Guillermo Vento

Guillermo Aquilino Vento

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 165 lb.

• Born July 5, 1921 in Maracaibo, Zulia Venezuela
• Died 2006

BR register page

Biographical Information

Guillermo Vento played in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

Vento played for the Venezuelan national team as a teenager, in the 1940 Amateur World Series. When they won the 1941 Amateur World Series, he was an outfielder-catcher. He batted .400 with no walks or extra-base hits for the champs. He tied Bernardo Cuervo for 5th in the event in average.

He hit .410/~.500/.615 in the 1944 Amateur World Series, when Venezuela won a Gold that was controversial due to some umpiring calls. He was 4th in the event in average (behind Leonard Roberts, Antonio Brinez and Tetelito Vargas). He tied Stanley Cayasso for the most doubles and led in RBI (14). He also helped Venezuela take the title at the 1945 Amateur World Series for his third world title.

When the Venezuelan League was founded in 1946, Vento played for Cervecería Caracas. He hit .286/?/.476 and scored 27 runs in 33 games. He was 4th in the new league in runs, tied Francisco Contreras and Chucho Ramos for 4th in doubles (7), was 7th with 36 hits, tied Marvin Williams for 2nd in homers (5, 2 behind Dalmiro Finol), was 6th with 21 RBI, tied Parnell Woods for 3rd with 60 total bases and was second to Williams with 13 extra-base hits as one of the new loop's clear stars.

Vento hit .303/?/.359 with 26 runs in 36 games for Caracas in the 1946-47 season then was 4 for 15 with a triple and 2 RBI in the postseason. After coming close to winning the league's first home run crown, he did not go deep in 1946-47. He was 5th in the league in runs, tied Brinez for 6th in hits (44), was 7th with 18 RBI and tied for 4th in doubles (8, even with José Saint Clair and Ramón Fernández). In 39 games in 1947-48, he batted .327 and slugged .429, scoring 29 runs and driving in 28. He tied future major leaguer Chico Carrasquel for 6th in runs, led the league in hits (55, 3 ahead of Vidal López), tied for 7th in doubles (8), tied Luis Aparicio Sr. for second in triples (3), tied Contreras for 3rd in RBI and was 3rd with 72 total bases (2 behind Roy Campanella and López). He set a league record for hits in a game, with 6. It would be 27 years before Pete Koegel tied his record; following that, Steve Carter (1991) and Ramón Flores (2015) tied the mark.

The Maracaibo native slipped to .263/?/.305 in 1948-49. He did play in the first Caribbean Series. As the main catcher for Caracas and a part-time outfielder as well, he went 6 for 16 with a double, steal, four runs and four RBI. He tied for second on the team in runs (2 behind Finjol) and tied Finol and Fernández for the most RBI. He led Caracas in average, .025 ahead of Fernández. In 1949-1950, he hit .281/?/.335. He was 6th in the LVBP with 31 runs and tied for 7th with 52 hits.

Guillermo batted .309 and slugged .430 for Caracas in 1950-1951, with 42 runs and 34 RBI in 53 contests. He tied Luis Oliveros for 4th in runs, was 4th in hits (69, between Carlos Colas and Eddie Knoblauch), tied Art Pennington and Ford Garrison for 6th in doubles (14), was 10th in RBI (between Cameleón García and Colas), was 4th with 8 steals (between Oliveros and Cy Block), was 6th with 96 total bases (between Jim Dyck and García) and was 8th with 19 extra-base hits (between Garrison and García).

In the winter of 1951-1952, he hit .289/?/.387 and tied Quincy Trouppe for 8th in RBI (27). In the 1952 Caribbean Series, he was 1 for 8, backing up Wilmer Fields, Piper Davis and Héctor Benítez in the outfield. In 1952, he played for the Aguilas Cibaeñas in the Dominican League, hitting .329/.400/.481 with 34 runs and 34 RBI in 45 games then hit .300 in the finals. He led the league in hits (66) and doubles (13) and came close to leading in runs (Alejandro Crespo led) and RBI (Alonzo Perry won out).

