Sandy Nava

Infobox MLB retired
name=Sandy Nava
position=Catcher


bgcolor1=#263473
bgcolor2=#A50024
textcolor1=white
textcolor2=white
bats=Unknown
throws=Unknown
birthdate=April 12 1850
city-state|San Francisco|California
deathdate=death date and age|1906|6|15|1850|4|12
city-state|Baltimore|Maryland
debutdate= May 5
debutyear= by|1882
debutteam= Providence Grays
finaldate= June 29
finalyear= by|1886
finalteam= Baltimore Orioles
stat1label=Batting average
stat1value=.177
stat2label=Runs scored
stat2value=45
stat3label=RBIs
stat3value=33
teams=
* Providence Grays (by|1882–by|1884)
* Baltimore Orioles (by|1885–by|1886)
highlights=

Vincent P. "Sandy" Nava (April 12 1850 – June 15 1906) was an American 19th century Major League Baseball player for five seasons from by|1882 through by|1886.cite web| title = Sandy Nava's Stats | work = retrosheet.org | url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/N/Pnavas101.htm | accessdate = 2008-06-12 ] Nava was the first known Mexican American and second Hispanic baseball player to play in the Majors, behind Esteban Bellan.cite web| title = Baseball Toaster: The Griddle : Book Review: Playing America's Game | work = griddle.baseballtoaster.com | url=http://griddle.baseballtoaster.com/archives/813072.html | accessdate = 2008-06-12]

Career

Born as Vincent Irwin in San Francisco, California, Sandy made his Major League debut for the 1882 Providence Grays as a catcher. He was brought in to be fellow San Francisco native Charlie Sweeney's catcher.cite web| title = Old Grays: Vincent "Sandy" Nava, Extra Catcher | work = providencegrays.org | url=http://providencegrays.org/Old_Grays/Vincent_Nava/vincent_nava.html | accessdate = 2008-06-12] Nava history in professional baseball showed two sides, when he was growing up in San Francisco, he apparently tried to hide his Mexican heritage and went by names like Irwin Sandy or Vincent Irwin, but when he came to the East Coast, he returned to his name of Nava and the Providence team tried to promote his "Spanish" heritage.

He played in 28 games his rookie season, and batted .206, while scoring 15 runs. He returned to the Grays for two more seasons, continuing to be the back-up catcher to Barney Gilligan, having his best year in by|1883 when he batted .240 and scored 18 runs in 29 games. Even though he didn't hit well, he stayed on as Sweeney's personal catcher, until Sweeney was expelled from the team by refusing to leave a game in favor of Cyclone Miller. The team decided to leave Nava and Miller behind on a road trip and later loaned them to a military team in Fort Monroe, Virginia.

For the by|1884 and by|1885 seasons, Nava played for the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association, and played in just 10 games in those two years before leaving the Majors.

Post-career

Nava was of Mexican descent, however, he was identified as Black, Indian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Cuban throughout his baseball career. Nava died in Baltimore, Maryland at the age of 55, and is interred at Trinity Cemetery in Baltimore, a segregated cemetery.cite web| title = Mario Longoria: Current research project(s) | work = colfa.utsa.edu | url=http://colfa.utsa.edu/ecpc/teaching_assistants/longoria.htm | accessdate = 2008-06-12]

References

External links

*baseball-reference|id=n/navasa01