Camilo Carreón (August 6, 1937 – September 2, 1987) 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. The

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

appeared in 354

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 ...

over all or parts of eight

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 ...

seasons between and for 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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. His son

Mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

was also a major league player. Born in

Colton, California Colton is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Nicknamed "Hub City", Colton is located in the Inland Empire region of the state and is a suburb of San Bernardino, approximately south of the city's downtown. The populatio ...

, Camilo Carreón threw and batted right-handed, and was listed as tall and .

Playing career

White Sox

Signed by the White Sox in 1956, Carreón rose steadily through their

farm system In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful pl ...

, hitting over .300 at three different levels, including .311 in 1959 with

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

in the Triple-A American Association, with 165

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014, a British compilation album s ...

and 91

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 ...

. He was named the Association's All-Star catcher. Carreón made his major league debut on September 27, 1959, the closing day of Chicago's pennant-winning

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. He hit a fly ball

out Out or OUT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films *Out (1957 film), ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 *Out (1982 film), ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander *O ...

against

Pete Burnside Peter Willits Burnside (July 2, 1930 – August 26, 2022) was an American professional baseball player and left-handed pitcher who appeared in 196 Major League Baseball games in 1955 and from 1957 to 1963 for the New York / San Francisco Giant ...

of the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

in his only

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, ...

. He was late reporting to

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...

, for

spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

in 1960 because of service in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

, then spent the bulk of the campaign back in Triple-A, this time with

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

, and hit .279 in 109 games. He then received his second consecutive September call-up, batting .235 in eight games, including seven starts as catcher. Carreón made the White Sox for good in , getting into 78 games, with 63 starts at catcher in relief of 37-year-old veteran star

Sherm Lollar John Sherman Lollar Jr. (August 23, 1924 – September 24, 1977) was an American professional baseball player and Coach (baseball), coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1946 to 1963, most prominently as a member of the Chic ...

. He hit a two-run single off

Whitey Ford Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford (October 21, 1928 – October 8, 2020), nicknamed "the Chairman of the Board", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played his entire 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. ...

to give Juan Pizarro a 2–1 victory over the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

on August 15, 1961. The second-inning hit enabled the White Sox to break Ford's 14-game winning streak. Overall, he hit .271 in his first full MLB season. The next year, , he supplanted Lollar as the White Sox' regular catcher, starting 85 games and hitting .256. His best big-league season came in , when he played in 101 games and hit .274, starting 81 games behind the plate. It was his last full and healthy season in the majors.

Indians and Orioles

The White Sox placed Carreón on the disabled list on July 3, 1964, after he tore tendons in his right arm. During the 1964–65 offseason, Chicago traded him to the Cleveland Indians as part of a blockbuster three-way trade involving the

Kansas City Athletics The Kansas City Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1955 to 1967, having previously played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the Philadelphia Athletics. After moving in 1967, the team became the ...

that also included

Rocky Colavito Rocco Domenico "Rocky" Colavito Jr. (August 10, 1933 – December 10, 2024) was an American professional baseball player, coach, and television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1955 to 1968, most prom ...

Tommy John Thomas Edward John Jr. (born May 22, 1943), nicknamed "the Bionic Man," is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 26 seasons between 1963 and 1989. He played for the Cleveland Indians, Ch ...

and

Tommie Agee Tommie Lee Agee (August 9, 1942 – January 22, 2001) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a center fielder from through , most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that became known as th ...

. Going into the campaign, Carreón was listed as the Indians' second-string catcher, behind Joe Azcue. But he played only 19 games with the Tribe, spent 45 games back in Triple-A with

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

of the Pacific Coast League, and was one of five players assigned outright to Portland in October 1965. Cleveland then traded Carreón to the Orioles during spring training of 1966 in a one-for-one deal for

Lou Piniella Louis Victor Piniella ( usually ; born August 28, 1943) is a former professional baseball player and manager. An outfielder, he played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals a ...

, then a 22-year-old, minor league

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

in the Baltimore organization. The Orioles were en route to their first-ever

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 ...

pennant that season, but Carreón got into only four games for Baltimore (his last on June 8, when he hit a

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

in his final MLB at bat), and spent the latter half of the year with Triple-A Rochester. He played two more minor league seasons before retiring from baseball. As a major leaguer, Carreón collected 260 hits, including 43 doubles, four

triples TripleS (; ; stylized as tripleS) is a South Korean 24-member multinational girl group formed by Modhaus. They aim to be the world's first decentralized idol group, where the members will rotate between the full group, sub-units, and solo activi ...

, and 11

home runs 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 ...

, with 114 runs batted in. He batted .264 lifetime. Defensively, he recorded a .993

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a baseball positions, defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putout ...

as a catcher, committing only 13 errors in 1,776

total chances In baseball statistics, total chances (TC), also called ''chances offered'', represents the number of plays in which a defensive player has participated. It is the sum of putouts plus assists plus errors. ''Chances accepted'' refers to the total ...

. He died in

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, at the age of 50, and is buried in the Hermosa Memorial Cemetery in Colton.''Baseball Necrology''
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References

External links

, o
Retrosheet
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SABR Biography Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carreon, Cam 1937 births 1987 deaths American baseball players of Mexican descent Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from San Bernardino County, California Chicago White Sox players Cleveland Indians players Colorado Springs Sky Sox (WL) players Duluth-Superior White Sox players Holdrege White Sox players Indianapolis Indians players Jacksonville Suns players Major League Baseball catchers Sportspeople from Colton, California Portland Beavers players Rapiños de Occidente players Rochester Red Wings players San Diego Padres (minor league) players Tucson Toros players American expatriate baseball players in Colombia American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela 20th-century American sportsmen

Playing career

White Sox

Indians and Orioles

See also

References

External links