Tony Peña

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For other baseball players named Tony Peña, see Tony Peña (disambiguation).

Antonio Francisco Peña Padilla, widely known as Tony Peña [PAY-nyah] (born June 4, 1957 in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic) is a former Major League Baseball catcher. He was the manager of the Kansas City Royals between 2002 and 2005. He currently is a coach on the New York Yankees. He is the father of Tony Peña, Jr. who plays for the Kansas City Royals.

[edit] Playing career

As a player, Peña was known for his defensive skills with the Pirates, Cardinals, Red Sox, Indians, White Sox and Astros. He won four Gold Glove Awards and was a five-time All-Star. He was known for his habit of sitting on the ground when there were no runners on base, one leg splayed out to the side, in an arrangement some call the hurdler's position. He did this in order to help his pitchers keep their pitches low in the strike zone.

For the National League Championship Series and World Series in 1987, he hit 17-for-43 in that postseason, with 4 RBIs in the WS.

While playing for the Indians in the opening game of the 1995 American League Division Series, he hit a game-winning homer against his former team the Boston Red Sox.

In his career, he was a .260 batter with 107 home runs and 708 RBIs in 1988 games. He had 1687 hits in 6489 at bats.

[edit] Coaching and managerial career

Peña led Águilas Cibaeñas, a professional baseball team in his native Dominican Republic's winter league, to two domestic championships (1998 and 2000) and a 2001 Caribbean World Series title.

Hired by the Royals in 2002 to replace Tony Muser (John Mizerock had served as interim manager), Peña took fans for a ride in 2003, taking a 7-game lead by the All-Star break before settling into a third-place finish in the American League Central Division, with a record of 83-79. It was their first season with a winning record since the strike-shortened 1994 season, and Peña was rewarded with the American League Manager of the Year trophy.

Peña's Royals were less successful in 2004, finishing in last place in the Central Division of the American League with 104 losses. He resigned as manager of the Royals after a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on May 10, 2005, as the Royals had the worst record in the American League at 8-25.^[1] He was replaced by interim manager Bob Schaefer.

On November 3, 2005, Peña was named first base coach of the New York Yankees. On October 21, 2007, the Yankees announced that Peña would interview to replace Joe Torre as manager.^[2] The Yankees neglected to go with Peña instead chosing former catcher Joe Girardi. ^[3]

He is the father of Kansas City Royals shortstop Tony Francisco Peña (mistakenly known as "Tony, Jr."), as well as New York Mets minor league player Francisco Peña, a 16-year-old prospect signed on July 9, 2006.

[edit] Trivia

• Peña was the MVP of the 1986 Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series.
• During a game against the Toronto Blue Jays on August 7th, 2007, Alex Rodriguez was hit by a pitch by Blue Jays pitcher Josh Towers. After the benches cleared for the first time, Josh heard Tony Peña "chirping" him which led to the benches clearing again. After the game Towers called Peña a "quitter," referring to his resignation as the Kansas City Royals' manager in 2005, and said he is not in a position to run his mouth. Towers lost the game and was moved later in the week to the bullpen.

[edit] See also

• Players from Dominican Republic in MLB
• Chicago White Sox all-time roster

[edit] References

1. ^ Recap: Toronto 3, Kansas City 1 (May 10, 2005). Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
2. ^ Girardi, Mattingly, Pena invited to interview with Yanks (October 22, 2007). Retrieved on October 21, 2007.
3. ^ {{citeweb|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3085167|title=Source: Girardi expected to accept Yankees' offer||accessmonthday=October 29|

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube