Tetelo Vargas

Tetelo Vargas
Tetelo Vargas
	Outfielder
	Born: April 11, 1906; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
	Died: December 30, 1971 (aged 65); Guayama, Puerto Rico
	Batted: Right Threw: Right
debut
	1927, for the Cuban Stars (East)
Last appearance
	1944, for the New York Cubans
Negro league statistics
Batting average	.356
Hits	177
Home runs	3
Runs batted in	82
Stolen bases	8
Teams
	Cuban Stars (East) (1927, 1929, 1935); Cuban House of David (1931); New York Cubans (1938–1939, 1941–1944);
Career highlights and awards
	3× All-Star (1942, 1943); Negro National League batting champion (1943); NNL record .471 single-season batting average (1943);

Juan Esteban Vargas Marcano (April 11, 1906 – December 30, 1971), better known as Tetelo Vargas, and nicknamed "El Gamo Dominicano" or "the Dominican Deer", was a baseball player from the Dominican Republic.^[1]

Baseball career

An athletic teenager, Vargas spent his early years playing pick-up baseball games, which helped him develop ability and strength.

By 1927, when Vargas was 21, scouts from the

Black, however, and he became a member of the Negro leagues' famed New York Cubans. Meanwhile, at home, he was signed by the Leones del Escogido

, one of the four original Dominican Republic winter baseball league teams that remain in competition.

Vargas gained recognition around the Caribbean and in New York City, establishing a Negro league record by hitting home runs in seven consecutive at bats. In 1932, Vargas went to play in Venezuela, where he became a star and remained until 1938, when the New York Cubans re-signed him.

In

Mexican Pacific Winter League in 1952. Vargas, in the twilight of his career, returned to the Dominican Republic's winter league also in 1952, this time with the Estrellas Orientales team. At the age of 46, he led the Dominican Republic league with a batting average of .350. Vargas retired from baseball in 1953, after having played 27 seasons in five countries. The stadium in San Pedro de Macorís

, home of the Estrellas Orientales team, is named in his honor.

Statistics

Vargas holds the major league record for best batting average in a single season. He hit .471 while playing for the New York Cubans in the Negro National League in 1943.^[2]

Apart from hitting .350 in 1952 in the Dominican Republic's winter league, Vargas also led the Puerto Rican winter league in batting average three times, hitting .410 in 1943, and winning back to back titles in 1946 and 1947, when he hit .382 and .362, respectively. Vargas played a number of exhibition games against Major League Baseball's New York Yankees, averaging .500 against Yankees pitchers.

Positions

Vargas played a number of positions on the baseball field, including right field, left field, center field, shortstop and second base.

After baseball

Vargas was idolized both in the Dominican Republic and in Puerto Rico, but he decided to settle in the Puerto Rican city of Guayama, where he had previously starred for the local team. He remarried in 1954 in Puerto Rico and lived a rather quiet, humble life in Guayama with his wife, Violeta Enchautegui de Vargas and three daughters Carmen, Ana and Iris and son Juan Esteban Vargas Jr. He died December 30, 1971, after battling lung cancer and is now resting in peace next to his wife in Guayama's main cemetery (Cementerio Municipal de Guayama).

Vargas was elected to the Puerto Rican baseball Hall of Fame. Because of his involvement as a player with the New York Cubans, Vargas is also a member of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame.

References

^ "Tetelo Vargas Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
^ "Single-Season Leaders & Records for Batting Average". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2021-06-29.

External links

Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference and Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats and Seamheads
Juan "Tetelo" Vargas at SABR Biography Project

[1] "Tetelo Vargas Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2021-06-29.

[2] "Single-Season Leaders & Records for Batting Average". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2021-06-29.

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