|
Roberto Francisco Ávila González (April 2, 1924 – October 26, 2004) was a Major League Baseball second baseman and right-handed batter who played for the Cleveland Indians (1949–58), Baltimore Orioles (1959), Boston Red Sox (1959), Milwaukee Braves (1959) and Tigres del México (1960). Born in Veracruz, Veracruz, México to Maria Gonzalez and Jorge Avila, he had a medium frame at and . He was better known in his homeland and other Latin American countries as "Beto" and in the majors as "Bobby". ==Major league career== In 1954 Ávila won the American League Batting Championship, edging out Ted Williams and Minnie Miñoso with a .341 batting average, while playing almost the entire season with a broken thumb.Though by today's standards, Williams (with.345)would have been the champion, but he had so many walks (136), he didn't have enough official at bats to qualify. To keep this from happening again, the rule was changed shortly thereafter to plate appearances rather than official at bats to qualify as batting champion. He also registered career highs in home runs (15), runs (112) and runs batted in (67).〔http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=110398〕 In that same season, the Indians faced the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series, which matched the two leagues' champion bats, Ávila and Willie Mays; it was the third time that top batters in the majors played each other in the Series. Other matchups were Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb in 1909; Al Simmons and Chick Hafey in 1931. The next time the two batting champions faced off in the Series would be 2012, when the Giants' Buster Posey and Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers met. Ávila was selected an All-Star in 1952, 1954 and 1955; he was the American League's starting shortstop for the 1952 game. Avila led the league in triples in , and led American League second basemen in fielding percentage in . He also appeared in the MVP Award ballot in and . An adept bunter and daring baserunner, his soccer training paid off several times when he intentionally kicked the ball out of defenders' mitts while sliding. Cleveland manager Al Lopez said Ávila had "a fine swing, a sharp eye, a good spirit of competition ... and a world of confidence in himself."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Bobby Avila )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bobby Ávila」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|