Lorenzo Fernández

Twenty-four games and 19 plate appearances with two hits for the 1968 Baltimore Orioles were the extent of Lorenzo “Chico” Fernández’s major league action, but he spent over 40 years in professional baseball. After a nearly fatal beaning ended the Cuban-born infielder’s 12-season playing career, Fernández coached in the Orioles and Dodgers organizations for more than three decades.

Lorenzo Marto Fernández Mosquera was born on February 23, 1939, in La Habana, Cuba, to Lorenzo and Victoria (Mosquera) Fernández.1 He became known as “Chico” in the United States, as did his fellow Cuban infielder Humberto Fernández, who was seven years his senior. Cuban fans and fellow players referred to the younger man as “Lorencito” — and still do so — also to differentiate him from his father, a well-known baseball personality in his own right. Lorencito had a sister, Lázara Marta. Their middle names came from their mother’s devotion to Saint Martha.

In 1918, the Hershey Company had built the first of several lucrative sugar mills in Cuba.2 After founder Milton Hershey purchased Central Rosario in Aguacate, he hired Lorencito’s father –whom he’d met in the United States — as superintendent, and director of the mill’s amateur baseball team. Lorenzo, Sr. spearheaded the effort to build a ballpark rivaling those in the nation’s capital, La Habana.3 Central Rosario’s players enjoyed services including two medical doctors.4 Large crowds attended the games and Fernández reportedly discovered 22 future pros.5 He also encouraged his son to play. Before Lorencito turned five, a photograph of him in a baseball uniform appeared in a local newspaper. In a grand finale of sorts, his father managed the Deportivo Rosario club to Cuba’s amateur championship in 1947, just before Hershey’s new management ceased sponsorship of the baseball team.6

The Fernández family initially moved to Via Blanca, a main thoroughfare outside La Habana. They then settled on Juan Bruno Zayas Street in the Vibora neighborhood of the city proper, where Lorencito attended the Maristas School. He played handball, basketball — and, of course, baseball.7 “When he was 14, Lorencito was the star of his high school team,” his father remarked in 1958, noting that major league shortstops Willy Miranda and Humberto Fernández had previously attended the institution. “Most people who watched all three play think Lorencito’s potential is the greatest.”8

As an amateur, Lorencito competed against other players bound for the majors, like Camilo Pascual and Mike de la Hoz.9 At Ciudad Deportiva, he honed his skills and forged a lifelong friendship with future Kansas City Athletics outfielder Leopoldo “Leo” Posada, uncle of star catcher Jorge Posada.10 By 1955, Lorencito was dating his future wife, María de los Angeles “Betty” Alfonso Bru, from Caibarién in Las Villas province. They would be married in 1960. At the time of his graduation in 1957, schools were experiencing closings and disruptions amid the growing Cuban revolutionary movement led by Fidel Castro. Like one of Betty’s brothers, Fernández wound up at Louisiana State University. He lived with members of her family, and impressed scouts from the Indians, Reds, and Tigers during a workout. Before the 1958 season, Fernández signed his first professional contract with Detroit scout Mel Didier.11 He was assigned to the Decatur [Illinois] Commodores in the Class D Midwest League, where manager Frank Carswell, a former outfielder with the Cuban Winter League’s Almendares club, dubbed him “Chico”, explaining that he found his name difficult to pronounce. Fernández never felt bothered or offended by it.12

Fernández was the team’s only .300 hitter when he separated his shoulder diving headfirst into home plate on July 6. He missed several weeks, including the time his father visited and told Decatur’s Herald and Review, “Newspapers in [La Habana] follow the Commodores very closely.”13 In 111 contests at shortstop and third base, Lorencito batted .285 and earned a gold watch for being selected the Commodores’ most popular player in a fan poll.14 The circuit’s managers and writers voted him to the 1958 Midwest League All-Star team.15

On December 30, Commodores business manager Hube Lipe arrived in Cuba as a guest of Lorencito’s father, just before Castro seized power. “Fans were afraid to come to the stadium…or to stores or to moving pictures,” Lorenzo, Sr. described. “Everyone was afraid of bomb[s].”16 After returning to the U.S., Lipe shared how the elder Fernández’s home had been searched in June as outgoing dictator Fulgencio Batista’s police were murdering thousands of young Cubans. “They could have been looking for Chico,” Lorenzo, Sr. told him. Although Lorencito played sparingly for the experienced Marianao club in winter ball, manager Nap Reyes reported that the prospect had lost weight and was “three steps faster than when he started taking running lessons to improve his speed.”17

