Sandy Amorós

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Edmundo "Sandy" Amorós (January 30, 1930 - June 27, 1992) was a Cuban left fielder in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers. Amorós was born in Havana. He both batted and threw left-handed.

Amorós had a brief and unremarkable career in the Major Leagues except for one defining moment with the Brooklyn Dodgers, one of the most memorable events in World Series history. It was the sixth inning of Game 7 of the 1955 World Series. The Dodgers had never won a World Series in their history and were now trying to hold a 2-0 lead against their perennial rivals, the New York Yankees. The left-handed Amorós came into the game that inning as a defensive replacement, as the right-handed Jim Gilliam moved from left field to second base in place of Don Zimmer. The first two batters in the inning reached base and Yogi Berra came to the plate. Berra, notorious for swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, hit an opposite-field shot toward the left field corner that looked to be a sure double, as the Brooklyn outfield had just shifted to the right. Amorós seemingly came out of nowhere, extended his gloved right hand to catch the ball and immediately skidded to a halt to avoid crashing into the fence near Yankee Stadium's 301 distance marker in the left field corner. He then threw to the relay man, shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who in turn threw to first baseman Gil Hodges, doubling Gil McDougald off first. The Yankees rally was stymied. Hank Bauer grounded out to end the inning. Berra came to bat in the eighth in a similar situation, with two men on but two outs, and ended the inning with a harmless fly to right. The Yankees went quietly in the ninth, and the Brooklyn Dodgers had their first (and only) World Championship.

After baseball, Amorós became a prosperous rancher in Cuba, but the coming of Fidel Castro forced him to flee to Miami, Florida.^{[dubious – discuss]} The Cuban's last season in the majors was 1960. He then fell on hard times. As author Roberto González Echevarría notes in his book The Pride of Havana (1999), "For many players, the collapse of the Cuban League had tragic consequences. The diaspora began. Amorós, for instance, returned to Cuba broke, and could not leave for many years, during which he became an alcoholic and eventually a diabetic. When he did leave, the Dodgers put him on their roster for the few days he needed for his pension."

It was 1967 when Amorós finally left for Miami, Florida. He lived in poverty and increasing ill health until his death from pneumonia. In a sad irony, he had been scheduled to travel to Brooklyn for a day in his honor and an appearance with Yogi Berra at a baseball-card show that would have earned him a little money.

[edit] See also

• List of Cubans
• List of players from Cuba in Major League Baseball

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Kodak Presents - Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments: Sandy Amoros' Catch and Throw in the 1955 World Series