The Dominican Republic shines in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame with four Dominican baseball players exalted inside the temple located in the small town of Cooperstown, one of the most visited museums in the world.
The history of Dominican baseball players exalted in the Hall of Fame began with Juan Marichal.
It was in July 1983. Marichal, in front of thousands of people in Cooperstown, offered his speech after being inducted into the Hall of Fame, becoming the first Dominican player with a plaque in the Hall of Fame.
The native of Laguna Verde, Montecristi, is one of the greatest pitching symbols of both Major League Baseball and Dominican professional baseball.
Then Pedro Martinez followed in Marichal’s footsteps and in 2015 he entered the Pavilion.
Pedro “El Grande”, as he was known, looked too small and thin to be a pitcher. Some predicted that he would not withstand the challenge of the Major Leagues and thus missed the privilege of entering its history.
The pitcher was the winner of three Cy Young Awards, the award given by the Major Leagues to the kings of the mound.
The third Dominican to achieve it was Vladimir Guerrero in 2018.
During his career as a professional baseball player, Vladimir finished in the top 15 10 times in the voting for the Most Valuable Player award. In addition, he was named the American League Most Valuable Player in 2004 and finished third in the 2005 and 2007 seasons.
The right-handed hitter compiled a .318 batting average, a .533 slugging percentage, a .931 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage), 449 home runs and 1,496 runs batted in. The native of Nizao scored 1,328 runs.
He played with the Montreal Expos, Baltimore Orioles, Anaheim Angels and Texas Rangers.
Today, David Ortiz became the fourth Dominican to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame after the ballots of the voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) were revealed today.
