Chico Carrasquel

Shortstop

Born: January 23, 1928
Caracas, Venezuela

Died: May 26, 2005 (aged 77)
Caracas, Venezuela

Batted: Right

Threw: Right

MLB debut

April 18, 1950, for the Chicago White Sox

Last MLB appearance

September 23, 1959, for the Baltimore Orioles

MLB statistics

.258

474

Teams

Career highlights and awards

Alfonso Carrasquel Colón, better known as Chico Carrasquel (January 23, 1928 – May 26, 2005), was a Venezuelan professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop for the Chicago White Sox (1950–1955), Cleveland Indians (1956–1958), Kansas City Athletics (1958) and the Baltimore Orioles (1959). Carrasquel was the first in a long line of Major League shortstops from Venezuela including, Luis Aparicio, Dave Concepción, Ozzie Guillén and Omar Vizquel among others. He was known for his excellent defensive abilities and for being the first Latin American in MLB history to start in an All-Star Game.

Born in Caracas, Carrasquel began his professional baseball career in 1946 at the age of 17 with the Cervecería Caracas team, where he hit the first home run in Venezuelan Professional Baseball League history. He was signed in 1949 by the Brooklyn Dodgers, and was immediately promoted to the Double-A Fort Worth Cats. Carrasquel provided good fielding and hit .315 during the season and .364 in the playoffs to help spur the Cats to the 1949 Texas League championship. His inability to speak English fluently may have caused Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey to sell him to the Chicago White Sox although, Rickey later admitted that the move was a mistake. White Sox' General Manager Frank Lane solved the language communication problem by trading Carrasquel's uncle Alex for reliever Witto Aloma, who served as the interpreter between Carrasquel and White Sox' manager Jack Onslow.