Vento hit .298/?/.321 in 1952-1953 for Caracas (now renamed the Leones del Caracas). He was 5th with 32 RBI and tied Pompeyo Davalillo for 3rd with 10 steals. He appeared briefly again for the Aguilas in the Dominican but struggled (.186/.258/.233). He played in his last Caribbean Series in 1953, going 1 for 9 with a run and two RBI while backing up Davis at catcher for Caracas. In 1953-1954, he hit .262 and slugged .321 for the Leones.

He added another Latin American country to his resume in 1954 when he played for the Sultanes de Monterrey in the Mexican League, hitting .292/.349/.462. He was two homers shy of leader Hector Lara. In the winter, he only hit .205 and slugged .236 for the Leones.

Back with Monterrey in the summer of 1955, he produced at a .282/.366/.413 clip. He moved to the expansion Licoreros de Pampero in 1955-1956 in Venezuela and rebounded from his rough prior winter, batting .305/?/.360. He was 5th in the LVBP with 11 doubles, tied for 6th with 29 RBI and tied for 6th with 60 hits. In 1956, he hit .270/.344/.375 for the Sultanes. He hit .280/?/.351 for the 1956-1957 Licoreros. He was the league's 5th-oldest player, between Connie Grob and Mike Goliat. In Mexico in 1957, he hit .246/.320/.359. He batted .234 and slugged .262 for Pampeyo in the winter of 1957-1958. He returned to the Dominican briefly, going 0 for 7 with a walk for the Aguilas. He ended his Mexican League career that year as well, going 0 for 4 for Monterrey.

At age 37, he returned to the Leones and had one last big year, hitting .346 and slugging .481. He was now the league's 4th-oldest player, after Carlos Ascanio (1 GP), Valentín Arévalo (8 GP) and Grob (5 GP), and the oldest regular. Among players with 100+ at-bats, he was 5th in average, between Jerry Snyder and Teo Acosta. He slipped to .208/~/.250 in a back-up role in 1959-1960, now the third-oldest player as Grob had left. In 1960-1961, he was an effective bench player, batting .300 and slugging .380. Only Ascanio was older that season - and Ascanio was actually playing more often, seeing his most time in 4 years.

In 1961-1962, Vento was 0 for 8, now the oldest player in the league; Carrasquel was apparently the only other remaining player from the league's first season. He was 2 for 9 with a double and a RBI for the 1962-1963 Tiburones de La Guaira; the next-youngest-player, Carrasquel, was 5 years younger. He returned briefly in 1966-1967, going 1 for 5 for the Leones. Appearing at age 45, he would be one of the oldest players in league annals. Among native Venezuelans, only Vic Davalillo got into a game at an older age (topping .300 at age 47 among other feats) through 2017-2018 while Alex Cabrera, César Tovar and Robert Pérez were as old.

In 19 seasons in the LVBP, he had hit .282/?/.354 with 341 runs, 317 RBI, 108 doubles and 52 steals in 678 games. At the time of his retirement, he was 3rd in league history in games played (after García and Carrasquel), 3rd in runs (after García and Carrasquel), 3rd in hits (691, behind the same two), 3rd in doubles (108, again trailing García and Carrasquel), 3rd with 21 triples (after Carrasquel and Acosta), 3rd in RBI (after García and Carrasquel), tied for 6th in steals with Vic Davalillo (who still had two decades left at that point), 3rd with 868 total bases (after García and Carrasquel) and 3rd with 135 extra-base hits (after García and Carrasquel once again).

He had hit .271/.344/.399 with 202 runs, 204 RBI, 155 walks to 114 strikeouts, 31 steals, 59 doubles and 40 home runs in 410 games in the Mexican League. He had also hit .281/.403/.399 with 15 doubles, 43 runs and 38 RBI in 71 regular-season games in the Dominican.

Along with his other Heroes del '41, he was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.