Eleuterio Lopez

José Eleuterio López Quinones
(Tellito)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 165 lb.

• Born 1935

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Eleuterio López, also known by his nickname of Tellito or by his matrimonial last name, Quinones, was a star pitcher in his native Puerto Rico in the 1950s and also played a couple of seasons in the minor leagues, in the Brooklyn Dodgers system.

In Puerto Rico, he was a member of the great Cangrejeros de Santurce team that featured future Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente in the winter of 1954-55 and which won the 1955 Caribbean Series. A year earlier, on February 13, 1954, he pitched the first game of a three-game series between Puerto Rican All-Stars and players representing the Virgin Islands. He won the game, 1-0, thanks to a five-hit shutout although his opponent on the mound, Walter James, another veteran of the Puerto Rican League recorded 12 strikeouts in a hard-luck loss.

In the minors, he played for the Miami Sun Sox of the Florida International League, a Class B circuit, in 1953, going 5-6, 4.19 in 26 games. In 1954, he was with three different teams, the Union City Dodgers of the Kitty League, the Bakersfield Indians of the California League, and the Asheville Tourists of the Tri-State League. For all those moves, he only appeared in 8 games, going 0-1.

There is a baseball league active in the Monclova, Coahuila area of Mexico called the "Liga de béisbol Eleuterio Tello López" although it is named after a local politician, Eleuterio López Aguilar, and not for the pitcher.