Marcelino Solis

Marcelino Solis Elias

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 1", Weight 185 lb.

• Debut July 16, 1958
• Final Game September 13, 1958
• Born July 19, 1930 in Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí Mexico
• Died June 15, 2001 in Monterrey, Nuevo León Mexico

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Biographical Information

Mexican-born left-hander Marcelino Solis spent part of a season in the majors but spent 13 years in professional baseball.

Solis allowed 8 runs and 11 walks in 8 1/3 IP for the 1951 Sultanes de Monterrey in a rough pro debut. In 1952, he came stateside but bombed with a 1-10, 8.09 record for the Sweetwater Braves. With the 1953 El Paso Texans, he improved to 13-13, 5.25. He allowed 259 hits and 121 walks in 209 innings that year. Those numbers were in the middle of the pack in the high-flying Arizona-Texas League.

Marcelino was 13-12 with a 3.36 ERA for Monterrey in 1954 despite 109 walks in 182 1/3 innings. It would mark his only full season as a starter in the elite circuit in his homeland. In 1955, Solis walked 3 batters and retired no one for the Sultanes, presumably out the rest of the year with injury. The southpaw was 0-1 with a 6.92 ERA for Monterrey in 1956 with 22 hits and 11 walks in 13 innings, not looking like someone who would be in the majors two years later. The rest of the year was spent in a lesser Mexican loop, the Central Mexican League, where he was 11-5 with a 5.36 ERA.

Solis was still in the Central Mexican League in 1957 and went 15-9 with a 5.65 ERA for the Saltillo Saraperos. He had hit .305 as well. He did not finish among the top 10 in ERA in Mexico's second-best league. Despite that, he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs from the Saraperos in the December 2, 1957 Rule V Draft.

The Cubs assigned Solis to the Fort Worth Cats of the AA Texas League and the left-hander compiled a 15-2 record with a 2.44 ERA to go with it in just 20 games, far better than any of his 7 preceding seasons in lower loops. He tied for 4th in the TL in wins and was just a few innings short of qualifying for the loop's ERA title.

On this performance, he was called to Wrigley Field on July 16, 1958 and finished out his first and only year in the big leagues with a 3-3 record and a 6.06 ERA while appearing in 15 games for the Cubbie squad.

Marcelino spent 1959 with the Phoenix Giants of the Pacific Coast League and the Fort Worth Cats again, in a split season affair, going 7-11 with a 4.45 ERA for the Phoenix club and 1-1 for Fort Worth, finishing out at 8-12. 1960 found Solis with the San Antonio Missions, Monterrey and the Houston Buffs, going 0-6 with a 5.18 ERA for Houston and an unknown ERA for Monterrey and San Antonio.

The record shows him finishing out his pro career in the Mexican League spending the next three seasons (1961-1963) with the Monterrey Sultanes and the Veracruz Aguilas. He was 3-5 with a 3.36 ERA for Veracruz in 1962 and 4-4 with a 3.79 ERA in 1963.

Available records show that Solis spent thirteen seasons in pro baseball, partially in Mexico and partially in the United States. He closed out with a 83-80 record and a 4.28 ERA (his ERA not counting his two seasons in the Central Mexican League as well as several seasons missing data in the US) while pitching 979 innings. After baseball, Solis retired and lived in his native country in Monterrey. Solis died on June 15, 2001 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

Sources

• Baseball Players of the 1950s
• The Mexican League: Comprehensive Player Statistics by Pedro Treto Cisneros
• 1954 and 1958 Baseball Guides
• Pat Doyle's Professional Baseball Player Database