Tito Fuentes

Infobox MLB retired
bgcolor1=#fd5a1e
bgcolor2=black
textcolor1=white
textcolor2=white
name=Tito Fuentes


position=Second Baseman
bats=Switch
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1944|1|4
deathdate=
debutdate=August 18
debutyear=by|1965
debutteam=San Francisco Giants
finaldate=July 9
finalyear=1978
finalteam=Oakland Athletics
stat1label=Batting Average
stat1value=.268
stat2label=Hits
stat2value=1491
stat3label=Runs Batted In
stat3value=438
teams=
*San Francisco Giants (by|1965-by|1974)
*San Diego Padres (by|1975-by|1976)
*Detroit Tigers (by|1977)
*Oakland Athletics (by|1978)
highlights=

Rigoberto "Tito" Fuentes Peat (born January 4, 1944 in Havana, Cuba) is a retired second baseman who played for 13 seasons in the Major Leagues between 1965 and 1978. Fuentes played for most of his career with the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants initially signed Fuentes as an 18-year-old amateur before the start of the 1962 season. He was one of the last baseball players signed directly out of Cuba before the United States embargo against Cuba.

Originally debuting in the majors 1965 as a late-season call-up, Fuentes split time between second base and shortstop as a rookie in 1966. He batted .261 in his maiden year while playing solid defense at both positions. [cite web|url=http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1966.shtml#NLroy|title=Awards Voting for 1966|accessdate=2007-05-22|publisher=Baseball-Reference.com] He slumped to batting .209 the following year, and subsequently, he spent all of 1968 in the minor leagues.

Fuentes returned to the Giants in 1969 and spent the next two seasons as a "utility infielder" before re-gaining his starting spot at second base in 1971. He appeared in the postseason during the 1971 season as his Giants won the NL West title; his two-run home run in Game 1 of the 1971 NLCS helped San Francisco take an early series lead against the Pittsburgh Pirates, [cite web|url=http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/history/sf_history_timeline_article.jsp?article=29|title=The Official Site of The San Francisco Giants: History: Timeline - 1971|accessdate=2007-05-22|publisher=San Francisco Giants] , but that would turn out to be the Giants' only win of the best-of-five series.

Fuentes continued to be the Giants' second baseman for 3 more seasons. In 1973, he set a National League record for by recording a .993 fielding percentage, the highest for any regular second baseman in league history. [cite web|url=http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Tito_Fuentes_1944|title=The Ballplayers - Tito Fuentes|last=Charnin-Aker|first=Jane|accessdate=2007-05-22|publisher=BaseballLibrary.com] Ironically, Fuentes had led all National League second basemen in errors during the previous two seasons before setting the new record for excellence. His record stood for 13 seasons before Ryne Sandberg recorded a .994 percentage at second in 1986.

After the 1974 season, San Francisco traded Fuentes and the future Rookie of the Year, Butch Metzger, to the San Diego Padres for another second baseman, Derrel Thomas. Tito played for two seasons in San Diego before leaving as a free agent.

In 1977, Fuentes played with the Detroit Tigers and had a career-best .309 batting average. Despite having his best season, he was not brought back in 1978 (since the Tigers had a young Lou Whitaker waiting in the wings). The Montreal Expos then purchased his contract. Before the start of the season, however, Fuentes was released. During the year, he signed with the Oakland Athletics, but he was released again after batting just .140 in only 13 games. He retired shortly afterwards.

Fuentes returned to the Giants as a radio announcer in 1981, the team's first year of Spanish language radio broadcasts, initially serving in this role until 1992. In 2004, Fuentes was brought back as an analyst, and he remains with the team in this role today. [cite web|url=http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/team/broadcasters.jsp?c_id=sf|title=The Official Site of The San Francisco Giants: Team: Broadcasters|accessdate=2007-05-22|publisher=San Francisco Giants]

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