Pancho Herrera

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In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Herrera and the second or maternal family name is Villavicencio.
Pancho Herrera
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 15, 1958, for the Philadelphia Phillies
Last MLB appearance
October 1, 1961, for the Philadelphia Phillies
MLB statistics
Batting average.271
Home runs31
Runs batted in128
Teams

Juan Francisco Herrera Villavicencio (June 16, 1934 – April 28, 2005), nicknamed "Pancho" and "Frank", was a

Afro-Latino to play for the Phillies.[2]

Early career

Born in

runs batted in
.

With the Phillies

He began 1958 on Philadelphia's 28-man

Connie Mack Stadium.[5]
He finished his first MLB season with a respectable batting mark of .270 and 17 hits.

But Herrera could not make the

runs batted in
(128), and batting average (.329), as well as in hits (187). He was also elected to the league's All-Star team as a first baseman.

That banner year at Triple-A set the stage for

OPS of .803. He also led National League batters with 136 strikeouts, a league record at the time (it would be broken by Dick Allen four years later). Herrera also committed more errors (13) than any other first baseman in the league. Still, Herrera finished a distant second to Frank Howard in that year's Rookie of the Year balloting.[6] But he couldn't build on that success. Although he started 1961 as the Phillies' regular first baseman, his production seriously declined: his OPS dropped to .759 on 32 extra-base hits (including 13 home runs) and his batting average dipped 23 points to .258. He continued to strike out at an alarming rate, with 120 whiffs, second in the National League. That off-season, Philadelphia traded for veteran American League slugger Roy Sievers
to take over as the club's first baseman for 1962, and Herrera played the rest of his career in the minor leagues.

Minor league slugger

He had another strong season for Buffalo in 1962, making the All-Star team and leading the International League in home runs (32) and tying for the RBI title (108). At season's end, the Phillies used him and outfielder Ted Savage in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates for veteran third baseman Don Hoak. He played another seven years of minor league baseball, including four more seasons in the International League, before retiring in 1969, although he continued to play sporadically until 1974. After that he managed in both the Mexican and Florida State leagues. He continued to hit the long ball, especially late in his career in the Class A Mexican Southeast League, where he was a player-manager in the late 1960s.

As a big leaguer, Herrera collected 264 hits, with 46 doubles, eight triples, 31 homers and 128 career RBIs. He struck out 270 times, and batted .271 lifetime. He died in

heart attack at age 70 in 2005.[1]

Herrera was elected to the International League Hall of Fame in 2008.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ramírez, José, Pancho Herrera. Society for American Baseball Research Biography Project
  2. ISBN 978-0-520-25143-4
    .
  3. ^ Anderson, Norris (September 22, 1957). "Sports Today". The Miami News. p. 2B.
  4. ^ Retrosheet: 1958 NL batting log
  5. ^ Retrosheet box score (16 September 1958): "Chicago Cubs 10, Philadelphia Phillis 8"
  6. ^ Baseball Awards Voting for 1960: NL Rookie of the Year Voting

External links

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