Osvaldo José Virgil Jr. (born December 7, 1956) is a 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), ...

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

who played with the Philadelphia Phillies,

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 ...

and

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

from 1980 to 1990. His father, Ozzie Sr., was a Major League

third baseman 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 ...

and utilityman and longtime

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 ...

. Virgil Jr. threw and batted

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

and was listed as tall and . He was selected by the Phillies in the sixth round of the

1976 Major League Baseball Draft First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1976 Major League Baseball draft. ''*'' Did not sign Other notable Selections ''*'' Did not sign Background The 1976 Arizona State University team, considered by ma ...

, and from 1984–1988 he was a regular catcher in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

, being elected to the loop's All-Star team twice, in 1985 and in 1987. In 1987, Virgil hit a career high 27

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 ...

s with the Braves. In that year's MLB All-Star Game, he was the first player to get a leadoff hit -- in the 13th inning of a scoreless game -- and scored the game's winning run. All told, he played in 739 major league games and collected 549 hits, with 98 career home runs. Years after his playing career was over, Virgil Jr. became a manager, being named manager of the Arizona's Surprise Fightin' Falcons (Arizona) of the independent

Golden Baseball League The Golden Baseball League was an independent baseball league based in San Ramon, California, with teams located in the western United States, western Canada and northwest Mexico. The GBL was not affiliated with Major League Baseball or the orga ...

in 2005. Ozzie Jr. attended

Moon Valley High School Moon Valley High School is a public high school in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, and is a part of the Glendale Union High School District, which opened in 1965. Moon Valley is one of Arizona's leading educational establishments and is an exce ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

. He set many state records and even forced a taller fence to be erected on the Moon Valley field due to his tendency to use nearby houses as target practice. In 1978, Virgil was named the Carolina League MVP.

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1956 births Living people Atlanta Braves players Auburn Phillies players Major League Baseball catchers Minor league baseball managers Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico National League All-Stars Oklahoma City 89ers players Peninsula Pilots players People from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Philadelphia Phillies players Puerto Rican expatriate baseball players in Canada Reading Phillies players Spartanburg Phillies players St. Petersburg Pelicans players Syracuse Chiefs players Tigres de Aragua players Puerto Rican expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Toronto Blue Jays players {{PuertoRico-baseball-catcher-stub

See also

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