Fernández spent most of the next two years in Class D leagues in Illinois and Alabama. In the winter of 1960-61, he batted .219 in 160 of his 178 plate appearances for Marianao in what proved to be the Cuban League’s final professional season.18 Although Fernández spent most of his time in a reserve role behind major leaguers José Valdivielso and Zoilo Versalles, teammate José Tartabull noted that they all practiced together, and said Lorencito’s sure hands and intelligence made his bright future apparent.19

In early 1961, Fernández detoured through Mexico on his way back to the United States.20 Before leaving Cuba, Betty had delivered their first child, daughter María Marta. They would have three more: Lorenzo, Carlos and Julio. In the U.S., Lorencito received a letter from his father, urging him to remain there for the good of his family.21 He spent the entire season with Durham in the Class B Carolina League, and he’d later name Bulls manager Al Lakeman as the man who helped his career the most.22 Fernández batted .247 but participated in 77 double plays in 119 games at shortstop, his highest single-season total. He split 1962 between Denver and Louisville and that winter played the first of five winters in the Nicaraguan League. Although he was living in the U.S., many of his relatives were still in Cuba, and he had not seen them in more than two years. “I know nothing about politics…I only play baseball. I don’t even like to think about it because it upsets me,” he said. He discussed baseball and family in exchanges with his father because they both knew that their letters were subject to censorship by Cuban authorities. “He cannot tell me what is going on there, so he does not try.”23

In spring training 1963, Fernández competed for the shortstop job with Detroit’s new Triple-A farm club, the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. However, Ray Oyler, a .236 hitter the previous year in Single-A, won the position. “I was disappointed, I thought I had a good year,” admitted Lorencito, who’d batted .259 in Triple-A in ’62. “My hitting has not been good yet, but I try not to let it do things to my fielding. I like to carry good glove, so when [my] bat goes bad, I still help the club.”24 Fernández reported to the Knoxville Smokies in the Double-A South Atlantic League to play for Carswell again. “He is developing into a fine ballplayer,” Carswell observed. “He’s real cute with the glove, and he is a fine slap hitter. Chico doesn’t strike out very often and he hits the ball around to all fields.”25 But midway through the season he was released, and caught on with the Lynchburg (Virginia) White Sox affiliate.

That winter in Nicaragua, Fernández switched uniforms in mid-season from León to the Cinco Estrellas club.26 Through January 21, he was batting .316.27 In the playoff opener against Oriental, his two-run, eighth-inning single made him the hero.28 As Cinco Estrellas claimed the championship, Lorencito scored the clinching run in the final frame.29 He spent the next two years at Lynchburg, now in the AA Southern League, and set a league record of 99 consecutive errorless games.30 His .992 fielding average led minor league second basemen, earning him a place on the Rawlings National Association All-Star Fielding Team. The Lynchburg franchise moved to Evansville, Indiana, in 1966, and Chico went with it. Always an excellent contact hitter, he struck out only 22 times in 477 at bats. In his first season primarily at third base, he batted .302 with a .375 slugging percentage and 47 RBIs, all his best marks as an everyday player.

After his fifth and final Nicaraguan campaign, Lorencito returned to Triple A in 1967, joining the Indianapolis Indians of the Pacific Coast League. One opponent had a familiar name. “I’m the original Chico Fernández,” remarked Humberto Fernández, then with Tacoma. “But that one on Indianapolis is good.”31 At various times, Indianapolis’s roster included four infielders who’d play in the majors in ’67, plus two others with previous big-league experience. With 104 games, Lorencito appeared in more contests than any of them — but when the club needed to clear a roster spot on August 1, he was the one demoted to Double-A Evansville. He received a telegram from Indianapolis manager Don Gutteridge and his former teammates telling him he was a good player and that it was a shame he’d been sent down. In September, The Sporting News reported that Lorencito, 28, was considering retirement.32 “I don’t know why I never made it,” he said. “I suffered. I had good years with the glove and the bat, but I just didn’t impress them. The White Sox didn’t think of me as a big leaguer.”33

He played 14 games for Chicago’s Florida Instructional League entry that fall, but he was primarily there to teach. The White Sox reportedly wanted him to return to Evansville in 1968 as a player-coach. First, he went to Venezuela to play winter ball for Navegantes del Magallanes. As they had in Nicaragua, the families of Fernández and Leo Posada shared housing and expenses. Betty recalled the much larger and cosmopolitan Venezuela as a less familiar and comfortable environment for the family.34 On November 9, following skipper Les Moss’s resignation, Lorencito also became the Navegantes’ manager.35 The first time he put himself into a game, he ignited a game-winning rally with a 10th-inning pinch-hit single. Fernández delivered again as a pinch hitter the following evening and scored the decisive run.36

