Rudy Hernández (History Friday)

Two days ago, Rudy Hernández died in New York. He was 90 years old, and is enrolled in history as the number 4 Dominican to debut in the Major Leagues. In fact, he was the first pitcher, making his debut on July 3, 1960, 16 days before Juan Marichal did with the San Francisco Giants.

Last year I published a book called “The Top 50 Dominicans in the Major Leagues”, and from there I extracted the text related to Hernandez.

“The pitcher Rudy Hernández has several interesting aspects in his history. He was not only a pitcher, in fact he was signed as an outfielder by the New York Giants in 1950, the first Dominican to stamp a signature from the collegiate league of said State.

He lasted four years in the minors only as a defenseman and outfielder, and from 1955 they made him a pitcher for the rest of his days. Second, when he moved up to the majors in 1960 he did so with the Washington Senators. Only that club, at the end of that season, he moved to Minneapolis and was called the Minnesota Twins, taking all their players, including Hernández.

But in the city of Washington, “the new” Washington Senators continued to function as an expansion franchise of the American League. What happened?

The new club selected Rudy from the roster of the new Twins, as part of the expansion draft held in December of that same year, and everything became hot.

In this way, it can be said that Hernández debuted with the Senators (later converted into the Twins), and played another year with the New Senators, in the same city, the same park. Isn’t it amazing? The truth is that Rudolf Albert Hernández was born in Santiago and his family left for New York a few years after he was born.

There he grew up and became a baseball player in the collegiate baseball league, and because of his good physique (he was 6 feet, 3 inches) he was signed without much trouble. In his early years, just as a right fielder and hitter, he got to exhaust almost 500 D-class at-bats, and in 1951 he had 466 at-bats, but he had no power as he only hit 7 home runs this past year. Then they changed plans and the man moved to pitching only.

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In the minors he pitched for 6 years until the Giants traded him to Washington in 1959. He made his debut with them on July 3, 1960. Rudy was 29 years old at the time of his debut, in a game against the Cleveland Indians. He was the fourth Dominican to debut in MLB. What happened to the Washington franchise?

HIS WORK. In 1960 Rudy appeared in 21 games, all in relief, going 4-1 with a 4.41 ERA acting in 34 innings, walking 21 and striking out 22. In 1961 in 7 games he was 0-1 and 3.00, only 9 innings with 4 strikeouts. In total he only pitched those two years, 4-2 record, 4.12, 28 games, 43.2 innings, 26 strikeouts. From there he continued his career in the minor leagues and a bit in the Dominican league. He is recorded 9 years in the minor league. As a pitcher he worked at different levels, including AAA, and his overall record was 52-49 win-loss, he totaled 819 innings with only 406 strikeouts.

In 1964 he was in the Cleveland and Cincinnati minors. In Lidom he played his first two years with the Leones del Escogido and was part of the 1956-57 and 1957-58 champions. He was also champion with the Eagles in 1964-65 and 1966-67. He played 4 tournaments for the Cibaeños, between 1958 and 1967. His general mark was 13 wins, 14 losses, 2.72 ERA, in 222 innings he accepted 185 hits, 86 strikeouts, had 8 complete games and one shutout.

  

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