Vinicio "Chico" García Uzcanga (24 December 1924 – 17 August 2007) was a Mexican 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 ...

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 ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He played in

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 ...

for the

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 ...

during the

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

season. Listed at 5' 8", 170 lb., García batted and threw

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 ...

. He was born in

Veracruz City Veracruz (), also known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipal seat for the surrounding municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico and the most populous city in the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Outside of MLB, García enjoyed a distinguished baseball career that spanned five different decades, first as a player from 1946 to 1970, then as

from 1966 to 1984. In the

Mexican League The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country. The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...

, he played most of his career with Rojos del Águila de Veracruz and

Sultanes de Monterrey The Sultanes de Monterrey (English: Monterrey Sultans) are a professional baseball club in the Mexican League (LMB) based in Monterrey, Mexico. Established in 1939 as Carta Blanca, the Sultanes have won ten LMB titles, most recently in 2018. Fro ...

Career

A solid infielder and contact hitter, García played with his hometown

Industriales de Monterrey The Industriales de Monterrey (English: ''Monterrey Industrials'') were a professional baseball team based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, the team participated in the Mexican League from 1990 to 1994. History The team was established in 1989, when t ...

in the first Interamerican Series in 1946. He played nine Triple-A seasons in the Arizona-Texas and American Association leagues and one season in Cuban baseball, before serving as a backup infielder for the Orioles in the American League. He won four minor league batting titles in the Arizona-Texas League (1949), Mexican Gulf League (1950, 1951) and

(1963). Following his playing career, García managed in Mexico from 1966 through 1984, winning four championship titles in the

Mexican Pacific League The Mexican Pacific League (, or LMP), also known as the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico for sponsorship reasons, is a professional baseball Winter league baseball, winter league based in Northwestern Mexico. The league comprises 10 teams. It wa ...

(LMP) for

Tomateros de Culiacán The Tomateros de Culiacán () are a professional baseball team in the Mexican Pacific League based in Culiacán, Sinaloa. The ''Tomateros'' have won thirteen league championships and two Caribbean World Series in and . The team was founded in 19 ...

in 1966–67 and 1969–70,

Algodoneros de Guasave The Algodoneros de Guasave () are a professional baseball team in the Mexican Pacific League (LMP) based in Guasave, Sinaloa. They won the league championship in 1972. The original team was purchased in April 2014 by a group of investors led by ...

in 1971–72 and

Cañeros de Los Mochis The Cañeros de Los Mochis () are a professional baseball team based in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico. They compete in the Mexican Pacific League (LMP). The team plays at the Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada with a capacity of 12,500 seated spectators. ...

in 1983–84. García ranks as the second most winning manager of the LMP and it is the only manager to have won Mexican Pacific League titles with three different franchises. He also managed Monterrey, Veracruz, Sabinas, Jalisco, Monclova and Nuevo Laredo in the

. In 1981, he gained

Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame The Salón de la Fama del Beisbol Mexicano (in English, Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame), commonly called the Salón de la Fama (Hall of Fame) is a baseball hall of fame and museum located in Monterrey, Nuevo León, inaugurated on 10 ...

honors. Vinicio Garcia was married to Carolyn Foshee (who died in 1995) and has two sons, Jerry Vinicio and David and also has two daughters, Becky and Carolyn Lee. García died on 16 August 2007 in

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

Nuevo León Nuevo León, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León, is a Administrative divisions of Mexico, state in northeastern Mexico. The state borders the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí, San Luis ...

, Mexico at age 82.

Highlights

*1949 - Led Arizona-Texas League in runs, hits, triples and

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 ...

(.377). *1963 - At 38 age, won his second batting title in the Mexican League (.368) and hit a career-high 21 home runs. *His minor league career totals show a .306 average over 2,803 games. *As a second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles he played 39 games and his batting stats are: 62 AB, 6 R, 7 H, 2 3B, 5 RBI, 8 BB, 3 SO, 1 SF, 0.113 Avg., 0.211 OBP, 0.177 SLG. *Fielding stats: 245 G, 105 TC, 4.4 TC/G, 101 CH, 57 PO, 44 A, 4 E, 15 DP, 0.962 FLD %. *He coached the Mexican League team Sultanes de Monterrey for 260 games, reaching a winning percentage of .430 in three seasons. *The number he used with the Sultanes de Monterrey team from 1965-1965 & 1970 was retired on 06/11/1999. *He is the Sultanes player with most All-Star games played with this team (14). *He is the title second baseman in the All-Time players team of the Sultanes de Monterrey. *With the Sultanes de Monterrey 4 times was top scorer and 2B batter, three times leader in batting, two times in games played and hits batted and one time lead the team in times at bat and home runs. *Was inducted in the Mexico Hall of Fame of Baseball in 1981, the 14th Sultanes player in the Mexican HOF.

References

External links

RetrosheetMexican Baseball Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Chico 1924 births 2007 deaths Acereros de Monclova managers Angeles de Puebla players Baseball players from Veracruz Baltimore Orioles players Caribbean Series managers Corpus Christi Aces players Dallas Rangers players Diablos Rojos del México players Indianapolis Indians players Indios de Ciudad Juárez (minor league) players Major League Baseball players from Mexico 20th-century Mexican sportsmen Major League Baseball second basemen Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Mexican expatriate baseball players in Cuba Mexican expatriate baseball players in the United States Mexican League baseball second basemen Minor league baseball managers Shreveport Sports players Sultanes de Monterrey managers Sultanes de Monterrey players Tigres del México players Toledo Sox players Tomateros de Culiacán managers Tuneros de San Luis Potosí players Rojos del Águila de Veracruz players Wichita Braves players Sportspeople from Veracruz (city)