Meanwhile, the Rochester Red Wings — the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate — paid $12,000 to acquire Lorencito at baseball’s annual minor league draft on November 28.37 Baltimore scout Jim Frey had noticed Fernández’s good hands in the Southern League. “You only had to watch him catch ground balls for 10 minutes to see that,” Frey explained. “He was a third baseman for Evansville then. Last year I saw him at second base with Indianapolis, and he fielded just as well there. I saw him a couple of games at shortstop, too. Now, suddenly he becomes more valuable.”38

Fernández was considered insurance in case the Orioles failed to upgrade their infield depth. The club didn’t add the player they desired that winter (another “Chico”, Salmon, was obtained ahead of the following season), yet the Baltimore Sun described Lorencito’s invitation to major league spring training in 1968 as “more an act of courtesy.” After shaking off a sprained ankle and a spiked wrist, he made the most of the opportunity by batting .313 in “A” games — including a bases-loaded triple against the Yankees — and drawing comparisons to Luis Aparicio for his glove work. Manager Hank Bauer told Fernández to bring his family to Baltimore because he’d made the Orioles’ Opening Day roster. “All he said was, ‘Thank you, Mr. Bauer.’ Not ‘How much money?’ just ‘Thank you, Mr. Bauer,’” the skipper reported.39

“This is my whole life’s dream,” Lorencito said. “No words can express myself. I prayed every day. My whole family prayed. I go to Mass every Sunday but made special visits to church during the week.”40 He debuted on April 20, 1968, at Anaheim Stadium. With Baltimore leading, 10-1, he led off the eighth inning as a pinch hitter for Tom Phoebus and singled to left against Angels’ right-hander Bobby Locke. In his first defensive action, at shortstop on May 14 at Tiger Stadium, he made an inning-ending putout. Eight nights later at Yankee Stadium, he handled his first ground ball.

Although Fernández didn’t play much, the Orioles were bracing to lose starting shortstop Mark Belanger for up to two years of military service. In May, they learned that Belanger’s commitment would be significantly lighter.41 However, he was away on June 16, so Lorencito made his first (and only) two starts in a doubleheader at Oakland. He started two twin killings but went a combined 0-for-5 with an error. Bauer then shifted second baseman Davey Johnson to shortstop with outfielder Don Buford filling in at second until Belanger returned.

By August 7, a single inning of defense was Fernández’s only action in more than seven weeks. That night, however, his spectacular play helped the Orioles sweep a doubleheader from the Twins. Manning second base with two on and two out in the ninth, Lorencito dove to stop Ted Uhlaender’s hard smash to his right. Lying prone and facing the outfield, he flipped a throw like a basketball hook shot to Belanger for a game-ending force.42 It was the last ball he fielded in the majors. Before August was over, Fernández felt a pop in his elbow while throwing batting practice. When he tried to throw a week later, the ball went nowhere. “I was really scared,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Hank, I can’t throw. I don’t have any feeling in my hand.”43

On August 16 in Minnesota, Lorencito singled against Jim Kaat in the ninth inning of a Baltimore defeat, but he was limited to pinch-hitting and pinch-running duty over the next month. During the season’s final week, he underwent surgery to remove bone chips, a spur, scar tissue, and a nerve from his elbow.44 Doctors estimated 10 months for a full recovery.45 Fernández’s rookie year — and major league career — ended with a .111 batting average (2-for-18) in 24 games.

On March 4, 1969, Fernández became a United States citizen in Miami.46 Although he nominally contended for a utility infielder role with the Orioles during spring training, his throwing remained poor as he rehabilitated.47 He spent the season as a player-coach with Rochester. Upon activation in July, he rated his elbow strength at about 60 percent.48 Before the August 3 contest at Silver Stadium, Fernández had appeared in only three games. Although batting helmets with earflaps were not yet mandatory, Lorencito typically wore one, but he couldn’t find it before his sixth-inning at-bat against Tidewater Tides right-hander Larry Bearnarth. Rochester trailed by seven runs, and Fernández grew frustrated after taking two fastballs down the middle for called strikes. “You need to concentrate,” he recalled telling himself, before moving closer to home plate in anticipation of an outside pitch.

