The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James

Author:Bill James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: FREE PRESS
Published: 2001-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

36 ♦ Bobby Avila

(1949–1959, 1300 G, 80 467 .281)

Lockman bunted the ball past the pitcher’s mound and toward second base, the kind of bunt that is usually impossible to field, and… Lockman is a speedy man. So I yelled, “Attaboy, Whitey,” and then I watched in stunned silence as Bobby Avila swooped down, picked up the ball on the dead run, and threw Lockman out at first.—Arnold Hano, A Day in the Bleachers (Crowell, 1955)

Avila was born in Vera Cruz, Mexico on April 2, 1924, the ninth and last child of a well-to-do lawyer. A soccer star as a youth, Avila was encouraged to try baseball by an older brother. At Vera Cruz Preparatory High School he pitched and played shortstop, and found an old book on playing baseball by Jack Coombs, which he studied at length. At the age of sixteen he played professional soccer, earning fifty dollars a month, and dreamed of perhaps being a great bullfighter.

His father wanted Roberto to become a professional man. “Some day they will kick your head instead of the ball,” he told Roberto, “and I will be hauled into court for having a son with rocks where his brains should be.” Over his father’s objections Avila signed as a third baseman for Cordoba in the Vera Cruz State League, which operated during the off-season of the dominant Mexican League, and soon moved up to the Mexican major. He batted .250 in his rookie season there, but then improved to .334, .336, .360, and .347.

In 1946 Jorge Pasquel induced a number of quality major-league players to defect to Mexico. When Avila saw the Americans play, he knew that he could make it in North American baseball. “He’s a real nice little guy and a helluva hitter,” said Sal Maglie in 1950, recalling Avila from the Mexican League. “He’s so good I think I will knock him down with my first pitch, just to be on the safe side.”

In the winter of 1946–47 Avila played in Cuba, where Leo Durocher was impressed enough to offer Avila $10,000 to sign with the Dodgers. Avila, hardly the stereotype of a hungry Latin player, turned the offer down and also rejected overtures from the Senators’ famous man in Havana, Joe Cambria. Another legendary scout, the Indians’ Cy Slapnicka, met with him in Mexico City, where Avila demanded $17,500 to sign. Slapnicka reportedly had been prepared to go much higher.

With Baltimore, Cleveland’s top farm team in 1947, Avila batted a mere .220. He spoke no English, and his manager recalled that it took him a month to get Avila to understand that he needed to report to the park in time for batting and fielding drills; in the Mexican League, they just showed up and played the games. In the field he seemed lethargic. The Orioles team doctor examined him and found a severe hernia; going home to Vera Cruz in mid-season, he was operated on by one of his older brothers. Adding to a miserable season, Avila’s father died suddenly of a heart attack in the fall of 1948.

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