Francisco Torrijos

Francisco Torrijos Avilés (Pancho)

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born July 10, 1903 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal Mexico

Biographical Information

Francisco Torrijos was an early star in Mexican baseball.

Torrijos starred for the Mexican national team in the 1930 Central American Games, helping them win a Silver Medal. He hit cleanup and manned center in their first game, going 3 for 3 with two triples and four runs against Panama and kept rolling along. He homered off Narciso Picazo in a loss to champion Cuba and finished the event at .500 (8 for 16) with a 1.063 slugging percentage, fielding .875 in CF (7 PO, 1 A, 1 E). He tied teammate Manuel Chávez for the batting lead and tied his brother Jesús Torrijos for the lead with five steals. His six runs were one behind Chávez and Porfirio Espinosa.

He was the center fielder for the Agrario de México team that won Mexican League titles in 1935-1936. LMB statistics are not available prior to 1937, though. The 34-year-old hit .391/~.468/.507 for Agraria in 1937, scoring 19 times in 23 games but did not take the batting title. He hit .319/~.347/.447 for the team in '38 and .312/~.398/.455 for Anahuac in 1939. When many Negro League stars came to Mexico in 1940, Torrijos was one of the native Mexicans to hold on to a job, but his numbers fell against the tougher competition; the 37-year-old veteran batted .250/~.408/.300 in 25 games for the Dorados de Chihuahua.

Pancho hit .293/~.410/.350 with the 1941 Mexico City Red Devils. Remaining with the club the next year, he batted .279/~.397/.325. He split 1943 between the Azules de Veracruz and the Alijadores de Tampico and had a batting line of .209/~.303/.260. At age 41, he showed he could still compete for the 1944 Alijadores, hitting .277/~.352/.315. He was 0 for 9 for Tampico and Mexico City in 1945. In the nine seasons for which LMB data is available for his career, he hit .276/~.375/.342 in 332 games, not bad for a player on the back end of his career.