Instead, Bearnarth unleashed a sidearm curve that was supposed to veer inside before breaking over the plate, but the ball struck Fernández in the left temple, causing a two-and-a-half-inch skull fracture. Lorencito screamed for his wife and children in Spanish as a trembling Bearnarth approached home plate. “I was in shock,” the pitcher confessed. “I felt helpless. I was thinking, ‘Here is a husband and a father.’ I was afraid he might die.”49

After about 20 minutes, Fernández left the field on a stretcher and underwent three hours of surgery at Rochester General Hospital to remove bone fragments and blood clots creating pressure on his brain. Doctors said the injuries would have been fatal without the emergency procedures.50 Rochester fans offered silent prayers before the following night’s game.51 Although Fernández had brief periods of consciousness and said a few words, he spent most of the next few days in a coma, his brain damaged in the areas controlling vision, speech, and memory.52 He improved so much after two weeks, however, that he was sent home early.53 Joined by Betty, Lorencito stood at home plate before the Red Wings’ season finale on September 1 and thanked the fans for their support.54 “I have little memory of that day,” he said in 1999. “My mind was still very foggy. My body was there, but not much else was.”55

That winter, Lorencito attended a school for speech and writing therapy.56 “It was not easy because I had been fluent in two languages,” he said.57 He battled dizzy spells and fuzzy vision in his right eye and had a credit card-sized plate inserted in his skull. “For a long time, I thought, really thought, I would be able to play baseball again,” he said. “But the doctors told me, ‘Chico, you injure that head just one more time…it won’t take much, and you’re finished.’”58 The Red Wings offered him a coaching job in 1970 under manager Cal Ripken Sr. “I’ll never forget Cal and what he did for me,” Fernández said, recalling the first time he was told to coach third base during spring training. “‘But Cal, I don’t even remember the signals,’ I told him. But he said, ‘Chico, take third base.’ Gradually, I got better, and things were going well.”59

After Lorencito collapsed in a restaurant during spring training 1971, however, his coaching career temporarily ended. “How would I feel if something happened to Chico?” asked new Rochester manager Joe Altobelli. “We just couldn’t take a chance.” It was hard for Fernández to accept. “Fourteen years I have been in baseball. It has been my life. It’s tough to quit,” he said.60 Orioles GM Frank Cashen hired him to scout Latino leagues around Miami and helped him land a full-time job as a salesman with one of the club’s longtime sponsors, the National Brewing Company. Yet Lorencito still longed to return to uniform. “I’m hoping and praying the Orioles will let me come back,” he said after his doctor pronounced him fit that fall. “I don’t care too much for the scouting end of it.”61

Fernández rejoined Rochester’s coaching staff in 1972. One morning in early September, the car he was driving was totaled when it was hit by a vehicle whose driver had sped through a red light. He escaped with a stiff neck, but passenger Orlando Peña initially feared that he’d broken his pitching elbow, adding, “I’m lucky to be alive.”62 Peña called Lorencito, “A very nice guy, but unlucky. Things always happen to him.”63

From 1973 to 1976, Fernández was a minor league instructor in the Orioles’ organization, serving in various roles. “I went to the Instructional League and Chico Fernández helped me,” said Rich Dauer, Baltimore’s 1974 first-round draft pick.64 When the Orioles signed Mexican slugger Andrés Mora, Cashen cited Lorencito’s multiple visits to Saltillo and explained, “We’ve been following Mora two or three years since Chico first recommended him.”65 In spring training 1976, Lorencito was the translator for Rochester’s Nicaraguan rookie, Dennis Martínez.66

In 1977, Fernández began a 23-year run as a minor-league infield instructor for the Los Angeles Dodgers. For much of that period, his friend Leo Posada coached the Dodgers’ young hitters. After L.A. drafted Dave Anderson in the first round in 1981 despite concerns about the infielder’s arm strength, Fernández tutored him in Arizona. “Chico Fernández worked with him on his footwork and in just a matter of minutes he had improved his throwing a great deal,” scout Guy Wellman reported.67 Wilton Guerrero was just one of the raw talents who reached the majors after drilling with Lorencito at Campo Las Palmas, the Dodgers’ academy in the Dominican Republic.68 Another infielder, Juan Castro, described one of Fernández’s techniques. “[Lorencito] came to me with a ball that had ridges along the sides of it. When you throw the ball off a wall, or off the ground to another guy, it bounces crazy. It’s a great drill for quickness and hand-eye coordination.”69

Lorencito continued working with Dodgers’ infielders until 1999, when a severe knee infection delayed necessary reconstructive surgery.70 On January 29, 2006, he was elected to the Hall of Fame of Cuban Sports in Miami.71 In 1985 his father had teamed up with former major-league coach Tony Pacheco to establish La Casa del Beisbol Cubano — a Cuban baseball museum — in Miami.72 As hip problems forced him to become less active in the 21st century, Fernández spent more time with his children and grandchildren in his home full of baseball memorabilia.

