Giants Celebrate Hispanic Players

6/23/2002 9:41 pm ET. MBL.com

see a direct reflection on being a baseball player. And they can see it daily, when you've got a Sammy Sosa that came from your area and a Felix Rodriguez and Moises Alou ... and Omar Vizquel in his country [Venezuela]. It's still quite visible and the dream appears to be more of a reality. So success breeds hope for the kids."

"That's one reason why Cepeda has backed the plan by Gabriel "Tito" Avila to create the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum, eventually scheduled to be built across the street from Pacific Bell Park.

"It's good for the fans to know where we come from, what we did," said Fuentes, who was born in Cuba and now resides in Nevada. "You're talking about [Roberto] Clemente, [Luis] Aparicio and all these exceptional players, so by doing that, when people come to the ballgame, across the street, they're going to see how we played ... because otherwise they never would have known that.

"Fans in attendance Sunday got a glimpse of some of the great Latin players in Giants history, and the date was not a coincidence. It was three years ago to the day that the museum was incorporated, and the celebration was evident throughout the stadium. The first 20,000 fans received bobblehead dolls with Cepeda's likeness, and the third-inning PA announcement of the players, which is usually done by children, was announced in both English and Spanish.

According to Avila, almost 30 percent of Major League players are Hispanic, but it has become clear that the distribution of talent is uneven. Both Fuentes and Uribe believe that baseball should institute a worldwide draft where players from all countries are included in the June selection process, but they differ in their reasoning behind the idea.

"Always the big fish is going to eat the little fish," said Fuentes, echoing the belief that large-market teams have the ability to sign players from overseas, while teams with less money are unable to do.

"It gives them more opportunity because a lot of times, [Latin players] only get three or four years and then they let you go," said Uribe, who hails from the Dominican Republic. "But when you draft a player, you give him a little bit more time, like five years.

"While the prospect of a worldwide draft remains to be seen, there is one thing that cannot be denied and that is the vast and incredible contributions of Latin players to the game and history of baseball.

Josh Rawitch covers the Giants for MLB.com and can be reached at jrawitch@sfgiants.com.

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By Josh Rawitch / MBL.com

The Orioles' Tony Batista (left) and Willis Roberts (right) join Felix Rodriguez in honoring former Giants shortstop Jose Uribe. (Susan Ragan/AP)

SAN FRANCISCO -- It was only fitting that Sunday afternoon at Pacific Bell Park, Cuban Livan Hernandez was the starting pitcher for the Giants, taking the mound just minutes after his Latin predecessors were honored with Hispanic Pioneer Awards.

The ceremony, which was emceed by fellow Cuban and Giants Spanish broadcaster Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, brought together six former San Francisco players who were born in Latin America. They were Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, Valmy Thomas, Jose Pagan, Matty Alou, Tito Fuentes and Jose Uribe.

"This is going to be happy and very sentimental," said Fuentes, who is considered one of the most popular players ever to play in San Francisco when he was a Giants second baseman in the 1970s. "To see these guys again after so long, it's been more than 30 years and ... I can't wait for the moment."

The moment to which he was referring was their introduction on the field, which brought cheers from the capacity crowd at the ballpark. At the end of the ceremony, all of the Latin players and coaches from the Giants and Orioles were invited to join the honorees on the field. The event was one that pleased Giants manager Dusty Baker.

"Baseball's really the Latin American pastime, and it's probably economically the easiest one to afford that everybody can play," said Baker, who speaks Spanish. "Also, it's the one that really points to rags to riches in a lot of situations, where the kids can