Tito Fuentes

Rigoberto Fuentes Peat

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 175 lb.

• Debut August 18, 1965
• Final Game July 9, 1978
• Born January 4, 1944 in Havana, Cuba

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Biographical Information

"They shouldn't throw at me. I'm the father of five or six kids." - Tito Fuentes

Tito Fuentes is currently a Spanish language broadcaster for the San Francisco Giants.

Fuentes was a huge fan favorite in San Francisco. When he batted, the fans chanted "Ti-to! Ti-to!" When he got on base, fans would cheer "Go-Go". He was an unabashed "hot dog." He wore a puka-shell necklace, and flipped his bat on home plate before each at-bat. His batting stance was highly unorthodox: he would have his back turned to the pitcher, with his uniform number visible and his right leg almost in front of the plate while hitting from the left side. In addition, his left elbow was horizontal as he held the bat at shoulder level. He should have been extremely vulnerable to inside pitches, but was instead very tough to strike out as he sprayed the ball all over the field.

He made only six errors at second base in 1973, which was, at the time, a record for 160 or more games.

Tito Fuentes hit a home run in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem, "Baseball Canto", which beats fascism and anti-semitism before Juan Marichal comes to the plate and causes the whole Anglo-Saxon tradition to go on the fritz.

His son, Tito Fuentes Jr., became a minor league manager.