Vince Gonzales
From BR Bullpen
Wenceslao Gonzales O'Reilly
- Bats Left, Throws Left
- Height 6' 1", Weight 165 lb.
- Debut April 13, 1955
- Final Game April 13, 1955
- Born September 28, 1925 in Quivican, Cuba
- Died March 11, 1981 in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche Mexico
[edit] Biographical Information
Vince Gonzales was a pitcher for 22 years (1948-1969), all in the minors except for a cup of coffee in 1955. He served for the Cuban Navy during World War II (WK). He broke into Organized Baseball in 1948 at age 22 and played for Veracruz in the Mexican League (MX) (1948); the Mexico City Red Devils (MX) (1949-1950); San Luis Potosi (MX) (1951); Juarez in the Southwest International League (1951); and Juarez in the Arizona-Texas League (1952-1954).
Signed by scout Joe Cambria of the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent on January 28, 1955 he was 29 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 13, 1955 with the Senators. He pitched only one game in mopup relief, which he finished, striking out 1 and walking 3 in 2 innings pitched with an ERA of 27.00 and a WHIP of 4.500. On April 19, 1955 he was released by the Senators and returned to the minors.
He played with the Devils (1955); Nogales in the Arizona-Mexico League (1955-1956); the Devils (1957-1958); Puebla (MX) (1960-1961); the Devils (1963); Monterrey (MX) (1964); and Carmen in the Mexican Southeast League (1969); ending his baseball career at age 43.
In 1951, his best year in the minors, he was 32-11 with an ERA of 2.76. Overall in the minors, he was 175-124.
[edit] Sources
Principal sources for Vince Gonzales include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) ; and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.
