Tony Ordeñana

Antonio Ordenana Rodriguez
(Mosquito)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 158 lb.
• Debut October 3, 1943
• Final Game October 3, 1943
• Born October 30, 1918 in Guanabacoa, Cuba
• Died September 29, 1988 in Miami, FL USA

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Biographical Information

Cuban born Tony Ordenana spent ten active seasons in professional baseball from 1942 to 1954. His career seen him spend playing time in eleven leagues with fourteen teams. After appearing in one Major League game with the Pittsburg Pirates on October 3, 1943, where he chalked up two base-hits and three RBI in four at-bats and fielded seven chances flawlessly at the shortstop position, he spent the rest of his pro career in the minor leagues.

Ordenana's minor league career was spent with thirteen teams, in ten leagues, where he managed career numbers of 697 base-hits in 2,789 at-bats in 757 games for a minor league career .250 batting average. Tony had the misfortune of not having one homerun on his stat sheet.

The slender infielder did have one season that he bettered the .300 hitting mark, when he hit at a .301 average for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association in 1945.

Prior to coming to the pro ranks, he hit .256 for the Cuban national team that won the Silver Medal in the 1941 Amateur World Series and led the event with 14 runs scored.

Tony played both baseball and basketball in Cuba where he was known as "Mosquito" because of his quickness. Considered as one of Cuba's greatest athletes, he lived in New York until 1959 when he returned to Cuba to work as a public works inspector. Going back to New York in 1971, he worked as a busboy and maintenance man, retiring to Miami, FL, in the late 1970s, where he died from a heart attack on September 29, 1988.