Pedro Ramos

Happy # 83 to Pedro Ramos

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pedroramos8

We remember Pedro Ramos, who was born in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, on this day in 1935.

My father used to say: “If Pedro Ramos had only pitched for the Yankees…..he’d won 200 games”.

I don’t know about 200 games but he’d won a lot more than the 117 he put up pitching for some very bad teams, such as the Washington Senators and others.

Ramos was 19 when he made his debut in 1955. He went on to win 83 games over 7 seasons. He completed 62 starts and threw 1,614 innings. We would call that today an “innings eater”.

He was a good pitcher but he never got to pitch for a team with much of a record.

Ramos finally made it to the Yankees in 1964-66 and saved 39 games.

Unfortunately, the Yankees went into decline in 1965 and did not return to the post season until 1976. So Ramos never got to pitch in The World Series!

Happy birthday to Pedro Ramos, a pretty good pitcher and another pride of Havana!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

The all-Cuban triple play in baseball

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ramos3

becquer

valdivielso

A little baseball history to distract us from the horrific stories coming out of Cuba.

On July 23, 1960, 3 Cubans playing for the Washington Senators made baseball history.   They were involved in the only Cuban to Cuban to Cuban triple play.   I’m sure that it is the only “all latino” triple play too.   I couldn’t find any other example of 3 latinos turning a triple play.

The 3 players were pitcher Pedro Ramos, shortstop Jose Valdivielso and first baseman Julio Becquer.   Whitey Herzog, future manager with the Kansas City Royals and St Louis Cardinals, hit the ball back to Ramos, who went to first and then second.

A little more about the game.   The Senators became the Minnesota Twins in 1961.  The Kansas City A’s moved to Oakland in 1968.

Ramos won 117 games but pitched for very bad teams.   I wrote a post about him earlier when he turned 80.   Becquer had a fine glove but hit only .244 with the Senators and later the Twins.     Valdivielso hit .219 and was primarily a part-time player.

Another Cuban, Camilo Pascual, watched the proceedings from the dugout.

My thanks to Fernando Hernandez, author of “The Cubans” for bringing this to my attention.  By the way, his book is full of stories of Cubans in the US, from Celia Cruz to Desi Arnaz to lots of other less known Cubans who left their footprints.