1995 Senadores de San Juan

I recently came across the article Remembering the '95 'Dream Team' by Gabrielle Paese from ESPN's MLB webpage and decided to look a little deeper into the Dream Team that made up Puerto Rico's selection for the 1995 Caribbean League World Series. 

Now consider that the 1994-1995 Caribbean League came right on the heels of the 1994 work stoppage that cancelled the 1994 season and World Series. So you can imagine how in Baseball mad places like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico the sight of real top level Baseball being played was like an oasis to a person lost in the desert. With the final series being held in Puerto Rico, the selection for the Puerto Rican team would have to be one of the best in history. Senadores manager Luis "Torito" Melendez didn't disappoint. Here was the starting lineup for the Senadores:

1B: Carmelo Martínez
2B: Roberto Alomar
3B: Carlos Baerga
SS: Rey Sanchez
OF: Juan "Igor" González
OF Bernabé "Bernie" Williams
OF: Rubén "El Indio" Sierra
C: Carlos Delgado
BD/DH : Edgar Martinez

You have one Hall of Famer in Alomar. A second one (in my opinion) in Edgar Martinez. A borderline third one in Carlos Delgado. A very underrated Bernie Williams, one of the feared sluggers of the era in Juan Gonzalez and defensive whizzes in Carlos Baerga and Rey Sanchez. A young Carlos Delgado was behind the plate, a postition that most fans don't remember he came up to the majors as before being moved to first base by the Toronto Blue Jays. Keep in mind that Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez was not on the roster due to a knee injury. Or else he would have also been playing in this series.

The Puerto Rican dream team went undefeated in the tournament going 6-0 outscoring the opposition by a margin of 49-15. They were led by Series MVP Roberto Alomar who batted .560 with two home runs, 10 RBIs, 9 Runs scored, an .840 Slugging percentage and 2 Stolen bases. Bernie Williams hit .417 with three homers and a .875 slugging percentage, Juan Gonzalez hit .375 with a .667 slugging percentage and Edgar Martinez hit .375 with 9 RBI.

In terms of pitching, the team was led by Puerto Ricans Roberto Hernandez, Ricky Bones, Jose Alberro and imported pitchers Doug Brocail, Eric Gunderson and Chris Haney.

One point stands out to me in the article by Paese. In the article, veteran statistician, historian and journalist Jossie Alvarado is quoted as saying the following:

"I had never before seen a team that so wanted to represent Puerto Rico," said veteran statistician, historian and journalist Jossie Alvarado about the Senadores, who traded the club's name and played with Puerto Rico on their uniforms for the first time in Caribbean Series history. "The front office staff told me that no checks were ever cut for the major leaguers. They all waived any fees they could have charged just because they so wanted the chance to play for the island. It was that big a deal."

Its a shame that Baseball has been on the decline in Puerto Rico since then. There are many reasons such as Puerto Rican players being included in the player draft since 1990, the economics of the island that led to the disruption of play of the Puerto Rican league during the 2007-2008 season and interests in other sports such as Basketball and Boxing. With the possible opening of the Cuban baseball market in the near future, opportunities for Puerto Rican born players will continue to dwindle.

At least we can all look back on the 1995 Caribbean League Champion Senadores de San Juan to see what arguably the peak of Puerto Rican baseball is.

Hasta la próxima, nunca dejaremos de jugar el Beisbol,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

For Further Reading:
- Remembering the '95 'Dream Team' by Gabrielle Paese from ESPN's MLB webpage dated February 2, 2015
- El Dream Team de Puerto Rico aún despierta emociones by David Venn from El Puro Beisbol website dated February 5, 2014 
- Puerto Rican Dream Teams from the My World of Baseball blogpage
- Un equipo soñado y arrollador presentó Puerto Rico en 1995 by Diobert Tocuyo from El Tiempo Newspaper from Venezuela dated February 12, 2012
- Celebran 20 aniversario del Dream Team by David Venn from the Licey Baseball website dated February 4, 2015
- 1995 Caribbean Series from Baseball Reference

Latino showing in 2012 Hall of Fame Balloting

It was announced earlier in the week that Barry Larkin received the minimum of 75% of the vote necessary in order to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. So I've decided to look at the performance of those Latino baseball players that were on this year's ballot and to take a look into the future to see which Latino ballplayers might be eligible for the Hall of Fame.

