Yankees Mag: Who was Pedro González?

After hitting .326 in 19 Grapefruit League games, Pedro González stood near home plate at Fort Lauderdale Stadium and humbly accepted the praise of his manager, Ralph Houk. Jerry Coleman, beginning his first full season as a Yankees broadcaster, helped present the 1963 James P. Dawson Award -- bestowed annually since 1956 to the most outstanding rookie in Yankees spring camp -- to González, whom he had mentored at second base several years earlier.

Things were looking up for the 25-year-old, who was on the cusp of seeing his first Major League action. Even the Topps baseball card company looked at him as the next marquee attraction in New York, placing him directly above Cincinnati’s Pete Rose on a “1963 Rookie Stars” card.

While Rose went on to win 1963 NL Rookie of the Year honors and become baseball’s all-time hits leader -- facts that inspired some deep-pocketed investor to shell out $717,000 at a 2016 auction for the mint-condition rookie card -- González did not pan out as expected in the big leagues. His place in baseball history, though, can never be taken away: On April 11, 1963, he became the first Dominican Republic native to play for the New York Yankees.

This is Pedro’s story.

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A half century after Angelina Mill -- the first mechanized sugar mill in the Dominican Republic -- was built on the outskirts of San Pedro de Macorís, Pedro González was born there on Dec. 12, 1937. Sugar and baseball ruled the region, and while González excelled at the latter, he never forgot his roots. Although early reports listed González as hailing from Ciudad Trujillo (as the capital, Santo Domingo, was then known), he was, in fact, a proud Macorísta who donated baseball equipment to area youth once he had the means to do so.

As a teenager, González served two years in the Dominican Air Force, honing his skills as a member of its baseball team under the watchful eye of owner Ramfis Trujillo, the son of dictator Rafael Trujillo. At that time, the sport itself was reaching new heights. The country’s professional league, known as LIDOM, held its first winter season in 1955-56, and on Sept. 23, 1956, when Ozzie Virgil started at third base for the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds, it marked the first time a player from the Dominican Republic had reached the Majors.

Big league teams quickly ramped up their scouting efforts across the Caribbean nation and established working relationships with the professional clubs there, often sending players to the Dominican Winter League to prepare for the upcoming MLB season. When González asked to leave his military team and join the Licey Tigers -- who had connections with the Yankees and Cardinals -- Trujillo gave his blessing, but he sent one of his other players, a young right-handed pitcher named Juan Marichal, to the Escogido Lions, with whom the Giants had forged ties.

A solid 1957-58 rookie season with Licey led to a contract offer from the Yankees for a reported $1,500, far below the going rate for American-born “bonus babies.” González reported to spring camp in Florida, where the newly retired Coleman -- “best man I ever saw on a double play,” Casey Stengel once said -- imparted some of his second-base wisdom. “He showed me how to flip the ball,” González said. “He was a big help.”

He became the best second baseman in the Florida State League in 1958, an All-Star who led the league in hits (162), runs (117) and stolen bases (31), which naturally earned him the nickname “Speedy.” González rejoined Licey that winter and helped the Tigers upset the powerhouse Lions for the league championship. One of González’s teammates was a 23-year-old right-hander from Nebraska named Bob Gibson, whose 2-6 record and 5.00 ERA in 11 games hardly portended the Hall of Fame career to come.

Bumped up to Modesto of the California League for 1959, González was once again an All-Star, and although his .371 average topped the league, his aggressive style of play ultimately cost him the batting crown: A violent home-plate collision with Visalia catcher John Edwards left González’s right leg in a cast for several weeks that summer, and although he used that time to help coach a local Little League team, he ultimately fell 60 plate appearances short of the minimum required to qualify for the batting title.

After an 0-for-13 start in 1960, González set the Eastern League ablaze for the Binghamton Triplets, swinging at everything as he raised his batting average north of .375 by mid-May while recording just two walks. “He’s missing some pitches by a foot,” his manager, Dee Phillips, said, “but I wouldn’t want to touch him, the way he’s going.” The local newspaper, the Press and Sun-Bulletin, referred to him as “the Central Caribbean people’s Yogi Berra,” but added that “even the bad-ball-lovin’ Yogi occasionally takes four and strolls.” After González finished the season with a league-leading 179 hits and .327 average, the paper noted that “the Dominican Dandy, a restless soul, is the world’s least choosy pitch-observer. In 582 trips to the plate this year, he walked only 18 times, not even one a week.”

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That winter, González set a record for Licey that still stands. Four days after turning 23, on Dec. 16, 1960, Speedy collected three triples in one game. He was LIDOM’s RBI leader that season, and as Yankees Spring Training was set to begin, new manager Ralph Houk remarked, “Who knows what a youngster like González will accomplish if given the chance? There is nothing Pedro doesn’t do well. He is fast on his feet, fast with his thinking.” Yet, with 1960 World Series MVP Bobby Richardson entrenched at second base, the Yanks were well set at González’s position.

