Luis César Alvarado Martínez (January 15, 1949 – March 20, 2001), born in

Lajas, Puerto Rico Lajas (, ) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Lajas Valley in southwestern Puerto Rico, on the southern coast of the island, bordering the Caribbean Sea, south of San Germán and Sabana Grande; east of Cabo Rojo; and west ...

was an infielder in

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), ...

(MLB). From 1968 through 1977, he played for the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

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) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

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) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

and Detroit Tigers. Alvarado batted and threw right-handed.

Biography

Nicknamed "Pimba", Alvarado broke into the majors in 1968 with the Boston Red Sox. In 1969 he started at Triple-A with the

Louisville Colonels The Louisville Colonels were a Major League Baseball team that also played in the American Association (AA) throughout that league's ten-year existence from 1882 until 1891. They were known as the Louisville Eclipse from 1882 to 1884, and as th ...

, and led the International League in runs (89) and hits (166), garnering Most Valuable Player honors. He returned to the Red Sox at the end of the season. Alvarado divided much of his career playing time between

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

and second base. After hitting .224 in 59 games for Boston in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, he was traded along with

Mike Andrews Michael Jay Andrews (born July 9, 1943) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an infielder for the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics. After his playing career, he served fo ...

to the Chicago White Sox for

Luis Aparicio Luis Ernesto Aparicio Montiel (born April 29, 1934), nicknamed "Little Louie", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop from 1956 to 1973 for three American League (AL) teams, m ...

on December 1 of that year."Bob Aspromonte Joins New York," ''The New York Times'', Wednesday, December 2, 1970.
Retrieved March 5, 2020 His most productive season came in 1972, when he posted career-highs in runs (30), hits (57), doubles (14) and games (103). He played in parts of 1974 to 1977 divided between the Cardinals, Indians, Mets and Tigers and for several teams in the Mexican League from 1979 to 1981. In nine seasons, he posted a .214

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

with five

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 and 84

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

(RBIs) in 463 games played. Alvarado died in his hometown of Lajas, Puerto Rico, at the age of 52 from a heart attack on March 20, 2001.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarado, Luis 1949 births 2001 deaths Boston Red Sox players Cachorros de León players Chicago White Sox players Cleveland Indians players Detroit Tigers players Diablos Rojos del México players Hawaii Islanders players International League MVP award winners Leones de Yucatán players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Major League Baseball infielders Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico New York Mets players Oklahoma City 89ers players People from Lajas, Puerto Rico Pittsfield Red Sox players St. Louis Cardinals players Sultanes de Monterrey players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Waterloo Hawks (baseball) players

Biography

See also

References

External links