Héctor Valle

Héctor Jose Valle Vazquez

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 180 lb.

• Debut June 6, 1965
• Final Game October 3, 1965
• Born October 27, 1940 in Vega Baja, P.R.

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Biographical Information

Héctor Valle played 9 games in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965, a team which went on to win the 1965 World Series. Hector, 24 at the time, hit .308.

He won a Silver Medal with the Puerto Rican national team in the 1959 Pan American Games. His minor league career in the USA stretched from 1960 to 1971. Thereafter, he played and managed for several years in Mexico. He also played a lot of years as a regular and reserve catcher for various teams of the Puerto Rican Winter Baseball League including the Mayagüez Indians, Ponce Lions and Caguas Creoles. The SABR biography of Julio Navarro says that Hector played 22 seasons in Puerto Rican winter ball.

Valle is considered the first major league catcher from Puerto Rico. That's because Valmy Thomas (who broke in earlier) was born in Puerto Rico only because his mother came there from the U.S. Virgin Islands to give birth. [1]

Hector was the catcher for the 1961 Reno Silver Sox - one of MiLB's "Top 100 Teams" because it went 97-43. Hector hit .325 that year, sixth in the league. [2]