Blas Monaco (November 16, 1915 – February 10, 2000) was an American 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 who had a long career (1935–1944; 1946–1949) in

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

interrupted by two brief Major League trials almost nine years apart with 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 ...

in and . The native of

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

, an

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

, threw and batted

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more Fine motor skill, dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dext ...

, stood tall and weighed .

Career

Monaco appeared in only 17

games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

in the Major Leagues, and collected two hits in 13 at bats, with one

extra-base hit In baseball, an extra-base hit (EB, EBH or XBH), also known as a long hit, is any hit (baseball), base hit on which the batting (baseball), batter is able to advance past first base without the benefit of a fielder either committing an error (base ...

, a triple, and two

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) 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 th ...

. His two hits and lone RBI came in his big league debut on August 18, 1937, at Sportsman's Park against the St. Louis Browns. In that game, Monaco pinch hit for starting

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

John Kroner and went two-for-two and played errorless ball in the field, in an 11–6

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

defeat. He would go hitless in his remaining 11 MLB at bats (five in 1937 and six in 1946), starting his only game as a second baseman four days after his debut, and going 0-for-4 against Vern Kennedy of the

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 ...

.1937-8-22 (2) box score
from Retrosheet However, he again made no errors in the game, which was won by the Indians, 3–2. During his minor league career, Monaco played in over 1,400 games.

References

External links

* 1915 births 2000 deaths American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Baltimore Orioles (International League) players 20th-century American sportsmen Baseball players from San Antonio Cedar Rapids Raiders players Cleveland Indians players Dallas Eagles players Diablos Rojos del México players Fargo-Moorhead Twins players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Major League Baseball second basemen Newark Bears (International League) players Oklahoma City Indians players New Orleans Pelicans (baseball) players Seattle Rainiers players Springfield Indians (baseball) players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players {{US-baseball-second-baseman-stub