February 12, 1955: Clemente, Mays homers book-end Santurce’s 11-inning Caribbean Series win over Magallanes

Willie Mays (#24, leaping at right) celebrates as Roberto Clemente (#21, at far left) and other Santurce Crabbers teammates look on. (Courtesy of Jorge Colón Delgado.)

Herman Franks had managed the 1953-54 Magallanes Navigators to a 39-37 record in the Venezuelan four-team Winter League and led the Santurce Crabbers to the Caribbean Series the next season.1

Franks recalled, “When Santurce arrived in Caracas, they asked me what I was doing there. They said, we [Santurce] didn’t have a chance to win as Almendares from Cuba would take it all. I told them the only reason I brought this [Santurce] team there was for them to see Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente.”2

Magallanes represented Venezuela in the 1955 Caribbean Series, Phase I (1949-1960) of a four-team round-robin tournament, which also included teams from Cuba, Panamá, and Puerto Rico. Magallanes finished second (4-2), one game behind Santurce.3 Teams played each opponent twice. Phase I of the Caribbean Series was discontinued in February 1961, due to issues between Fidel Castro, the Caribbean Confederation, and the discontinuation of the Cuban Winter League.

Santurce won the Caribbean Series in 1951 (5-1), 1953 (6-0), and 1955 (5-1) and was the first team to win three titles. The Crabbers’ 1951 and 1953 squads were reinforced by players from other league teams, a common practice throughout the Caribbean. The 1955 edition, though, had only Santurce players on its 22-man roster. Six February 2022 Caribbean Series teams had 32-man rosters, 10 more than 1955.4

The 1954-55 Crabbers went 47-25 and beat Caguas in the league finals. They used 20 of 22 roster players in Caracas, 6 pitchers and 14 position players. Roberto Clemente was Santurce’s only native position player who started all six contests. Teams were allowed nine imports. Franks’ two coaches, Dick Seay and Ramón “Monchile” Concepción, once played in the Negro Leagues. Santurce’s main series lineup, including its February 12 game versus Magallanes, was:

1. Don Zimmer, SS
2. Roberto Clemente, LF
3. Willie Mays, CF
4. Buzz Clarkson, 3B
5. Bob Thurman, RF
6. George Crowe, 1B
7. Harry Chiti, C
8. Ron Samford, 2B
9. Sam Jones, P

Santurce played three “home games” in the series. Clemente was 1-for-8 in his first two games, vs. Cuba’s Almendares Blues (0-for-4) on February 10; then, 1-for-4 against Panamá’s Carta Vieja Yankees the next day.5 On opening Night, against Almendares, Clemente played in front of the largest crowd (40,000 total, paid attendance 34,000) as of that moment of his career. Rubén Gómez bested Almendares in the series opener.6

Sam Jones started and finished against Magallanes on February 12. He allowed three hits, two by Chico Carrasquel and one by Ramón Monzant.7 (Monzant was Franks’ 1953-54 workhorse with a 14-6 won-lost record, and Magallanes’ 1954-55 ace, 11-7 W-L.)8 Magallanes’ lineup for skipper Lázaro Salazar comprised the following:9

1. Chico Carrasquel, SS
2. Jack Lohrke, 2B
3. George Wilson, RF
4. Bob Skinner, 1B
5. Bob Lennon, CF
6. Luis “Camaleón” García, 3B
7. Dalmiro Finol, LF
8. Luis “Güigüí” Lucas, C
9. Ramón Monzant, P

Magallanes took a 1-0 lead off Jones when it loaded the bases, and Skinner grounded into a double play. Clemente cracked a solo homer in the first – a long drive over the center-field fence – after Zimmer was retired. Güigüí Lucas scored a go-ahead run in the second, after he walked, advanced to second on a Monzant base hit, and dashed home on Carrasquel’s run-scoring single, Crowe’s triple in the fourth scored Clarkson, to tie the game, 2-2.10 Santurce threatened in the seventh, with two-out hits by Samford and Jones, but Zimmer flied to center.11

