, "Pinch-hitting for Pedro Borbon
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Galician language, Galician name for ''Peter (given name), Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic fo ...
...(''Borbon'')...Manny...(''Manny'')...Mota...(''Mota'')...!" (This did not occur in a real big-league game, as Mota and Borbon never played for the same major league team at the same time; however, they ''did'' play together for Tigres del Licey
Tigres del Licey (English: Licey Tigers) is a professional baseball team in the Dominican Professional Baseball League (LIDOM). The team was founded in 1907 and based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It is one of two LIDOM franchises based in ...
in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
for several winter seasons.)
In the off-season, Mota and his wife Margarita reside in the Dominican Republic, where they run the Manny Mota International Foundation. Established over 30 years ago, this humanitarian organization provides needed resources and other assistance to disadvantaged youth and their families in both the Dominican Republic and the United States.
Mota was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum
The Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum was founded in San Francisco, California on October 24, 1998, by Amaury Pi-Gonzalez Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is a Spanish language Major League Baseball announcer. He is the only major league baseball announcer to h ...
Hall of Fame on August 23, 2003, in a pre-game on-field ceremony at Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ( ...
. Mota was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary
The Baseball Reliquary is a nonprofit educational organization "dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history and to exploring the national pastime’s unparalleled creative possibilities ...
's Shrine of the Eternals in 2013.["Shrine of the Eternals – Inductees"](_blank)
Baseball Reliquary. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
Mota worked as a color commentator
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 t ...
on the Fox Sports en Espanol television broadcast of the 2007 World Series and worked as a Spanish-language broadcaster for the Dodgers on select PrimeTicket broadcasts; he became a full-time broadcaster on the Spanish-language feeds of SportsNet LA
Spectrum SportsNet LA and Spectrum Deportes LA (otherwise known as simply SportsNet LA and Deportes LA and originally known as Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA) is an American regional sports network jointly owned by the Los Angeles Dodgers Major L ...
in 2014.
Family
Two of Mota's sons, Andy
Andy may refer to:
People
* Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds
* Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and pi ...
and José
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...
, also played in the major leagues. Manny's youngest son, Tony, played extensively through the minor leagues and also coached for the Dodgers organization. His son Jose was a Spanish language play by play broadcaster for the Los Angeles Angels for 20 years. He joined the Los Angeles Dodgers Spanish language broadcast team in 2022. Manny, and his wife, Margarita, recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Mota's nephew, Santiago Taveras, is an educator and former deputy chancellor in New York City, and was the principal of DeWitt Clinton High School
, motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished
, image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg
, seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG
, seal_size = 124px
, ...
in the Bronx until his ouster in a grade-fixing scandal in November 2016.
Notes
External links
Manny Mota
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mota, Manny
1938 births
Caribbean Series managers
Columbus Jets players
Danville Leafs players
Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Canada
Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States
El Paso Sun Kings players
Living people
Los Angeles Dodgers announcers
Los Angeles Dodgers coaches
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball hitting coaches
Major League Baseball outfielders
Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic
Michigan City White Caps players
Montreal Expos players
National League All-Stars
Phoenix Giants players
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Rio Grande Valley Giants players
San Francisco Giants players
Sportspeople from Santo Domingo
Springfield Giants players
Tacoma Giants players