Felipe Sarduy

Felipe Sarduy Carrillo

First baseman Felipe Sarduy was a Cuban star of the 1970s and 1980s.

With the Orientales, Sarduy led the 1965-1966 Serie Nacional with 14 intentional walks. In the 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games, he hit .211 for the Gold Medal-winning Cuban national team. In 1966-1967, Felipe led the league with 14 doubles for the Granjeros. He batted .346 in the 1967 Pan American Games but Cuba settled for Silver as Team USA won its last title of the 20th Century in a Pan American Games baseball competition. He led 1967-1968 with 13 home runs then was one of the big offensive stars of the Cuban All-Star Series, leading in several departments. The 13 homers were a league record, but only stood for a year before Agustín Marquetti broke it.

In 1968-1969, Sarduy set a Serie Nacional record for longest hitting streak, at 29 games. That mark stood for 17 years before Lázaro Vargas topped it. He led the league with 85 walks that season. He hit .421 as Cuba won the 1969 Amateur World Series, .300 in the 1970 Central American and Caribbean Games and .429 in the 1970 Amateur World Series.

Sarduy's 16 doubles led the 1971-1972 Serie Nacional. He had 13 doubles in the 1979 Series Selectivas, tying Reinaldo Fernández for the lead. In 1980-1981, he became the first player to appear in 20 Serie Nacional, dating back to the first one in 1962. He retired at the end of the 1981-1982 season.

Overall, Sarduy hit .272/.360/.371 in 1,644 games in Cuba. He had 221 doubles and 819 walks in 6,109 at-bats while striking out 594 times. He fielded .988. Through 2009, his 13,065 putouts ranked third in league history behind Agustín Lescaille and Antonio Muñoz but he no longer ranked among the top 10 in any offensive department.

He managed Camagüey from 1990-1991 to 1993-1994, then from 1995-1996 to 1996-1997. In 2011-2012, he got the job for a third time and holding it for two years.

Sources include A History of Cuban Baseball by Peter Bjarkman