The clock struck midnight when Clemente stepped to the plate and singled in the home half of the 11th. Enriqueta Marcano Zorrilla, niece of Santurce owner Pedrín Zorrilla, remembered the crowd mocking Mays, 0-for-12 until then, with a whispering sh … sh … sound, as if to say, he “was being silenced.”12 Mays’ walk-off 385-foot homer to left-center, at 12:03 A.M., ended the 2-hour 25-minute contest. Clemente scored the winning run, followed by Mays, in the 4-2 win.13

Santurce was the “home team” vs. Almendares on February 13. The Crabbers were losing, 6-0, in the sixth when Zimmer singled and Clemente doubled. Mays tripled and Crowe singled to cut the deficit in half.14 Thurman’s eighth-inning double drove in Mays to make it 6-4. Almendares’ Red Munger retired Chiti and Samford in the ninth, but Alfonso Gerard drilled a pinch-hit single, followed by Zimmer’s two-run homer, to tie the game (6-6).15

Clemente drew a two-out walk. Bobby Bragan, Almendares’ skipper, summoned Al Lyons to pitch. Mays singled to right, and Clemente never stopped running. Right fielder Lee Walls bobbled the ball but got it to second baseman Al Federoff, who threw it wide of the plate.16 “That winning run by Clemente from first was terrific,” recalled Zimmer. “What a great effort!”17

Clemente’s two triples vs. Carta Vieja on February 14, after Magallanes beat Almendares, propelled Santurce and Bill Greason to an 11-3 series-clinching win. His first three-bagger sparked a three-run rally in the top of the first, followed by a third-inning triple. The Crabbers lost a meaningless game to Magallanes the next night.18

Table I has Clemente’s hitting stats. He scored one-fourth of Santurce’s 32 runs, per Table I. The Crabbers’ winning share was $650 apiece. Total attendance was 122,000, with $206,000 in gate receipts.19 Zimmer, the Series MVP, called these Crabbers “the greatest Winter League ballclub ever assembled.” He got emotional recalling Clemente as a Santurce teammate and someone he managed with the 1967-68 San Juan Senators. “I appreciated his hustle and dedication as a Santurce teammate, and as someone I managed with San Juan.”20

Thurman, a Santurce role model for Clemente in 1952-1956 during 3½ Winter League seasons, noted, “We were just like a big family; everyone would do something for somebody else.… It just jelled ‘cause we had the talent to play the game. I often thought that we could beat any major-league club with the set-up we had. Roberto played left field because I had a better throwing arm than he did.”21

Clemente arrived at Santurce’s Isla Grande Airport at 3:26 P.M. on February 16. Over 50,000 fans waited for the plane’s arrival. Enriqueta Marcano Zorrilla recalled that “Santurce, Campeón Séptima Serie del Caribe” (Santurce Champion Seventh Caribbean Series) was inscribed on the plane.22 A day earlier, Pedrín Zorrilla received this congratulatory telegram from Puerto Rican governor Luis Muñoz Marín: “I commend Puerto Rico’s representative for their resounding triumph.… It exemplifies the fighting spirit of our people.”23

The championship and welcome home concluded a special winter for Clemente, who led all 1955 Caribbean Series players with eight runs scored, including the game-winning dash from first on Mays’ single on February 13. Clemente developed a special bond with Mays, via late-morning practices during the 1954-55 season at Sixto Escobar Stadium, with Luis Olmo, Franks, and batboy Orlando Cepeda, who also attended these practices.24

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Herman Franks, Bob Thurman, and Don Zimmer for their thoughts and insights on Clemente and the 1955 Caribbean Series. Enriqueta Marcano Zorrilla shared firsthand observations. Jorge Colón Delgado furnished Clemente reference materials.

