Rubén Gómez (July 13, 1927 – July 26, 2004) was a professional right-handed

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

who became the first Puerto Rican to pitch in a

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

game. He was also the winning pitcher in the first

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

game played west of

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

. In his homeland, Gómez was nicknamed ''El Divino Loco'' ("the Divine Madman"), on account of his willingness to pitch in tough situations and #22.

Major league career

Gómez (birth name: Rubén Gómez ColónGómez's birth name follows

Spanish naming customs Spanish names are the traditional way of identifying, and the official way of registering a person in Spain. They are composed of a given name (simple or composite) and two surnames (the first surname of each parent). Traditionally, the first ...

: the first or paternal family name is "Gómez" and the second or maternal family name is "Colón".) was born in

Arroyo, Puerto Rico Arroyo () is a Arroyo barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality located along the southern coast of Puerto Rico and bordered by the Caribbean Sea, east of the municipality of Guayama, Puerto Rico, Guayama and northwest o ...

. He debuted 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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

on April 17, 1953. He finished his rookie season with a 13–11 record. Gómez created some controversy when, on the order of Giants' manager

Leo Durocher Leo Ernest Durocher (French spelling Léo Ernest Durocher) (; July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991), nicknamed "Leo the Lip" and "Lippy", was an American professional baseball player, manager (baseball), manager and coach (baseball), coach. He playe ...

, he hit

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brook ...

player Carl Furillo with a pitch. Gómez would hit other notables with pitches in his career, including

Joe Adcock Joseph Wilbur Adcock (October 30, 1927 – May 3, 1999) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1950 to 1966, most prominently as a member of the Milwaukee Braves team ...

and

Frank Robinson Frank Robinson (August 31, 1935 – February 7, 2019), nicknamed "the Judge", was an American professional baseball outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams over 21 seasons: the Cincinnati Reds (1956–196 ...

.Puerto Rico Herald
/ref> After going 17–9 in his second season, Gómez pitched and won Game 3 of the

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

in the Giants sweep of the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

. He thus became the first Puerto Rican player to be a member of a World Series championship team, becoming a hero in his native country (schools closed the day he pitched in the World Series so students could watch the game). When Gómez returned to Puerto Rico, he was greeted by thousands of fans at the

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

airport and a holiday was declared. After the 1957 season, the Dodgers and Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. On April 15, 1958, Gómez made baseball history when he pitched an 8–0

shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketba ...

against the Dodgers at San Francisco's Seals Stadium in the first Major League Baseball game played on the West Coast. He thus became the first pitcher to win a game played on the West Coast; the losing pitcher was future Hall of Famer

Don Drysdale Donald Scott Drysdale (July 23, 1936 – July 3, 1993), nicknamed "Big D", was an American professional baseball pitcher and broadcaster who played in Major League Baseball. He spent his entire 14-year career with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Do ...

.Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society
In 1958, Gómez was traded to the

Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

. In the 1959 season he was only 3–8 in 72 innings, and went 0–3 in 1960. He was out of the major leagues in 1961 and returned in 1962 to pitch for both the Indians and the

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

, compiling a combined 2–3 record. Five years later he returned to finish his major league career with innings for the Phillies.

Other professional leagues

Gómez later went to the

Mexican League The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country. The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...

, where he pitched with

Veracruz, Mexico Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in east ...

. One day a young boy begged Gómez to buy a lottery ticket that he was selling to make some badly needed money. The boy insisted that Gómez buy the ticket because his uniform number matched that of the ticket, and Gómez, who did not normally buy such tickets, agreed. To his great surprise the ticket was a winner of a $35,000 prize. Gómez attempted to share the money with the boy's family and when they refused, he went to a local bank and set up a trust fund for the lad, to be given to him at age 18. In 1967, Gómez was 39 years old and still playing with Veracruz, when the Phillies gave him another shot. He pitched only innings that season in seven games, making his last appearance on May 2, 1967. Between 1947 and 1977, Gómez played 28 winter seasons with the Cangrejeros de Santurce and

Vaqueros de Bayamón The ''vaquero'' (; , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in what what is today Mexico (then New Spain) and Spanish Florida from a method brought to the Americ ...

of the Puerto Rican league, setting league marks for a pitcher in wins (174) and ERA (2.97). In addition, his six victories in the

Caribbean World Series The Caribbean Series ( Spanish: ''Serie del Caribe'') is an annual club tournament contested by professional baseball teams in Latin America. It is organized by the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation. The series is normally played in ...

ties him with José Bracho and Camilo Pascual for the most all-time wins in the tournament. Gómez also pitched in the Venezuelan league for the

Navegantes del Magallanes Navegantes del Magallanes B.B.C., commonly known as Navegantes del Magallanes (; ''Strait of Magellan, Magellan Navigators''), or simply Magallanes, are a professional baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP), based in ...

during the 1965–1966 season,Pura Pelota – Rubén Gómez page
/ref> and from 1968 to 1970 in the Saguenay senior league for the

Chicoutimi Chicoutimi ( , ) is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers. During the 20th century, it became the main administrative and ...

Bombardiers. He was the star of the league. His first year with Chicoutimi he got a perfect record of 12–0 and an

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 ...

of 1.20. Next year, 1969, he went 9–1 with a 0.82 ERA. Two other former MLB players also played in that league: Art Ditmar and

Wayne Granger Wayne Allan Granger (born March 15, 1944) is an American former Major League Baseball right-handed relief pitcher who played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1968, 1973), Cincinnati Reds (1969–1971), Minnesota Twins (1972), New York Yankees (1973), ...

. Baseball historians

Bill James George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books about baseball history and statistics. His a ...

and

Rob Neyer Rob Neyer (born October 22, 1965) is an American baseball writer known for his use of statistical analysis or sabermetrics. He started his career working for Bill James and STATS and then joined ESPN.com as a columnist and blogger from 1996 to 20 ...

have ranked Gómez's

screwball A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known ...

the tenth-best of all time.

Later years

In 2001, Gómez was hospitalized after a lengthy fight against

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, and was about to receive surgery. A doctor from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

requested permission to attend the operation. When Gómez asked the doctor why he had come, he replied, "I was that little boy, the money that you left in trust was enough to pay for my medical school." Rubén Gómez Colón died in Carolina, Puerto Rico, at the age of 77. Among those who attended his funeral services was his best friend and countryman, former big leaguer Luis Rodríguez Olmo. Gómez was buried in the Guayama Municipal Cemetery in

Guayama, Puerto Rico Guayama (, ), officially the Autonomous Municipality of Guayama (), is a Guayama barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean coast of Puerto Rico. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

Notes

References

External links