Ozzie Virgil, Sr. Was a Baseball Pioneer

 

Former MLB player and coach Ozzie Virgil, Sr. passed away on September 29th at the age of 92. 

Virgil's passing would be overshadowed by that of Pete Rose the following day. Yet Virgil was a baseball pioneer becoming the first Dominican born player in MLB history when he took the field for the New York Giants in 1956. Two years later, Virgil would make history again as the first player of color to wear a Detroit Tigers uniform although he would lament not being accepted by Detroit's African-American community. The Tigers were the second last in MLB to integrate. Only the Boston Red Sox held out until Pumpsie Green joined the team in 1959. 

Virgil would play parts of 9 seasons primarily as a utility player in MLB also wearing a Kansas City A's, Baltimore Orioles and a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform before returning to the Giants who by this time were in San Francisco. Finishing his playing career in 1969, Virgil played in 324 games collecting 174 hits for a lifetime batting average of. 231 with 14 HR and 73 RBI. 

My first memory of Virgil was as the third base coach for the Montreal Expos in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Virgil was manager Dick Williams' right hand man and would follow him to San Diego where he was part of the Padres' 1984 NL pennant winning team before moving onto the Seattle Mariners. 

I also remember Virgil's son Ozzie, Jr. who was a catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays and played in the 1983 World Series with the NL champion Phillies alongside the late Pete Rose. 

In Ozzie, Sr.'s later years, he worked for the New York Mets in the Dominican Summer League. In September 2018, when he was 86, the Mets made Virgil an honorary coach for one game in honor of his service to the team and to baseball. 

Baseball might have once been the American national pastime. But the game is far more revered in the Dominican Republic. If one sees baseball on TV in a business establishment which is not a bar there's a very good chance that establishment is Dominican owned. Ozzie Virgil, Sr. is the lynchpin of that passion and reverence.

Last year, the Negro League Baseball Museum held a traveling exhibit called "Breaking Barriers - From Jackie to Pumpsie: 1947-1959" and, in Ozzie Virgil, Sr.'s memory, I have highlighted the picture I took of exhibit. R.I.P.