Mike González (catcher)

Miguel Angel González Cordero (September 24, 1890 - February 19, 1977) was a Cuban catcher, coach and interim manager in American Major League Baseball during the first half of the 20th century. Along with Adolfo Luque, González was one of the first Cubans or Latin Americans to have a long off-field career in the U.S. major leagues.

Born in Havana, González played winter baseball in the Cuban League from 1910 to 1936 and was a long-time manager. He was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.^[1]

United States

González, a right-handed-hitting catcher, made his National League debut with the 1912 Boston Braves, playing only one game. During that time he played "Negro baseball" with integrated teams from Cuba, the Cuban Stars in 1911, 1912 and 1914; the Long Branch Cubans in 1913. During his organized baseball career he appeared with the New York Lincoln Giants in 1916 (Riley, 326).

González returned to the major leagues with the Cincinnati Reds sometime in 1914 and went on to play 16 more seasons (1914–21; 1924–29; 1931–32) with the St. Louis Cardinals (in three separate stints), New York Giants and Chicago Cubs, batting .253 in 1,042 games. He appeared in one World Series - 1929 with the Cubs - and was hitless in his only at-bat.

In 1933, he became a coach for the Cardinals' American Association farm club, the Columbus Red Birds, and joined the St. Louis coaching staff in 1934 under manager Frankie Frisch. It was the year of the "Gashouse Gang," the hard-playing Cardinal team that stormed to the NL pennant and a seven-game Fall Classic triumph over the Detroit Tigers.

González coached under Frisch until September 1938, when Frisch was fired. Gonzalez then took the helm for the final 16 games of the season, leading the Cardinals to an 8-8 record. He resumed his coaching role under Ray Blades the following season, but again became the Cards' acting pilot in June 1940, serving between Blades and his permanent successor, Billy Southworth. Overall, Gonzalez' major league managing record was nine wins and 13 defeats (.409).

González continued on the Cardinals' coaching lines through 1946. In the bottom of the eighth inning of his final game, the seventh and deciding contest of the 1946 World Series, Gonzalez was coaching at third base when Enos Slaughter raced home from first base on a single by Harry Walker. "Slaughter's Mad Dash" scored the winning run and earned the Cardinals the world championship. Although films taken of the play appear to show González waving Slaughter in, other accounts report that Slaughter ignored the coach's stop sign and took home on his own initiative.

González is credited with contributing a lasting piece of baseball terminology. Asked by the Cardinals to scout a winter league player, González judged that the player was outstanding defensively but a liability as a batter. He wired back a four-word scouting report: "Good field, no hit." That phrase is still in use today.

Cuba

González debuted in 1910 as a shortstop for the Fé club. He was a part-time infielder his first three seasons before switching to catcher and gaining a full-time roster spot with Habana in the winter of 1913. He hit .313 in 1918/19, .296 in 1927/28, and led the league in 1932/33 with an average of .432.^[2]

In 1914/15 he became Habana's playing manager and led the team to a championship. It was the first of 13 championships he won at the helm of the team (the others were in 1918/19, 1920/21, 1921/, 1926/27, 1927/28, 1928/29, 1940/41, 1943/44, 1947/48, 1950/51, 1951/52, and 1952/53). Cuban baseball historian Jorge Figueredo calls his 1927/28 Habana team, which included Jud Wilson, Martín Dihigo, Chino Smith, Alejandro Oms, Ramón Herrera, and Manuel Cueto, "probably the best they ever had in their illustrious history."^[3]

González retired as Habana's League manager after the 1952/53 season and in retirement remained in his native country. After the Cuban Revolution brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959, and the ensuing chill in relations between Cuba and the U.S., González remained in Cuba, where he was cut off from his old friends and associates in American baseball. He died in Havana at age 86 in 1977.

Notes

References

• Figueredo, Jorge S. (2003), Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878–1961, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, ISBN 078641250X .
• Riley, James A. (2002). The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. 2nd edition. New York: Carroll & Graf Publ. ISBN 0-7867-0959-6.
• Spink, J.G. Taylor, ed. The Baseball Register, 1946 edition. St. Louis: C.C. Spink and Son.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference