Héctor Espino

Héctor Espino González (sometimes called "The Babe Ruth of Mexico") (June 6, 1939 in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico – September 7, 1997 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico) is considered the greatest player in the history of the Mexican League. With 484 home runs, he is the all-time minor-league home run king; 481 of those homers came in Mexico and 453 in the Mexican League.

Mexican League career

A right-hander, Espino broke in in the Mexican League in 1962 with Monterrey. That year he hit 23 homers and 12 triples, drove in 105 runs (tieing for the league lead) and scored 106 runs while batting .358. He was named Rookie of the Year. A year later he slipped a bit to .346.

In 1964 Espino won his first Mexican League batting title, with a .371 average. He hit 46 home runs, scored 115 and drove in 117. His run total was the third highest in Mexican League history (behind only Bobby Avila and Cool Papa Bell). He set a new home run record, surpassing Ronnie Camacho's 39. He also set a record with 30 intentional walks, and his 332 total bases were second-best in league history.

That drew the attention of the St. Louis Cardinals, who signed Espino late in the year and sent him to their AAA club, the Jacksonville Suns. Espino did well there, hitting .300 with 3 homers in 32 games, but he would never play outside the Mexican League again. Sources list several different reasons and "Total Baseball" reports that Espino himself gave different ones. "Total Baseball" says that Espino might have liked being a big fish in a small pond; some said homesickness; Mexican League writer Bruce Baskin says that racism discouraged Espino from playing in the US.

In 1965, the Cardinals invited Espino to spring training, but he did not report. Jamie Marshall writes that it was because Espino wanted a "fair share of the sale price." He hit .335 with 17 HR in just 67 games in the Mexican League that year. In '66, back in full time duty, he hit a league-leading .369, beating out Minnie Miñoso by 21 points. He was second in the league with 31 homers and third with 91 walks. He did this despite missing two road series due to conflicts with his manager.

In 1967 and 1968 Espino repeated as batting champ with marks of .379 and .365. He hit 34 homers, slugged .706 and scored 106 in '67; in '68 he won his second home run title with 27. His fourth batting title tied Al Pinkston for the Mexican League record. In the late '60s, the California Angels tried to sign Espino several times without success.

He moved to Tampico in 1971. In 1972 he bounced back to a .356 and his fourth and final home run title (37). He also scored 101 runs and had 101 RBI, with a league-high 94 walks. A year later his average rose again, to .377; he won his fifth and final Mexican League batting championship and drove in 107 runs. He hit 22 homers; while it was 15 fewer than his previous season, the 34-year old slugger would never again hit as many. Over the next 7 seasons he remained in double digit homers, reaching 20 once, though he remained a .300 hitter through 1980 except for one .297 season.

In 1980, he set a Mexican League record with hits in 11 straight at-bats. His stats declined drastically in his 40s. He retired at the age of 45.

Winter league

Espino was also a winter league superstar. He hit .329 in winter league ball, with 299 home runs and 1029 RBI; in 1976 he led the Mexican entry to its first Caribbean Series win; he played in six Caribbean Series. He would make the Caribbean Hall of Fame. He won 13 batting titles in 24 years in winter ball. He is the only player in the history of the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico (Mexican Pacific League) with a career average over .300. (The next player, Matias Carrillo, is 36 points behind Espino).

In 1988 Espino was selected for the Salón de la Fama (Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame).

Héctor Espino died of a heart attack in 1997.

Evaluation

Nelson Barrera broke Espino's Mexican League home run record (455 to 453) but did not break his all-time minor league home run title. Espino's other records fell over the years — Jack Pierce broke his season HR record in 1986, Jesús Sommers and Frank Estrada broke his record for seasons played, Sommers took over the games played record, Daniel Fernández broke his career run record (1,479), Sommers and Barrera broke his hit record (2,752), Sommers was one of several to break his double record (373), Barrera broke his RBI record, Espino had never caught Camacho in walks (1,330 to 1,441) and Barrera broke his total bases record (4,574). Only his intentional walk records — 53 in a season (1969) and 408 career (over 200 more than #2 Barrera) — have not been approached. In addition, no one has yet broken his minor league home run record.

It should also be noted that the offensive levels in Mexico rose significantly after Espino retired - Barrera, Fernández and Sommers (while all overlapping Espino's career somewhat) all played in a much more friendly era for hitters.

References

*This article is derived from [http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Hector_Espino "Hector Espino"] at Bullpen at Baseball-reference.com
*"The Mexican League: Comprehensive Player Statistics" by Pedro Treto Cisneros
*"Great Baseball Feats, Facts & Firsts" by David Nemec
*"Viva Beisbol!" newsletter by Bruce Baskin
*"Total Baseball"

External links

*es icon [http://www.salondelafama.com.mx/salondelafama/trono/alfasf.asp?x=82 Salon de la Fama page for Espino]