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Héctor López

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Héctor Headley López Swainson (born July 9 1929 in Colón, Panama) is a former left fielder and third baseman in Major League Baseball who played for the Kansas City Athletics and New York Yankees from 1955 to 1966.[1] López was on World Series Championship teams for the Yankees in 1961 and 1962. He was a productive hitter who in various seasons finished among the top 10 American League hitters in hits, runs batted in, runs scored, doubles, triples, slugging percentage, sacrifice flies, sacrifice hits, games played, times hit by pitch and at bats.

Lopez was the second Panamanian-born major league baseball player and continues to be one of the countries most revered world champion athletes. Although Humberto Robinson (102 games played/5 seasons) debuted in the major leagues 22 days earlier, Lopez (1,450 games played/12 seasons) was the first of the 49 major leaguers born in Panama to have an extensive career.[2] He was the first Panamanian-born major leaguer to finish in the top 10 in any official statistical category (sacrifice hits, 1956); first to lead his league in any official statistic (sacrifice flies, 1958); first to play in the World Series (with the 1960 Yankees); and the first to win a World Championship (with the 1961 Yankees).

He was a very productive infielder for the Athletics, and later was often the third outfielder on the Maris/Mantle Yankees of the early and mid-1960s. López had his most successful season in 1959, hitting 22 home runs, batting in 93 runs, and hitting .283. The utility player divided his career almost equally between infield and outfield positions.

Kansas City Athletics (1955-59)

Prior to the 1952 season, López was acquired by the Philadelphia Athletics from the Drummondville Cubs of the Class-C Provincial League for $1,500.[1] López developed in the A's farm system, and when the team relocated to Kansas City in 1955 he was recalled to the major league club. López made his major league debut in 1955.[1] He spent his career with the Athletics playing mostly second and third base. During his rookie season, he finished third on the team in home runs, trailing only Gus Zernial (30) and Vic Power (19). He tied Jim Finigan for third on the team in RBIs with 68, trailing only Zernial and Power, who had 84 and 76, respectively.[3] López was the team's regular third baseman, and was the youngest regular starter on the team. In 1956, the team finished with a 52-102 record, but López had a career-high 153 hits.[1] He also set then-career highs in home runs (18) and runs batted in (69).[4]

He earned a position in the top-10 in the American League in both games played and at bats in 1956 and 1958, as well as leading the AL in sacrifice flies and times grounded into double plays in 1958. López also was in the top 10 in doubles and runs scored in 1958 and in sacrifice hits in 1956.[1] On June 26, 1958, López hit three home runs in a game against the Washington Senators.[5] During his career with the Athletics, he hit .278 with 67 home runs and 269 RBIs, and scored 298 runs. However, his talents were wasted on a team that never finished above 6th place. On May 26, 1959, he was traded with Ralph Terry to the New York Yankees for Johnny Kucks, Tom Sturdivant, and Jerry Lumpe.[1]

New York Yankees (1959-66)

In his first season with the Yankees after being traded, he played 35 games in the outfield, the first time in his career he played more than 20 outfield games. He still played 76 games at third base for the team. In his 33 games with Kansas City he had played exclusively at second base.[1] In his next five seasons with the Yankees from 1960 to 1964, he mostly played in the outfield as he was part of five consecutive pennant winners.[6] During his time with the Yankees, he was often the third outfielder of the Maris/Mantle Yankees that won two of the five consecutive World Series they played in from 1960 to 1964. During these five years, with Roger Maris playing right field and Mickey Mantle playing center field, López logged 406 games in left field. This was the most by any Yankee during this period (Tom Tresh-195, Yogi Berra-129).[7][8][9][10][11] He also logged the most games in left field during the back-to-back World Series Championship seasons of 1961 & 1962 (129 vs. Berra-109, Tresh-43). Lopez is one of eleven Yankees to have been on these five consecutive pennant winners and along with Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Bobby Richardson, & Clete Boyer is one of seven Yankees to have been part of the entire Maris/Mantle Yankee era. In 1965 and 1966, he made the majority of his outfield appearances in right field. However, in 1965 Mantle did not play center field.[12] Mantle did return to center field for the majority of his appearances in 1966 (the final year of the Maris/Mantle Yankees and the final year of López' career).[13]

In 1959, he finished in the top 10 in slugging percentage, hits, doubles and RBI. In 1960 he was among the top 10 in triples and sacrifice hits.[1] During the 1961 World Series, López replaced Mantle (who only had six Series at bats)[14] in Game 4 and recorded a 2-run single on the way to a 7–0 victory. In Game 5, which was the Series-clinching game, he homered and tripled, driving in five runs.[15]

Panamanian history

He paved the way as a role model for the first three Panamanian Major League All-Stars, Ben Oglivie and Manny Sanguillen also from Colón, and Rod Carew a Colonense born in neighboring Gatun. López recorded many firsts among Panamanian baseball players; he was the first regular major leaguer since 1955 was his rookie season, whereas Robinson did not qualify as a rookie until 1958 (the season in which he recorded his 50th career inning pitched) and Webbo Clarke, who also debuted in 1955, never qualified as a rookie. López' 1955 rookie season, when he batted .290, was also the first by a Panamanian to qualify for baseball's statistical leadership by recording the minimum number of plate appearances or innings pitched. None of the other major leaguers born in Panama who played in the 1950s (Robinson, Clarke, Pat Scantlebury, Tom Hughes) played in the major league postseason, which then only included the World Series, before López did so with the 1960 Yankees. No other Panamanian was part of a World Series champion before López with the 1961 Yankees. He was the first Panamanian to record many statistical accomplishments, such as a stolen base, home run, double, triple, walk or strikeout. His 1956 season was the first by a Panamanian with more than 150 hits, more than 25 doubles, 90 runs scored, more than 1 stolen base, or more than 60 walks. His 1959 season was the first with more than 20 home runs or 90 runs batted in. López twice had .350 on base percentages, but in each season he recorded over 400 plate appearances without recording the qualifying number for unofficial league leadership. Thus, his career high on base percentage in a season in which he qualified for statistical leadership was .347 in 1956. He was the first to finish among the top 10 in his league in each of the aforementioned statistical categories, and the first to lead his league in any official statistical batting category (sacrifice flies in 1958). López was the first Panamanian to accumulate a sufficient number of career appearances to qualify for career statistical leadership, although his career .269 batting average, .330 on base percentage and .415 slugging percentage are not historically significant.

