Vince Gonzales

Note: This page us for 1950s pitcher Vince Gonzales; for the 1970s-1980s Mexican League player with a similar name, click here.

Wenceslao Gonzales O'Reilly

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 1", Weight 165 lb.

• Debut April 13, 1955
• Final Game April 13, 1955
• Born September 28, 1925 in Quivican, Cuba
• Died March 11, 1981 in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche Mexico

BR page

Biographical Information

Vince Gonzales was a pitcher for 22 years (1948-1969), all in the minors except for a cup of coffee in 1955. He served in the Cuban Navy during World War II (WK). He broke into Organized Baseball in 1948 at age 22 and played for Veracruz in the Mexican League (MX) (1948); the Mexico City Red Devils (MX) (1949-1950); San Luis Potosi (MX) (1951); the Juarez Indios in the Southwest International League (1951); and Juarez in the Arizona-Texas League (1952-1954).

He pitched for the Cuban national team in the 1939 Amateur World Series, when he would have been 14 years old as per the officially listed birthdate. He went 2-0 with a 5.14 ERA as Cuba won the title, plus was 3 for 6 at the plate and his two triples tied Bernardo Cuervo for the lead.

Signed by scout Joe Cambria of the Washington Senators as a free agent on January 28, 1955, he was 29 years old when he made his sole big league appearance on April 13th. He pitched in mop-up relief, finishing the game, striking out 1 and walking 3 in 2 innings pitched with an ERA of 27.00 and a WHIP of 4.500. On April 19th he was released by the Senators and returned to the minors.

He played with the Red Devils (1955); the Nogales Yaquis in the Arizona-Mexico League (1955-1956); the Red Devils (1957-1958); Pericos de Puebla (MX) (1960-1961); the Red Devils (1963); Sultanes de Monterrey (MX) (1964); and Ciudad del Carmen Camaroneros in the Mexican Southeast League (1969); ending his baseball career at age 43.

In 1951, his best year in the minors, he was 32-11 with an ERA of 2.76. Overall in the minors, he was 175-124.

Sources

Principal sources for Vince Gonzales include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) ; and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Vince Gonzales at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)