Puerto Rico has many professional baseball players that have made good in the MLB. There are some Puerto Rican players you may not know of, please read on to find out more about them.
Baseball is a sport that was born and developed in the United States of America, but it is very popular among Latino people. Puerto Rico is one of those countries where this sport is increasingly gaining followers every day. If you are not familiar with baseball and its history, we recommend you click on the links at the end of this text to learn more about it. It is estimated that around 500 million people are baseball fans worldwide. And that number seems to have grown in recent years thanks also to increasing media coverage.
Best puerto rican baseball players
There are many Puerto Rican players that have made good in the MLB. Here are just some of them:
Roberto Clemente (1934-1972)
Was perhaps one of the best baseball players to ever come out of Puerto Rico, and perhaps even the best player from Latin America. He played for 17 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, in which he won 12 Gold Glove Awards and led his team to two World Series championships. He was voted the National League MVP in 1966, just before dying in a plane crash while doing aid work in Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve of 1972. His memory lives on through the Roberto Clemente Award that is given every year by the MLB to one player in both the American League and National League who excels both on and off the field. He was also voted into the Puerto Rican Sports Hall of Fame, and has a bridge in Pittsburgh named after him.
Orlando Cepeda (1937-)
Is a Puerto Rican retired professional baseball player. He was born on April 20, 1937 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Orlando Cepeda started his career with the Santurce Crabbers of Puerto Rico when he was just 17 years old. He joined the San Francisco Giants in 1958 and became part of their starting lineup by 1960. Orlando Cepeda was an excellent hitter and led the National League 7 times in home runs. He also posted one of the highest batting averages ever when he batted .354 in 1967. He was selected as part of the Major League Baseball All-Century Team (1999), which comprised the best players in history, by vote of fans. Orlando Cepeda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
Roberto Alomar (1968-)
Is one of the finest players to come out of Puerto Rico. He was selected by the San Diego Padres as second baseman in the second round of the 1987 MLB Draft. Roberto Alomar started playing for the Baltimore Orioles in 1988, and remained with the same team until 1998. He was traded to Cleveland Indians in 1998 and played there until 2000. In 2001, he returned to Baltimore Orioles where he remained through 2004. Roberto Alomar also played for the New York Mets from 2005 to 2006 and then went on to play for Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007. He retired after the 2007 season. Roberto Alomar was a very good hitter. He could get on base and steal bases with ease, while being able to hit for power from time to time. In 2004, he became the ninth player in history to achieve 4,000 hits during his career. In 2010 he became part of the Toronto Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011, his first year of eligibility.
Pedro Martinez (1971-)
Is a former Dominican professional baseball player who played for 15 years with several Major League Baseball teams including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. Pedro Martinez won three Cy Young Awards and was a 7 time All-Star.