NOTES

1 Caribbean Series teams from Phase I (1949-1960) through Phase II (1970-present) tend to represent League All-Star Teams, instead of the ballclub that won the given country’s postseason series. The 1954-55 Santurce Crabbers were an exception since they did not reinforce themselves with players from the four other Puerto Rico Winter League teams, unlike their opponents from Cuba, Panamá, and Venezuela.

2 Herman Franks interview with Thomas Van Hyning, December 14, 1998.

3 Hosts rotated among the four countries, with Venezuela hosting the 1951, 1955, and 1959 events, held in February. h​ttps:​//www​.1800​beisb​ol.co​m/bas​eball​/depo​rtes/​serie​_del_​carib​e/ven​ezuel​a_pri​mera_​etapa​_de_l​a_ser​ie_de​l_​car​ibe/, accessed February 17, 2022. Phase I was the first 12 Caribbean Series events, February 1949 through February 1960. A separate Phase II began in February 1970 and continues through today. The February 1981 Caribbean Series was canceled due to a players strike in Venezuela. The Caribbean Series was discontinued from 1961 to 1969. Another series: Inter-American Series, took place, from 1961-1964, plus a February 1965 Series between two Dominican and two Venezuelan teams. But there have been only two Caribbean Series phases: I and II.

4 The Caribbean Confederation coordinates and runs this annual event. It dictates who the host country is; team roster limits; and many other particulars. Six countries have competed in this event since February 2019. Currently, Colombia (2020-present), Mexico (1971-present), and the Dominican Republic (1970-present), Panamá, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela play a five-game round-robin, followed by the semifinals and finals.

5 Jorge Colón Delgado, La Maquinaria Perfecta (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2007), 169.

6 Franklin E. Whaite, “Latin Championship Tournament Proves Another Giant Romp,” The Sporting News, February 23, 1955: 28. Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez, Venezuela’s president, threw out the first pitch. The author and Pérez Jiménez’s son were co-workers in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1979. And the author was a Santurce, Puerto Rico, grade-school classmate of Rafael Gómez, son of Rubén Gómez.

7 Whaite: 28.

8 Monzant was a workhorse; Franks appreciated his work ethic and dedication to his craft. h​ttps:​//www​.pelo​tabin​aria.​com.v​e/bei​sbol/​mostr​ar.ph​p?ID=​monzr​am​001, accessed February 18, 2022.

9 Colón Delgado, 149.

10 Colón Delgado, 150.

11 Colón Delgado, 150.

12 Enriqueta Marcano Zorrilla interview with Thomas Van Hyning, Santurce, Puerto Rico, November 1997.

13 Thomas E. Van Hyning, The Santurce Crabbers: Sixty Seasons of Puerto Rican Winter League Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 1999), 70.

14 Colón Delgado, 154.

15 Van Hyning, 70.

16 Van Hyning, 70.

17 Don Zimmer interview with Thomas Van Hyning, Winter Haven, Florida, March 1992.

18 Whaite, 30.

19 Whaite 27.

20 Zimmer interview, March 1992.

21 Bob Thurman appearance with Thomas Van Hyning, sports radio talk show, Ponce, Puerto Rico, October 1991.

22 Marcano Zorrilla, 1997.

23 Van Hyning, 71.

24 Franks hit flies and grounders to Mays, Clemente, and Olmo, who in turn threw the ball back to Cepeda, one of Santurce’s 1954-55 batboys. This created a bond between Clemente and Mays, who wanted Roberto to charge the ball more efficiently and release the throw more quickly. Matt Monagan, “Mays, Clemente in the Same Outfield? It Happened: The Two Legends Won a Championship Together in Puerto Rico.” h​ttps:​//www​.mlb.​com/n​ews/w​illie​-mays​-and-​rober​to-cl​ement​e-on-​same-​team, accessed February 16, 2022. See Thomas Van Hyning, “Roberto Clemente’s Puerto Rico Winter League Career (Part 1),” in Bill Nowlin and Glen Sparks, eds., “¡Arriba!”: The Heroic Life of Roberto Clemente (Phoenix: SABR, 2022).