On November 26, 2020, Lorencito returned home on a busy Thanksgiving Day to find a vehicle blocking his driveway. When he went to investigate, he was hit by a speeding car.73 After four days of treatment, he succumbed to his injuries on November 30. He was 81. Betty fielded an outpouring of cards and calls offering condolences from friends and teammates whose lives Lorencito had influenced, including former Dodgers’ owner Peter O’Malley. After a private Mass, Fernández was buried at Miami Memorial Park Cemetery.

Lorenzo Fernández and the author José I. Ramírez in February 2020.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Lorenzo “Lorencito” Fernández (personal interview with José Ramírez on February 11, 2020, and a telephone interview on April 29, 2020). Photo courtesy of the author.

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Norman Macht and fact-checked by Kevin Larkin,

Sources

In addition to sources cited in the Notes, the authors also consulted www.baseball-reference.com and ripbaseball.com.

Notes

1 Betty Fernández, Interviews with José Ramírez on February 11, 2020, and February 3, March 8 and March 29, 2021. (Hereafter Betty Fernández-Ramírez Interview). Many sources, including Lorenzo Fernández’s 1969 Petition for Naturalization, list his birthdate as April 23, 1939. The player himself listed June 23, 1940 and April 23, 1939 on two different, early-career publicity questionnaires. In interviews with the author, however, Betty Fernández was clear that February 23, 1939 was Lorenzo’s true birthday. It is also the date on his tombstone.

2 “Central Hershey, Cuba: 1916-1946,” https://hersheyarchives.org/encyclopedia/cuba-central-hershey-1916-1946/ (last accessed May 5, 2021).

3 América Deportiva, April 30, 1945.

4 One of the doctors, José Ramírez, was the author’s father.

5 George Beres, “Señor Fernández Picks Inopportune Time to Come See Son Chico Play,” Herald and Review, (Decatur, Illinois), July 16, 1958: 13.

6 Lorenzo “Lorencito” Fernández, Interviews with José Ramírez on February 11 and April 29, 2020 (Hereafter Lorenzo Fernández-Ramírez interview).

7 Chico Fernández, Denver Bears Player Questionnaire, May 23, 1962.

8 Beres, “Señor Fernández Picks Inopportune Time to Come See Son Chico Play.”.

9 Fernández, Denver Bears Player Questionnaire.

10 Leo Posada, Interview with José Ramírez, February 23, 2021.

11 Fernández, Denver Bears Player Questionnaire.

12 Betty Fernández-Ramírez Interview, March 8, 2021

13 Beres, “Señor Fernández Picks Inopportune Time to Come See Son Chico Play.”.

14 “Hawks High in Second Half,” The Sporting News, September 10, 1958: 40.

15 “Kerr Named Manager of the Year,” The Sporting News, September 3, 1958: 41.

16 Jim Creighton “Cuban Baseball Dangerous? Not at all Says Lorenzo Fernández,” Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review, August 23, 1959: 17.

17 Forrest R. Kyle, “Being in Decatur Last Summer May Have Kept Fernández Safe from Batista,” Decatur Daily Review, January 27, 1959; 10.

18 Ramirez, José I. Cuba and the “Last” Baseball Season, (Create Space Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2018).

19 José Tartabull, Interview with José Ramírez, February 23, 2021.

20 Author’s note: Lorencito’s arrival to the U.S. was like many of the Cuban players who secured a visa from a major league team at the end of the last professional baseball season in the island.

21 Harold Harris, “Baseball, Not Politics is No. 1 Interest of Fernández,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, May 5, 1963: 41.

22 Fernández, Denver Bears Player Questionnaire.

23 Harold Harris, “Baseball, Not Politics is No. 1 Interest of Fernández,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, May 5, 1963: 41.

24 Harris

25 Harold Harris, “Smokies Land Shortstop Fernández,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 9, 1963: 17.

26 Horacio Ruiz, “40,000 Expected to See League Opener,” The Sporting News, November 2, 1963: 22.

27 “Nicaraguan Nuggets,” The Sporting News, February 1, 1964: 26.

