César Tovar

César Leonardo Tovar (July 3, 1940 – July 14, 1994), nicknamed "Pepito" and "Mr. Versatility", was a Venezuelan professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from to , most notably as the leadoff hitter for the Minnesota Twins teams that won two consecutive American League Western Division titles in 1969 and 1970. He later played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, and New York Yankees. Although he was a small player, listed at 5-feet-9 and 150 pounds, he was muscular and tough-bodied. Tovar played baseball with such speed and aggressiveness that manager Billy Martin considered him one of his favorite players. He was also a very good contact hitter, striking out only 7% of the time he appeared at the plate as a major league player.

Baseball playing career

Minor leagues Tovar was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, where as a child, he shined shoes to earn extra income for his family. That winter, he returned to Venezuela to play for the Leones del Caracas, and won the league's rookie of the year award.

The Reds had a promising second baseman in Pete Rose, who would win the 1963 National League Rookie of the Year Award, with future Gold Glover Cookie Rojas on the bench and second basemen Bobby Klaus and Gus Gil in their minor league system, there was little room left for Tovar to progress. The Twins were in first place with two games left in the season, but lost their final two games to the Red Sox and finished the season in second place.

Tovar played an integral role as a utility player during the Twins' 1967 pennant run, dividing his playing time between third base (70 games), center field (64), second baseman (36), left field (10), shortstop (9) and right field (5). He set an American League record of 164 games played (the Twins had two tie games in the 1967 season) and led the league with 726 plate appearances and 649 at-bats. He was also among the top 10 batters in runs, hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases, hit by pitch and sacrifice hits.

On September 22, 1968, Tovar became the second player after Bert Campaneris (Kansas City Athletics, 1965) to play all nine fielding positions in a game. The two were later joined by Scott Sheldon (Texas Rangers, 2000), Shane Halter (Detroit Tigers, 2000), and Andrew Romine (Detroit Tigers, 2017) as the only five players in MLB history to have accomplished the feat. Tovar started the game on the mound against Oakland and pitched one scoreless inning in which he struck out Reggie Jackson. As fate would have it, the first batter he faced was Campaneris.

“The little guy can beat you so many ways – his bat, his feet, his brains, his hustle.” — Billy Martin The two steals of home in the same inning also tied a record. He ended the year with a career-high 45 stolen bases.

In 1970, Tovar ended the season with a .300 batting average and posted career highs in doubles (36), triples (13), runs (120), on-base percentage (.356), slugging percentage (.442), and on-base plus slugging (.798). His 195 hits ranked third in the league behind teammate Tony Oliva (204) and Alex Johnson (202) of the California Angels.

As he improved at the plate, Tovar also moved less around the diamond – playing primarily center field in 1970, left field in 1971, and right field in 1972. He improved his hitting through 1971, when he hit for a .311 batting average and led the league with a career-high 204 hits, the highest one-year total by a Venezuelan player in MLB until Magglio Ordóñez had 216 hits in .

In 1971, SPORT magazine polled major league players to identify the game's most competitive player. Pete Rose won; the runners-up were Frank Robinson, Bob Gibson, and César Tovar. On September 19, 1972, Tovar hit a walk-off home run to hit for the cycle. Only five other players in major league baseball history have completed a cycle with a game-ending homer: Ken Boyer (1961), George Brett (1979), Dwight Evans (1984), Carlos González (2010) and Nolan Arenado (2017).

Later career After a subpar season in 1972, the Twins traded Tovar to the Philadelphia Phillies for Ken Sanders, Ken Reynolds and Joe Lis on December 1. Tovar would then spend the 1973 season platooning with a young Mike Schmidt at third base.

Along with former Reds center fielder Eddie Milner, Tovar is regarded as the major league's all-time leader in breaking up no-hit attempts with five. On April 30, 1967, Tovar's single was the only hit against the Washington Senators' Barry Moore. On May 15, 1969, he broke up the no-hit bid of Baltimore pitcher, Dave McNally. Later that same season on August 10, 1969, Mike Cuellar of the Baltimore Orioles extended his streak of consecutive batters retired to 35 before surrendering a ninth-inning single to Tovar, which also broke up Cuellar's bid for a no-hitter. Tovar was responsible for spoiling two other no-hitters during his career: against the Washington's Dick Bosman (August 13, 1970) and the Yankees' Jim "Catfish" Hunter (May 31, 1975). He had the opportunity to break up a sixth no-hitter, but recorded the last out in Vida Blue’s no-hitter on September 21, 1970.

Tovar also continued to play in the Venezuelan Winter League. He was a player-coach for the Águilas del Zulia team that won the 1984 league championship before going on to win the 1984 Caribbean Series. He retired as a player at the age of 45 after two final games in the winter of 1985–86. Over a 26-season career in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, Tovar appeared in 1,116 games posting a .286 batting average, along with 23 home runs and 399 runs batted in. The level of pride and admiration with which the Venezuelan public held for Tovar's playing career was such that the nation's president, Rafael Caldera, attended his funeral. He was inducted into the Venezuelan Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 as part of its inaugural class. Tovar was posthumously inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in 2022.

Related links List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle List of Major League Baseball players from Venezuela