He also represented Panama in the 1960 Caribbean Series and tied with Felix Torres and Herman Davis for the tournament home run leadership.[16] He (along with Ismael Laguna, Roberto Duran, Hector Lopez, Mariano Rivera) continues to be on the tip of the tongue of Panamanians as a legendary world champion who represented the country.[17]

Career statistics

Offensive stats

Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
1955 25 KCA AL 128 483 50 140 15 2 15 68 1 4 33 58 .290 .337 .422 103 4 4 1 3 15
1956 26 KCA AL 151 561 91 153 27 3 18 69 4 5 63 73 .273 .347 .428 104 8 4 3 3 13
1957 27 KCA AL 121 391 51 115 19 4 11 35 1 6 41 66 .294 .357 .448 117 4 5 5 0 8
1958 28 KCA AL 151 564 84 147 28 4 17 73 2 2 49 61 .261 .317 .415 99 7 9 2 2 23
1959 29 TOT AL 147 541 82 153 26 5 22 93 4 1 36 77 .283 .333 .471 120 4 5 1 7 10
KCA AL 35 135 22 38 10 3 6 24 1 0 8 23 .281 .324 .533 130 1 1 0 1 1
NYY AL 112 406 60 115 16 2 16 69 3 1 28 54 .283 .336 .451 117 3 4 1 6 9
1960 30 NYY AL 131 408 66 116 14 6 9 42 1 1 46 64 .284 .361 .414 115 9 2 0 4 7
1961 31 NYY AL 93 243 27 54 7 2 3 22 1 0 24 38 .222 .292 .305 64 2 3 1 1 8
1962 32 NYY AL 106 335 45 92 19 1 6 48 0 1 33 53 .275 .338 .391 131 2 2 2 0 17
1963 33 NYY AL 130 433 54 108 13 4 14 52 1 2 35 71 .249 .304 .395 95 2 3 5 0 12
1964 34 NYY AL 127 285 34 74 9 3 10 34 1 1 24 54 .260 .317 .418 101 1 2 2 1 8
1965 35 NYY AL 111 283 25 74 12 2 7 39 0 0 26 61 .261 .322 .392 103 3 4 2 1 11
1966 36 NYY AL 54 117 14 25 4 1 4 16 0 0 8 20 .214 .268 .368 84 2 1 0 1 4
12 Seasons 1450 4644 623 1251 193 37 136 591 16 23 418 696 .269 .330 .415 1926 48 44 24 23 136
  •   Led AL
  •   Top 10 in American League
  •   AL Pennant Winners
  •   World Series Champions

Defensive positions

Year Ag Tm Lg 1B 2B SS 3B OF LF CF RF
1955 25 KCA AL 0 36 0 93 0 0 0 0
1956 26 KCA AL 0 8 4 121 20 0 20 0
1957 27 KCA AL 0 4 0 111 3 2 0 1
1958 28 KCA AL 0 96 1 55 1 1 0 0
1959 29 TOT AL 0 33 0 76 35 35 0 0
KCA AL 0 33 0 0 0 0 0 0
NYY AL 0 0 0 76 35 35 0 0
1960 30 NYY AL 0 5 0 1 106 93 0 17
1961 31 NYY AL 0 0 0 0 72 65 0 9
1962 32 NYY AL 0 1 0 1 84 64 0 21
1963 33 NYY AL 0 1 0 0 124 104 0 21
1964 34 NYY AL 0 0 0 1 103 80 1 31
1965 35 NYY AL 2 0 0 0 75 20 0 55
1966 36 NYY AL 0 0 0 0 29 13 0 17
12 Seasons 2 184 5 459 652 477 21 172

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Héctor López Statistics". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  2. ^ "Players Born in Panama". baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  3. ^ "1955 Kansas City Athletics Statistics and Roster". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  4. ^ "1956 Kansas City Athletics Statistics and Roster". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  5. ^ "Municipal Stadium (Thursday, June 26, 1958)". baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  6. ^ "Player Profiles: Hector Lopez". BaseballLibrary.com. The Idea Logical Company, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  7. ^ "1960 New York Yankees". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  8. ^ "1961 New York Yankees". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  9. ^ "1962 New York Yankees". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  10. ^ "1963 New York Yankees". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  11. ^ "1964 New York Yankees". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  12. ^ "1965 New York Yankees". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  13. ^ "1966 New York Yankees". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  14. ^ "1961 World Series". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  15. ^ "New York Yankees 13, Cincinnati Reds 5". retrosheet.org. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  16. ^ See 1960 Caribbean Series
  17. ^ "Interview with Joseph Clarke". ProSkills Sports Academy. 2006-05-17. Retrieved 2007-08-28.

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