Rigoberto Fuentes Peat (born January 4, 1944) is a retired
professional baseball
Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world.
Mod ...
player. He played for 13 seasons in the
major leagues between 1965 and 1978, primarily as a
second baseman. Fuentes played for most of his career with 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 ...
.
Professional career
The Giants initially signed Fuentes as an 18-year-old amateur before the start of the 1962 season. He was one of the last baseball players signed directly out of Cuba before the
United States embargo against Cuba
The United States embargo against Cuba prevents American businesses, and businesses organized under U.S. law or majority-owned by American citizens, from conducting trade with Cuban interests. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern hist ...
. Fuentes made his major league debut on August 18, 1965. Four days later, he was involved in one of the most famous baseball fights in history, a 14-minute brawl between the Giants and
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 ...
in which
Juan Marichal
Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez (born October 20, 1937), nicknamed "the Dominican Dandy", is a Dominican former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for three teams from 1960 to 1975, almost entirely the San Francisco Giant ...
bloodied
John Roseboro
John Junior Roseboro (May 13, 1933 – August 16, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball from 1957 until 1970, most prominently as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. A four ...
with a bat; Fuentes, the on-deck hitter when the fight broke out, brandished his own bat as he rushed to join the fray, though he did not hit anyone with it.
[Hirsch, p. 437] Fuentes split time between second base and
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 who ...
as a rookie in 1966. He batted .261 in his maiden year while playing solid defense at both positions. He slumped to batting .209 the following year, and subsequently, he spent all of 1968 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 ...
.
![Tito Fuentes 1975](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Tito_Fuentes_1975.jpeg)
Fuentes returned to the Giants in 1969 and spent the next two seasons as a utility infielder before re-gaining his starting spot at second base in 1971. He appeared in the postseason during the 1971 season as his Giants won the NL West title; his two-run
home run
In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...
in Game 1 of the
1971 NLCS helped San Francisco take an early series lead against 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 ...
, but that would turn out to be the Giants' only win of the best-of-five series. Fuentes continued to be the Giants' second baseman for three more seasons. In 1973, he set a National League record by recording a .993
fielding percentage
In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...
, the highest for any regular second baseman in league history. Ironically, Fuentes had led all National League second basemen in errors during the previous two seasons before setting the new record for excellence. His record stood for 13 seasons before
Ryne Sandberg
Ryne Dee Sandberg (born September 18, 1959), nicknamed "Ryno", is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played sixteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies (19 ...
recorded a .994 percentage at second in 1986.
After the 1974 season, San Francisco traded Fuentes and a future
Rookie of the Year,
Butch Metzger, to the
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...
for another second baseman,
Derrel Thomas
Derrel Osbon Thomas (born January 14, 1951) is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a second baseman and utility player from to . Thomas was a member of the 1981 World Series winning ...
. Tito played for two seasons in San Diego before leaving as a free agent. In 1977, Fuentes played with the
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...
and had a career-best .309
batting average
Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic.
Cricket
In cricket, a player's batting average is ...
. Despite having his best season, he was not brought back in 1978 (since the Tigers had a young
Lou Whitaker
Louis Rodman Whitaker Jr. (born May 12, 1957), nicknamed "Sweet Lou", is an American former professional baseball second baseman.
Whitaker spent his entire career with the Detroit Tigers. From 1977 to 1995, he appeared in 2,390 games for the ...
waiting in the wings). 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 ...
then purchased his contract. Before the start of the season, however, Fuentes was released. During the year, he signed with the
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...
, but he was released again after batting just .140 in only 13 games. He played for the Santo Domingo Azucareros in the short-lived
Inter-American League
The Inter-American League was a high-level circuit in Minor league baseball that lasted only three months before folding during the 1979 season.
The league was conceived both as an official Triple-A minor league circuit and member of the Nati ...
in 1979 before retiring.
In
Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...
's May 14, 1972 debut game at
Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium (), formally known as William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City.[New York Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...](_blank)
, Fuentes of the visiting Giants had a single, two doubles, a home run, and a base on balls in five plate appearances.
Baseball
Fuentes played baseball with elan, style and flair. He pioneered the use of headbands, sometimes applying them on the outside of his baseball cap. He would approach the plate holding his bat by the barrel, tap it handle-first off the plate, flip it into the air and catch it by the handle, ready to hit. He was called "one of the most renowned hot dogs in baseball history" in
Sparky Lyle
Albert Walter "Sparky" Lyle (born July 22, 1944) is an American former left-handed relief pitcher who spent sixteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1967 through 1982. He was a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, ...
's 1979 book ''
The Bronx Zoo
The Bronx Zoo (also historically the Bronx Zoological Park and the Bronx Zoological Gardens) is a zoo within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area and is the largest metropolitan zoo in ...
''. Elan and flair was not always accepted by staid ballplayers. Pitchers would knock him down with inside pitches for no apparent reason. After one such event he came out with a great quote: "They shouldn't throw at me," Fuentes said. "I'm the father of five or six kids."
Broadcasting career
Fuentes returned to the Giants as a radio announcer in 1981, the team's first year of Spanish language radio broadcasts, initially serving in this role until 1992. In 2004, Fuentes was brought back as an analyst, and he remains with the team in this role today.
Tito Fuentes 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 February 23, 2002 in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
.
References
*
External links
, o
RetrosheetPura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuentes, Tito
1944 births
Living people
Decatur Commodores players
Detroit Tigers players
El Paso Sun Kings players
Lakeland Giants players
Major League Baseball players from Cuba
Cuban expatriate baseball players in the United States
Major League Baseball second basemen
Navegantes del Magallanes players
Cuban expatriate baseball players in Venezuela
Oakland Athletics players
Phoenix Giants players
Salem Rebels players
San Diego Padres players
San Francisco Giants announcers
San Francisco Giants players
Santo Domingo Azucareros players
Baseball players from Havana
Tacoma Giants players