José Antonio Figueroa Freyre (June 13, 1914 – April 13, 2004), nicknamed "Tito", was a Puerto Rican professional

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 ...

in the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

. A native of

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Mayagüez (, ) is a city and the eighth-largest municipality in Puerto Rico. It was founded as Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Mayagüez, and is also known as ''La Sultana del Oeste'' (The Sultaness of the West), ''Ciudad de las Aguas Pura ...

, Figueroa was the brother of fellow Negro leaguer Tite Figueroa. He was a member of the

Puerto Rico national baseball team The Puerto Rico national baseball team ( es, Selección de béisbol de Puerto Rico) is the national baseball team of Puerto Rico. The men's senior team is currently ranked 13th in the world. Puerto Rico is the incumbent Baseball at the 2019 Pan ...

and won the gold medal in

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with th ...

at the

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

and

1938 Central American and Caribbean Games The 4th Central American and Caribbean Games were held in Panama City, the capital city of Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanni ...

. Figueroa played for the

New York Cubans The New York Cubans were a Negro league baseball team that played during the 1930s and from 1939 to 1950. Despite playing in the Negro leagues, the team occasionally employed white-skinned Hispanic baseball players as well, because Hispanics in ...

in 1940. He died in 2004 at age 89.

References

External links

an
Seamheads
1914 births 2004 deaths New York Cubans players Sportspeople from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Puerto Rico Baseball pitchers Puerto Rican baseball players Puerto Rican male javelin throwers Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics {{Negro-league-baseball-pitcher-stub