Today April 29th is little Luis Aparicio's birthday. My guess is that a brief tribute to one of the best shortstops in the history of Major League Baseball is in the order of the day.
To be completely honest and objective, Luis Aparicio is far from being THE greatest shortstop of the MLB, living behind the vast and monumental careers of such legends like Honus Wagner, Ernie Banks and more recently, Cal Ripken Jr; yet he truthfully deserves to have his name right next to them. Elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame in 1984, he is the only Venezuelan so far to have a plaque in Cooperstown. So let's explore a little bit about Luis Aparicio.
From the beginning of professional baseball in the early 1900s, through the dead ball - live ball transition, up to the 1940s, the game of baseball was conducted by an orchestra of talented hitters who gave power hitting wonderful spectacles like Home Runs, Doubles, Triples, anything that could bring runners to score that captivated audiences day to day season in and season out. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Di Maggio, Ted Williams, Jimmy Fox and others, created this perception of baseball as a power game thanks to their combination of massive talent and natural ability to consistently produce for their teams. Even Honus Wagner "The flying dutchman", shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was one of these legends. Only a few handful players, whose greatest example can be traced to Ty Cobb were able to visualize the game as an aggressive "hit-and-run" approach. It wasn't by chance that it was Cobb who had held the all time stolen bases record of 893 for over 30 years; Cobb -who also held the most hits record with 4,191- knew and understood that getting to a base didn't mean that the your teammate -the next hitter on plate- had to "drive you in home": you could also help your team with the concept of speed, playing aggressively to steal bases. However this strategy had faded by the end of the 1940s because of the new approach the power hitters brought.
Luis Aparicio changed that.
Considered "too short" to play in the Major League, he earned his way to receive an offer from the Chicago White Sox, following the steps of Chico Carrasquel, another Venezuelan shortstop with a decent experience in the game. Aparicio wasted no time on the opportunity he was given and quickly gained fame for two particular aspects of the game that had been neglected up to that point: his defensive skills as shortstop and his ability to steal bases and get himself into scoring position without depending on your teammate.
Aparacio then set the base to bring back these two elements of baseball and not only he would establish himself as regular baseball player who would practice them, he would become a leader and an example for the newcomers to follow. He led the league in stolen bases nine times in his career, and set defensive records on fielding and games without errors that at the time were unparalleled.
What happened next was that in the years that followed, the baseball player had a new way to carve himself in the game and a new way to contribute to the success of your team. Lou Brock became the next sensation when it came to the thrill and suspense of stealing bases and many others would follow through, reaching the eventual base steal king the great Rickey Henderson. Defensively, Aparicio created a school of educated shortstops who valued and were valued due to their ability to become disciplined on this underrated task. In this particular case, Aparicio's greatest influence can be seen in the heart of his home country Venezuela, where more and more talented shortstops began appearing, scouted and recruited into the Major League; names like David Concepcion, Jesus Trillo, Ozzie Guillen and Omar Vizquel are all students of the Aparicio school.
Aparicio was also a constant presence in the all star game and with thirteen appearances, he belongs to a very exclusive group of players that were frequently called to show up at this event. Additionally he conquered nine golden gloves -a record now broken by Vizquel-, and at the time of his retirement he led stats by a shortstop for most games played, assists and double plays.
That is why today on his 78th birthday, Luis Aparicio is remembered as one of the greatest contributors of shaping the game of baseball as we know today and for becoming a role model of discipline, dedication and hard work for all shortstops.
