Wilson Eduardo Álvarez Fuenmayor (born March 24, 1970) is a Venezuelan former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player. He played in

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 ...

as a left-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

. During a thirteen-year baseball career, he pitched for the Texas Rangers,

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. They are one of two major league clubs based i ...

, 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 (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

Career

Born in

Maracaibo Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, Alvarez represented his hometown in the 1982 Little League World Series, where they finished with a 2–1 record. Alvarez was signed by the Texas Rangers as an amateur

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

on September 23, 1986. He made his

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

at the age of nineteen on July 24,

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, the first player born in the 1970s to debut in MLB. Five days later, he was traded with Scott Fletcher and

Sammy Sosa Samuel Peralta Sosa (; born November 12, 1968) is a Dominican-American former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Cubs. After playing for the Texas Rangers and ...

to the Chicago White Sox for

Harold Baines Harold Douglas Baines (born March 15, 1959) is an American former designated hitter and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for five American League (AL) teams from 1980 to 2001, and is best known for his three stints with the Chi ...

and Fred Manrique. Alvarez provided one of the highlights of the 1991 Chicago White Sox season on August 11, pitching a

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter or no-hit game is a game in which a team does not record a hit (baseball), hit through conventional methods. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in ...

against the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

at Memorial Stadium in his second Major League start. In his previous appearance, with the Rangers, he faced five batters and gave up two walks, a single and two

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s without retiring a batter, giving him an undefined career

ERA An era is a span of time. Era or ERA may also refer to: * Era (geology), a subdivision of geologic time * Calendar era Education * Academy of European Law (German: '), an international law school * ERA School, in Melbourne, Australia * E ...

prior to his no-hitter. Between the majors, minors and winter league play, Alvarez pitched close to 300 innings in 1991; an extremely heavy workload. In 1993 he managed to break into the Sox starting pitching rotation permanently. That season, Alvarez won 15 games and finished second in the league in

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 ...

, but he experienced control problems and led the league with 122 walks. In 1994, Alvarez went 12–8 and made the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

All-Star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

team. After a disappointing 8–11 in 1995, he had 15 wins and 181

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It means the batter is out, unless the third strike is not caught by the catcher and the batter reaches first base safe ...

s in 1996. During the season, the White Sox traded Álvarez,

Danny Darwin Danny Wayne Darwin (born October 25, 1955), known as "the Bonham Bullet", is an American professional baseball pitcher and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox ...

, and Roberto Hernández to the

for six prospects (

Keith Foulke Keith Charles Foulke ( ; born October 19, 1972) is an American former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. A graduate of Hargrave High School in Huffman, Texas, Foulke attended Galveston College and Lewis–Clark State College. Between 1997 an ...

, Bob Howry, Lorenzo Barceló, Mike Caruso, Ken Vining, and Brian Manning) in what became known as the White Flag Trade. A

after 1997, he signed a five-year contract with Tampa Bay. He was first in the team's starting rotation, and started Opening Day on March 31, 1998, throwing the Devil Rays' first ever pitch (a ball to Detroit's Brian L. Hunter). In his first season with the Devil Rays Alvarez missed two months with tendonitis in his shoulder, eventually losing 14 games during the season. The following year he made two trips to the

disabled list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 Major League Baseball season, 2019 season, it was known as the disabl ...

. Finally, he had arthroscopic shoulder surgery and missed the next two seasons. After finishing his contract with Tampa Bay, Álvarez signed with the Dodgers. He began the 2003 season as a starter for Triple-A

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. After going 5–1 with a 1.15 ERA, he filled the long

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

role for the Dodgers at mid-season. Later he got a chance to start, collecting a 5–0 record and 1.06 ERA over a stretch of nine games. In 2004, he went 7–6 in 40 games (15 as a starter). On August 1, 2005, Alvarez announced he would retire after the season. He compiled a career 102–92 record with 1330 strikeouts and a 3.96 ERA in 1747.2 innings. In 2010, Álvarez was inducted into the

Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame The Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame () was established in 1996 by Juan Francisco Puello Herrera, commissioner of the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CPBC). (Spanish) It honors the most prominent baseball players who have made signi ...

. After a brief stint as the pitching coach of the

State College Spikes The State College Spikes are a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League. They are located in State College, Pennsylvania, and play their home games at Medlar Field on the campus of Pennsylvania State University. The team was fo ...

, Álvarez joined the

organization when he was named pitching coach of the Gulf Coast League Orioles in 2013. In June 2019, he was replaced as Orioles pitching coach.

References

External links

Box Score of Wilson Álvarez's No Hitter
*''The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia'' – Gary Gillette, Peter Gammons, Pete Palmer. Publisher: Sterling Publishing, 2005. Format: Paperback, 1824pp. {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Wilson 1970 births Living people Águilas del Zulia players American League All-Stars Birmingham Barons players Charlotte Rangers players Chicago White Sox players Durham Bulls players Gastonia Rangers players Gulf Coast Devil Rays players Gulf Coast Rangers players Las Vegas 51s players Los Angeles Dodgers players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from Venezuela 20th-century Venezuelan sportsmen Minor league baseball coaches Nashville Sounds players Oklahoma City 89ers players Orlando Rays players San Francisco Giants players Baseball players from Maracaibo St. Petersburg Devil Rays players Tampa Bay Devil Rays players Texas Rangers players Tulsa Drillers players Vancouver Canadians players Venezuela national baseball team people Venezuelan baseball coaches Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Canada Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States Fuenmayor family

Career

See also

References

External links