Earning a chance with the juggernaut Yankees wasn’t the only challenge González faced. While players of color were becoming more prevalent across Major League Baseball in the early 1960s, discrimination in some communities was still slow to dissipate. In St. Petersburg, Florida, where the Yankees trained until 1961, “González is one of four Negroes whom owner Dan Topping failed to force the Soreno Hotel, tough as things are reported in St. Pete, into housing and feeding,” reported Press and Sun-Bulletin sports editor John W. Fox.

González faced similar hardships in Virginia, where -- despite being regarded by Yankees general manager Roy Hamey as “the best prospect we have in our entire organization” -- he spent the majority of the next three seasons as a member of the Yankees’ Triple-A farm team, the Richmond Virginians. But González was never one to dwell on the obstacles before him, whether on the field or off. Speedy kept on swinging, staying ready for the day when his number would be called. “All he does is eat, sleep and think baseball,” Milton Richman wrote for UPI, adding that “González’s rise in professional baseball so far has been on the meteoric side.”

During the spring of ’61, Joe Schabo, assistant sports editor for the Fort Lauderdale News, observed González closely, describing him as a “youthful baseball craftsman who takes such tremendous pride in his trade.” Schabo pointed to the vigor with which González shagged flies, making everyone else on the field appear to be working in slow motion.

“There is only one way to play baseball in the Minor Leagues: You play it like you already are in the Major League,” González said. “Because you never can tell when a big league scout is sitting in the stands, and if he happens to see you on a day when you are not doing your best, you may have missed the big chance.

“One day, I know I will be a big league second baseman. ... I’ll be ready when they need me.”

***

More than two years would pass before González got his big chance. He spent the entire 1961 and ’62 seasons with Richmond, regularly garnering praise and being mentioned as trade bait. He also married Esther, a schoolteacher from San Pedro de Macorís, and continued to attend church regularly, but life was difficult. With no restaurants in that area willing to welcome him and no real social life to speak of, “I don’t play happy,” he told Newsday’s Steve Jacobson. “After a game, I go home, watch television and go to bed. It was better for me with my wife last year. I had somebody to be with. I had somebody I can talk with. The year before, I was very lonely.”

One bright spot was his Minor League double-play partner, shortstop Tom Tresh, a supportive teammate who helped González learn English. “Pedro is terrific; he does everything well and is an asset to any club,” Tresh told The Richmond News Leader’s Laurence Leonard in April 1961. “He’s a heck of a guy personally. You can’t help but like him.” Tresh received the 1962 James P. Dawson Award as the most outstanding rookie in Yankees camp, then went out and won the 1962 AL Rookie of the Year Award. So, when González won the Dawson Award the following year and Topps pictured him among its “1963 Rookie Stars,” a big league debut finally felt imminent.

The Yankees had won their 20th World Series with a thrilling seven-game victory over San Francisco in 1962 -- a Series in which the Giants’ Felipe Alou, his brother Matty and Marichal became the first Dominicans to appear in the Fall Classic -- and González was indeed invited to come north with the defending champs. In the April 11 home opener against Baltimore, pinch-hitter Dale Long drew a seventh-inning walk off Milt Pappas, and Houk sent González, wearing the No. 42 that his mentor Coleman had worn, in to pinch-run. Before the significance of being the first Dominican Yankee could sink in, though, shortstop Tony Kubek grounded out to end the inning, and González was replaced by pitcher Hal Reniff.

A Yankee Stadium crowd of 30,374 had witnessed history, but there was seemingly no mention of González’s groundbreaking achievement in the press. His next game action came five days later when Houk pinch-hit González for Whitey Ford in the bottom of the fourth after the Tigers had knocked the Chairman of the Board around for seven runs. Speedy doubled to left, moving Joe Pepitone to third, then scored on a Kubek double.

As veterans such as Berra and Mickey Mantle approached the twilight of their careers, the Yankees gave younger players, such as the 22-year-old first baseman Pepitone and the 24-year-old Tresh, who took over center-field duties, the chance to play nearly every day in 1963. But with Richardson, Kubek and third baseman Clete Boyer handling the bulk of the infield duties, González was once again relegated to Richmond, where he batted .307 in 83 games and was named an International League All-Star. After homering in the IL All-Stars’ 5-0 win over the Yankees in front of a record crowd of 28,524 in Buffalo, New York, on Aug. 19, González earned a September callup and finished the ’63 campaign with five hits in 28 big league plate appearances. He also pulled the old hidden-ball trick on Sept. 20 by politely asking the Kansas City A’s Ken Harrelson if he would step off second base for a moment so that he could kick off some mud. “I said ‘please,’ and he did, so I tagged him,” González explained to reporter Bob Kurland of The Record (Hackensack, N.J.). “Just before I did, I winked at the umpire to get him in on the play.”

