A Look at Baseball's Venezuelan Best
First, farewell to a women's ball pioneer plus a Miracle Met.
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Pregame Pepper
. . . RIP Betsy (Sockum) Jochum (104), the last living charter member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She played her entire six-season AAGPBL career with the South Bend Blue Sox. Jochum was a swift outfielder/first baseman who led the league in hits back-to-back (1943-44) and once stole seven bases in a single game, on her way to 354 lifetime steals. She became a pitcher in her final season (1948), posting a 1.51 earned-run average and walking only 58 batters in 215 innings.
Jochum left the AAGPBL after she was traded to the Peoria Redwings, in a deal she discovered some of her teammates knew about before she did. She chose to stay in in South Bend, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education, and teaching it in the South Bend Community Schools until her retirement in 1983. She was among the players present when the AAGPBL was given a special exhibit at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. She also donated her Blue Sox uniform to the Smithsonian Institution.
. . . RIP Ron Taylor (87), relief pitcher for two World Series winners, the 1964 Cardinals and (especially) the 1969 Mets, several of whom have credited him with stabilising the bullpen into a key element of their miracle championship run. (He’s the only native Canadian to pitch for two World Series winners.) After his pitching days ended, Taylor went to medical school at the University of Toronto and became a doctor—serving as the Blue Jays’ team doctor for over three decades while maintaining a private practise until his retirement in 2014. He was inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
Leading Off
Venezuela’s Best
The best in baseball from Tierra de Gracia
By Mark Kolier
I don’t know why, but I rarely think about where major league players were born. The thought crossed my mind after reading Tom Stone’s excellent daily post Now Taking the Field on the prior day’s MLB action. Last week, he noted after a Eugenio Suarez home run that Suárez now has 295 career HR, one more than Magglio Ordóñez for third place on the all-time HR list for players born in Venezuela.
The top two on that list are Hall of Famer-in-waiting Miguel Cabrera with 511 and Andrés Galarraga with 399. Here is the top 10 leaderboard in full:
1. 511 - Miguel Cabrera
2. 399 - Andrés Galarraga
3. 295 - Eugenio Suárez
4. 294 - Magglio Ordóñez
5. 288 - Bobby Abreu
6. 279 - Salvador Perez
7. 251 - Tony Armas
8. 246 - Victor Martinez
9. 238 - Jose Altuve
10. 234 - Carlos González
It’s not just a cool list of “very good.” And Cabrera will be the second Venezuelan-born Hall of Famer when he’s inducted in 2029, probably on the first ballot. White Sox and Orioles shortstop Luis Aparico was the first when he was elected to the Hall in 1984.
It made me wonder about other Venezuelan MLB players. According to Baseball Reference there have been 493 major leaguers born in Venezuela. The first was Alex Carrasquel a pitcher who debuted with the Washington Senators in 1939. I hadn’t heard of him, either.*
The World Baseball Classic has improved my knowledge of MLB players origins. But using WBC rosters is not foolproof, since I also remember that Cuban-born Randy Arozarena plays for Mexico, so you can’t always be 100% certain where the player was born. Coming again in March 2025, the WBC (always seems to feature a strong Venezuelan team.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza is Venezuelan, as is their starting catcher Francisco Alvarez. A couple of years ago, the Mets brought in veteran Venezuelan-born catcher Omar Narvaez to mentor the then 20-year-old Alvarez. Current Mets backup catcher Luis Torrens is also Venezuelan. (“Backup” is not fair, really, since he plays more than a backup normally does.) Alvarez is still young, and having a countryman show you the ropes seems like a good idea, doesn’t it?
The list of the top ten Venezuelans for home runs include potential Hall of Famers like Bobby Abreu (still on the ballot but has never exceeded 20% of the votes), and Jose Altuve. Salvador Perez has an excellent chance to reach Cooperstown, and the others are true Almost guys, particularly Luis Gonzalez and Andres Galarraga, both of whom probably deserved a longer look.
Did I know as a Met fan that Johan Santana was Venezuelan? Kind of, but it was not something I kept in mind. How about Felix Hernandez? Nope. Mets rookie Luisangel Acuna and his Braves veteran brother Ronald are Venezuelan. I think I knew that, but only because I follow the team closely.
Omar Vizquel, who’s been on eight Hall of Fame ballots, is Venezuelan. I didn’t remember that. Nor did I know that Ranger Suarez of the Phillies, Willson and William Contreras (Cardinals and Brewers, respectively), as well as Luis Arraez of the Padres, are all Venezuelan. I will remember that now.
My top three Venezuelan-born pitchers would be Johan Santana, Felix Hernandez, and Francisco Rodriguez. My top three Venezuelan-born batters would be Miguel Cabrera, Andres Gallaraga, and Bobby Abreu, with honourable mention to Ronald Acuña, Jr.—and he has a good chance to move up that list.
There are too many Venezuelan-born MLB players to mention, both past and present. Suffice to say that Venezuela will be a tough out in next spring’s WBC. They’re kind of loaded!
Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called Almost Cooperstown. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium and Substack.
* Alex Carrasquel was a solid relief pitcher, but his nephew became far better known: Chico Carrasquel, the sleek-fielding shortstop who bridged the position from one to another Hall of Fame shortstop for the White Sox: he followed Luke (Old Aches and Pains) Appling and preceded Luis (Little Looie) Aparicio. The irony: The younger Carrasquel came up to the White Sox the season after Uncle Alex made his final major league pitching apprearance . . . for the White Sox! Chico Carrasquel was also the first Latino voted by fans into an All-Star Game, in 1951.—Ed.
Extra Innings: What They Said
The turning point for me was going on those trips to Vietnam and seeing what was going on over there. So many people were getting killed or badly injured—just a terrible situation. I wasn’t necessarily opposed to the war. I was opposed to people dying. It turned my life around because, at the time, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to play baseball forever. That’s when I decided to go to medical school.
—Ron Taylor, to co-author Erik Sherman, for ‘69 Mets outfielder Art Shamsky’s book After the Miracle.
What I remember about Betsy was, “Look out for the hitter in South Bend.” She was a good hitter, one heck of a hitter!
—Dottie Wiltse, pitcher, Minneapolis Millerettes.
I was throwing the ball with the girls and warming up before one game. [Manager] Marty McManus watched me and said, ‘Why don't you try pitching? You've got a good arm. So I tried, and it worked.
—Betsy Jochum, explaining how she came to pitch for the Blue Sox in 1948.
Players need to take this as an example, nobody is indispensable. You have to be available, that was the end of the relationship between Devers and the Red Sox. You need to be smart to understand the situation. Your worst enemy is your ego.
—Hall of Famer David Ortiz, on the deteriorating relationship between Rafael Devers and the Red Sox that finally prompted Devers’s trade to the Giants this past weekend.
How might this have unfolded if, say, the Red Sox hadn’t traded a certain team-first leader known for changing positions? What if, after 2019, they had grasped where the market was headed for a player (and person) like [Mookie] Betts and offered him the kind of contract extension he got from the Dodgers: 12 years, $365 million . . . The Red Sox are 390-391 since trading [Betts], worse today than they were yesterday. If the Betts trade only haunts them for one generation, they’re lucky. History calls for eight more decades of pain.
—Tyler Kepner, The Athletic.
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HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.