With the current baseball season close to beginning, I just wanted to highlight how many Latinos have reached the position of Manager of a Major League franchise. Considering that Latinos have been playing professionally since the early days, the managerial ranks have been represented by Latinos. Here's a list of how the Latinos have been represented:
Miguel Angel "Mike" Gonzalez (Cuba) 1st Latino Manager
Preston Gomez (Cuba) 2nd
Octavio "Cookie" Rojas (Cuba) 3rd
Felipe Alou (DR) 4th 1st Latino All-Star Manager
Tony Perez (Cuba) 5th
Tony Pena (DR) 6th
Carlos Tosca (Cuba) 7th
Ozzie Guillen (Venezuela) 8th 1st Latino manager of a World Series Champion
Manny Elias Acta (DR) 9th
Fredi Jesus Gonzalez (Cuba) 10th
Honorable Mention Latino/Hispanic Heritage
Davey Lopes (Cape Verde)
Al Lopez (Spain)
Lou Pinella (Spain)
Tony LaRussa (Spain)
It is interesting to see how the choice of managers reflect the era in which certain Latino groups have been dominant. Where the first group of managers were from Cuba, with the closing of Cuba in the 1960's, the ranks were filled by more Dominican, Puerto Rican and Venezuelan players. What I do find strange that there has yet to be a Puerto Rican manager in the major leagues.
Maybe as a Catcher, Ivan Rodriguez has the best shot for a Boriqua to become a manager. It seems to me that his current position on the Washington Nationals is two fold: one as a player and second is a mentor and tutor to the younger players. Any other suggestions on who can reach the position of manager from current crop of Latino players? Feel free to comment and add to the discussion
FH
1 comment:
Let's now add Juan Samuel of the Baltimore Orioles to the list. Samuel is replacing Dave Trembley as interim manager. How long he'll remain at the helm is unknown since the Orioles management has been rumored to be interviewing Bobby Valentine for the managerial position.
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