Candy Maldonado

Cándido Maldonado Guadarrama (born September 5, 1960) is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball outfielder who played from to for the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, and Texas Rangers. Chris Berman, a fellow ESPN analyst, nicknamed him, "the Candyman". Maldonado holds the distinction of having struck the first game-winning hit outside the United States in World Series play, and was the only Giant to hit a triple in the 1989 World Series. before going on to win Game 7.

Career highlights

Maldonado was a better hitter on the road than at home, with a batting average which was 51 points higher in road games than in home games.

On May 4, 1987, he became only the 16th player in San Francisco Giants franchise history to hit for the cycle.

In Game 3 of the 1992 World Series, playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, he hit a walk-off hit off Atlanta Braves closer Jeff Reardon and also hit a solo home run in Game 6 of the series.

Then in 1994, Candy scored the first-ever run for the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field.

Maldonado was noted as a good home run hitter who did not usually hit for a high batting average, finishing at .254 for his MLB career.

He played in eight different postseason series for three of his teams and won the World Series with the Blue Jays in .

Recent career Maldonado provided color commentary for ESPN Deportes' coverage of the World Baseball Classic and regular season games. He was named general manager of the Gigantes del Cibao of the Dominican Baseball League. Maldonado contributed a video to "La Esquina de Candy" (or "Candy's Corner"). Also, in 2011, Maldonado was inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame with former teammate and National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Roberto Alomar, Carlos Baerga and Luis "Mambo" DeLeón for the 2011 Caribbean Series. He was also inducted into his native Puerto Rico Baseball Hall of Fame.