28 Horacio Ruiz, “Art Lopez Big Man as Cinco Estrellas Takes Playoff Lead,” The Sporting News, February 8, 1964: 28.

29 Horacio Ruiz, “Eaddy Snaps Out of Bat Slump, Paces Estrellas to Playoff Title,” The Sporting News, February 15, 1964: 29.

30 Milt Apperson, “At Last! Chico Makes Error After 99 Tilts,” The Sporting News, August 14, 1965: 35.

31 “Carrying on the Name,” The Sporting News, July 22, 1967: 37.

32 “Southern League,” The Sporting News, September 16, 1967: 44.

33 Doug Brown, “10-Year Busher: Now Chico May Become Oriole,” The Sporting News, March 16, 1968: 10.

34 Betty Fernández-Ramírez Interview February 3, 2021 and March 29, 2021.

35 “Venezuelan Vitamins,” The Sporting News, December 9, 1967: 47.

36 Eduardo Moncada, “New Skipper Puts Life in Magallanes,” The Sporting News, December 16, 1967: 47.

37 Stan Isle, “Astro Farms Grab 7 in Minors’ Draft; 49 Players Picked,” The Sporting News, December 16, 1967: 32.

38 Doug Brown, “10-Year Busher: Now Chico May Become Oriole,” The Sporting News, March 16, 1968: 10.

39 Lou Hatter, “Fernández Promoted to Orioles’ Roster,” Baltimore Sun, April 5, 1968: C1.

40 Hatter, “Fernández Promoted to Orioles’ Roster.”

41 “Orioles Relax, Belanger to Escape Military Duty,” The Sporting News, May 25, 1968: 8.

42 “A Wanted Man: Robinson of ’66,” Evening Press (Binghamton, New York), August 8, 1968: 24.

43 Jim Castor, “Chico’s Arm Coming Back,” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), July 15, 1969: 51.

44 Doug Brown, “Bird Seed,” The Sporting News, October 5, 1968: 18.

45 Castor, “Chico’s Arm Coming Back.”.

46 Leo Posada, Interview with José Ramírez, February 23, 2021 and Petition for Naturalization documentation

47 Phil Jackman, “Oriole Sore Wings Flapping Again,” The Sporting News, March 22, 1969: 21.

48 Castor, “Chico’s Arm Coming Back.”

49 Scott Pitoniak, “The Day Silver Went Silent,” Democrat and Chronicle, August 1, 1999: D1.

50 Pitoniak

51 “Fernández is ‘Beaned’,” The Sporting News, August 16, 1969: 37.

52 Pitoniak, “The Day Silver Went Silent.”.

53 “International League,” The Sporting News, August 30, 1969: 42.

54 Larry Bump, “So Long Red Wings- See Ya Next Spring,” Democrat and Chronicle, August 2, 1969: 31.

55 Pitoniak, “The Day Silver Went Silent.”.

56 Doug Brown, “Bird Seed,” The Sporting News, November 22, 1969: 35.

57 Pitoniak, “The Day Silver Went Silent.”

58 Jim Castor, “It’s a Long Hard Road Back for Chico,” Democrat and Chronicle, April 24, 1970: 34.

59 Craig Stolze, “Chico Packs Memories,” Democrat and Chronicle, April 28, 1971: 55.

60 Stolze, “Chico Packs Memories.”.

61 Jim Castor, “Fernández Returning to Wings,” Democrat and Chronicle, November 18, 1971: 44.

62 Jim Castor, “Pain Doesn’t Stop Peña,” Democrat and Chronicle, September 7, 1972: 32.

63 Bob Maisel “The Morning After,” Baltimore Sun, April 5, 1973: B1.

64 Larry Bump, “Dauer Inherits Label,” Democrat and Chronicle, March 25, 1975: 49.

65 “Mexican May Help Wings,” Democrat and Chronicle, August 1, 1975: 35.

66 Greg Boeck, “Martinez Plans His Own Shakeup in Wings’ Camp,” Democrat and Chronicle, March 23, 1976: 25.

67 Dodger Blue, Vol. 1, No. 17, December 1981: 25.

68 Press Journal, (Vero Beach, Florida), February 26, 1995: 1B.

69 John Erardi, “Spotlight: Juan Castro,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 29, 2003: B6.

70 Pitoniak, “The Day Silver Went Silent.”.

71 Program of the 4 th Election to the Hall of Fame of Cuban Sports.

72 John Hughes, “The House That Beisbol Built,” Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), June 24, 1991: 1D.

73 Correspondence and phone communications with José (Chamby) Campos.