Miguel Fuentes Pinet (May 10, 1946 – January 29, 1970) was a Puerto Rican

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), ...

(MLB)

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 ...

. Fuentes was signed to his first professional contract in 1969 with 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 ...

. He went on to pitch in eight games for the club at the major league level after strong performances in the

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 ...

. During the off-season, he was murdered in a bar fight at the age of 23.

Early life and early career

Fuentes was born in Loíza,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, in the

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...

of Loíza Aldea. He starred as an amateur baseball player and, in 1968, helped lead his amateur team to a Puerto Rican championship. He was discovered by

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Felix Delgado, who went on to sign Fuentes to his first professional contract.

Career with the Pilots organization

Fuentes was initially assigned to the

Clinton Pilots Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a give ...

, a Class A team in 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 ...

. He recorded an 8–2 record in 26 appearances and his

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) of 1.46 was the lowest in the league for pitchers with 40 or more innings pitched. For his efforts, Fuentes was called to the Seattle Pilots' Major League roster in September 1969. He made his Major League debut on September 1, striking out two in an inning of work against the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

. After a second relief appearance, Fuentes was given his first Major League start; he responded by throwing a complete game against the

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, giving up one run on seven hits. Fuentes made three other starts with the Pilots, with a relief appearance in between his second and third starts; in those other three starts he was credited with the loss. Fuentes ended his Major League year with a relief appearance in Seattle's final game, where he threw the team's last ever pitches, as the Pilots would become the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. During his lone year in baseball, Fuentes was 1–3 with a 5.19 ERA and 14

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s in eight games (four starts).

Death

During the MLB

off-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

in the winter of 1969 and 1970, Fuentes played in the

Puerto Rican Winter League Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places *El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines *Puerto Colombia, Colombia *Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela *Puerto Galera, Orient ...

with the Caguas Criollos. A few days after the Criollos' season ended in the league's playoffs, on January 29, Fuentes was shot three times at a bar in Loíza Aldea. "Fuentes had gone outside to relieve himself because there was a plumbing problem in the bathroom. Someone who thought Fuentes was doing it too close to his car shot him." Fuentes was sent to a hospital in a state of

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and died of his wounds shortly thereafter. Fuentes was regarded as a top prospect in the Pilots organization at the time of his death. Because of the Pilots' move to

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

in 1970 to become the Brewers, Fuentes holds the distinction of throwing the final pitches in the history of the Seattle Pilots. Fuentes appears in the 1970 set of

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s as a Seattle Pilot, as the Topps cards were already in production (and the Seattle franchise had not yet announced their move to Milwaukee) at the time of Fuentes' death.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuentes, Miguel 1946 births 1970 deaths People from Loíza, Puerto Rico Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico Clinton Pilots players Seattle Pilots players People murdered in Puerto Rico Puerto Rican murder victims Deaths by firearm in Puerto Rico 1970 murders in Puerto Rico

Early life and early career

Career with the Pilots organization

Death

See also

References

External links