The play drew bemusement from Houk, who would soon leave the dugout to become Yankees general manager, but as the 1963 season closed and González approached his 26th birthday, Speedy was still blocked at second base by the superb Richardson.

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Berra took over as Yankees skipper in 1964, and he had other ideas about how to deploy González. After having the 6-foot, 175-pounder learn the outfield and first base, Berra kept the valuable and versatile González on the big league roster the entire season by using him as a “super sub,” often inserting him into the game as a pinch-runner in the later innings and then having him play nearly anywhere on the field.

“You’ve got to be able to do more than one thing,” González told The Sporting News that season. “I knew this when I came up here, and for a player like me who can’t expect to break into the starting lineup right away, you’ve got to figure ways of staying around and making yourself useful.” Speedy appeared in 80 contests, batting .277 and earning enough trust to be added to the postseason roster. He would be called into action just once during the ’64 World Series against Berra’s hometown St. Louis Cardinals, but it was a moment González would never forget.

The Series was tied at two games apiece, and Gibson was working on a Game 5 gem at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks had managed just four singles and were trailing, 2-0, after eight innings. Mantle reached on an error to begin the ninth, but Gibson quickly retired the next two batters. As Tresh entered the batter’s box, González stepped into the on-deck circle and eyed the intimidating man on the mound, wondering if he’d get a crack at his former Licey teammate. Shockingly, Tresh launched a home run into the right-field seats (just as he had done two years earlier against San Francisco’s Jack Sanford in Game 5), tying the game, 2-2.

The euphoria didn’t last long. González popped out to first baseman Bill White to end the ninth, Tim McCarver hit a three-run homer in the 10th, and the Cardinals went on to win the game and the Series, with Gibson earning MVP honors. The loser’s share of $5,309.29 that González received surely was a nice bonus on top of his $8,000 salary, though.

Speedy’s Yankees career comprised just seven more games in 1965 before he was traded to Cleveland, where he became that organization’s first Dominican player. After 101 games with the Yanks, González played in 306 with Cleveland from 1965 to 1967, a tenure marred by a September 1965 mound-charging incident while carrying a bat that resulted in his first career ejection and a suspension for the rest of the season.

“One pitch is all right. Sometimes one pitch can get away. But not two,” González said in defense of his actions against Tigers pitcher Larry Sherry. “There were fastballs here -- at my face. ... I don’t think it’s right for pitchers to be able to throw at batters and get away with it.”

“Look, I have two children and a wife to support,” González told Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter Russell Schneider. “What if he hits me in the head and I can’t play anymore? Or if he kills me? What happens to my family then?”

***

González remained in Cleveland’s farm system through 1971, never quite making the mark that scouts had predicted early in his career. Back home, it was a different story. He played 13 seasons in the Dominican Winter League, 10 of them with Licey, whose blue uniforms led fans to dub González “El Gran Capitán Azul” -- the Great Blue Captain. His No. 2 is one of 11 numbers retired by Licey, and he remains among the franchise’s all-time leaders in hits, runs, RBIs, steals and several other categories. Along with Julián Javier (who made a late-inning appearance in Game 1 of the ’64 World Series for St. Louis), González was regarded as the greatest second baseman of his era -- and one of the best of all time -- in the Dominican Republic.

He spent many more years in baseball, becoming the first Dominican to manage a Minor League team in the United States when he took over as skipper of the Braves’ Gulf Coast League affiliate in Bradenton, Florida. He held that job from 1976 to 1986, aiding in the development of future Braves stars such as Ron Gant, Tom Glavine and many others. A 1982 inductee of the Dominican Republic’s Sports Hall of Fame, González continued to manage and scout in his home country every winter.

When González passed away on Jan. 10, 2021, at age 83, it barely registered a blip in American news coverage. A blurb on NJ.com -- published more than a week after his death -- failed to mention his place in Yankees history. But in his homeland, there were many tributes and lengthy accounts of his career. Tom Van Hyning of Beisbol101.com authored a three-part series on González and reached out to several of his former winter ball teammates to gather their memories. “Speedy was a good ballplayer, but an exquisite and better human being,” José “Palillo” Santiago told Van Hyning. “He was quiet, humble and low-key; did his job efficiently.”

From Alfonso Soriano and Robinson Canó to Jasson Domínguez and Juan Soto, some of the greatest and most celebrated Dominican ballplayers have proudly worn the pinstripes. And while Pedro “Speedy” González might not have reached the same heights as some of those stars, the fleet-footed, free-swinging likable fellow who waved goodbye to the sugarcane fields surrounding San Pedro de Macorís as a teenager and blazed a path toward the United States will always be the first Dominican to have worn the iconic Yankees uniform.

Nathan Maciborski is the executive editor of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the September 2024 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.