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Author: Peter Portero
Date: 4/28/2006
Venezuelan Pitchers Prevalent
This week marked a major landmark for the baseball players and fans of Venezuela. There were a record number of seven Venezuelan pitchers who started in Major League Baseball on April 18th. The country itself is crazy about the sport of baseball and is ecstatic that their presence is growing in the “American” sport. The Venezuelan players are equally excited because they claim this means the players from their country are indeed good enough for the MLB in the United States.
The pitchers that started Tuesday include Tony Armas, Jr. who pitched for Washington and Victor Zambrano who pitched for the Mets. Gustavo Chacin played for Toronto, Carlos Silva for the Twins and Kelvim Escobar for Los Angeles. Finally, Felix Hernandez played for Seattle. The players stated that they had heard about the excitement in their native country over the growing presence of Venezuelan players in the MLB.
With everyone in the country excited and the players coming from Venezuela bringing so much to the sport of baseball, there is no doubt the sport will see more and more valuable players coming from this South American country in the future as well. With the excitement in the country, there is no doubt every citizen will be tuning in all season to catch their favorite Venezuelan player on television.
Luis Gonzales Makes The Mark
Tuesday April 18th, 2006 will be a date Luis Gonzalez doesn’t forget easily. This is the date the left fielder will remember as his shining moment. Arizona proudly recognized Luis’s double as his mark at 300 home runs and 500 doubles. Luis Gonzalez is the 21st major league player to hit this mark, however that does not make it any less sweet for the player and for Arizona as well.
Hank Aaron, who had 755 home runs and 624 doubles, is also in the group which includes Luis Gonzales and leads the pack. Luis is almost alone in the list of active players with such an impressive record. Barry Bonds is the other active player that can compare, with over 700 home runs and over 500 doubles, and few forget him for it.
Gonzalez, who has been playing for 16 years, actually has 320 home runs and his double off of Matt Morris of San Francisco drove in Chad Tracy for the score. This all occurred in the sixth inning of the game Tuesday. Although Luis Gonzales will likely take his accomplishment without too much public enthusiasm, his landmark statistics are a huge deal that he is likely celebrating greatly in private.
