Dave Concepcíon

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David Ismael Concepcíon Benitez (Davey)

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 180 lb.

Debut April 6, 1970
Final Game September 15, 1988
Born June 17, 1948 in Ocumare de la Costa, Aragua, Venezuela

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[edit] Biographical Information

Davey Concepcíon was considered by many to be the best shortstop of the 1970s. He spent his entire 19-year career with the Cincinnati Reds. A key part of the Big Red Machine teams, he won five Gold Gloves, was named to nine All-Star teams, and was a member of the 1975 and 1976 World Series champions.

Concepcion in his tenure with the Reds outlasted all of the other regular position players from the Big Red Machine, so in the second half of his career he was often the # 3 hitter in the batting order on teams that lacked the power of the Big Red Machine. While he hit 101 home runs in his career, mostly he had doubles power, with 389 lifetime. In the strike-shortened 1981 season, he was fourth in the MVP voting, finishing in the top five in the league in both doubles and in RBI.

He stole 321 bases in his 19 years, with a peak in 1974 when he stole 41 and got caught only 6 times.

In BBWAA Hall of Fame voting, Concepcion has regularly gotten 10-15% of the vote, with his highest total being 17%. He received 16.2% in 2008, which was his last year on the BBWAA ballot, so he will have to wait for the Veterans Committee.

Four of the ten most similar players (according to the similarity scores method and as of August 2007) are in the Hall of Fame.

In August 2007, Concepcion's #13 was retired by the Cincinnati Reds.

Barry Larkin's career overlapped slightly with that of Concepcion, so Reds fans had a great shortstop for virtually all the time from 1970-2004 except when one of them was injured. Concepcion ended up with 2,178 games at shortstop, while Larkin ended up with 2,085.