There were a total of six Latinos on this year's Hall of Fame ballot and before I talk about them individually, here is where they stood in terms of votes, percentage received and year of eligibility:

Edgar Martinez 209 votes (36.5%) in his 3rd Year
Rafael Palmiero 72 votes (12.6%) in his 2nd Year
Bernie Williams 55 votes (9,67%) in his 1st Year
Juan Gonzalez 23 votes (4.0%) in his 2nd Year
Vinnie Castilla 6 votes (1.0%) in his 1st Year
Ruben Sierra 0 votes (0.0%) in his 1st Year

Edgar Martinez of Venezuela has remained consistent with his Hall of Fame vote showing. Where he posted 36.5% of the vote in his first year and a drop of 32.9% in his second year, Martinez has jumped back up with a 3.6% increase to 36.5%. It is favorable for him to stay close to where he was as opposed to losing votes. To be honest, with the plethora of players becoming eligible for the Hall in the next few years (Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Piazza, Maddux, Biggio, Schilling in 2013 and Glavine, Maddux and Thomas in 2014) votes might be hard to come by. Out of the current crop of eligible Latinos, Martinez still has the best shot to get in over the long haul.

Rafael Palmiero of Cuba still has the steroid issue surrounding him and was able to make a small increase from 11.0% his first year to 12.6% this year. We'll have to see how next year's vote comes about since steroid era players such as Bonds, Clemens and Sosa will join McGwire and Palmiero on the ballot. It will remain to be seen whether or not the voters will continue to not vote for Palmiero because of the steroids or vote for him regardless of the steroids.

Bernie Williams of Puerto Rico was the only player in his first year of eligibility in this year's ballot to garner the necessary 5% minimum of the vote to stay on the ballot. Being a pivotal part of the New York Yankees' dynasty of 1996-2000 it will be interesting to see if in fact Williams will be able to rise up the voting ladder. His career .297 batting average with 2336 hits (449 2B/55 3B/287 HR), 1257 RBI, 147 SB, 1069 BB, 1212 K's with an OPS of .858 (.381 OBP/.477 SLG) are decent. Even with his 5 All-Star appearances, 4 Gold Gloves and 1 Silver Slugger, Williams never placed better than 7th in the MVP voting and only finished in the top ten twice in a 16-year career. He was a consistent player but I don't think he'll ever get the necessary 75% of the vote.

The other three latinos who did not get the necessary 5% of the vote was two time AL MVP Juan Gonzalez of Puerto Rico (.295 average with 1936 hits of which were 434 HR, 1404 RBI, a .904 OPS and suspicions of steroid use), Vinnie Castilla of Mexico and Ruben Sierra also of Puerto Rico.

To be perfectly honest, the only Latino I see getting into the Hall of Fame any time soon is Pedro Martinez who if he stays retired is eligible for the Hall of Fame in the ballot of 2015. Carlos Delgado is also eligible for the 2015 ballot and he will be an interesting player. I'll go into more about Pedro Martinez and Carlos Delgado at a later date. I don't see Sammy Sosa in 2013 or Rafael Palmiero getting in anytime soon. They'll garner votes just as McGwire has but the steroid issue is still a raw and sensitive issue for many of the voters.

Here is the list of eligible Latinos for the Hall of Fame as of the next ballot:

2013 (Sammy Sosa, Roberto Hernandez, Jose Mesa, Julio Franco, Sandy Alomar, Tony Batista, Antonio Alfonseca)

2014 (Luis Gonzlez, Moises Allou, Armando Benitez, Jose Vidro, Esteban Loaiza)

2015 (Pedro Martinez, Nomar Garcia-Parra, Carlos Delgado, Kelvim Escobar)

FH