fbpx
Wikipedia

Vic Power

October 09, 2023

For other people named Vic Power, see Vic Power (disambiguation).

Victor Felipe Pellot (November 1, 1927 – November 29, 2005[1]), known professionally as Vic Power, was a Puerto Rican professional baseball first baseman. He played twelve seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles / California Angels, and Philadelphia Phillies, from 1954 through 1965. Pellot was the second Puerto Rican of African descent to play in MLB and the second Puerto Rican to play in the American League (AL), following Hiram Bithorn.[2]

Victor Pellot
(Vic Power)
Power in 1958
First baseman
Born: (1927-11-01)November 1, 1927
Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Died: November 29, 2005(2005-11-29) (aged 78)
Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 13, 1954, for the Philadelphia Athletics
Last MLB appearance
October 3, 1965, for the California Angels
MLB statistics
Batting average.284
Home runs126
Runs batted in658
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Pellot used the name Vic Power during his major league career, but played as Victor Pellot when he played winter baseball in Puerto Rico.[3] He was an AL All-Star for four seasons playing in five of the six All-Star games that were played, and won seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards.

Early life Edit

Born Victor Felipe Pove, Pove was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the second child in a family of six (Pove was his mother's maiden name while Pellot was his father's surname, as is traditional in Hispanic culture, such as Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker). However, when his mother, Maximina Pove, was in the first grade, her teacher changed her last name, changing the "v" to a "w" and adding an "r" at the end due to believing she was too illiterate to spell her own name, and Pove became Power.[3] Power showed an interest in baseball at a young age, but his father didn't want him to play baseball and would punish him if he caught him doing so. When he was thirteen years old, his father died and it was only then that he was able to play the game he loved. His mother moved to the city of Caguas, there he attended and graduated from José Gautier Benítez High School.[4]

In 1946 Pellot started to practice with a local baseball team called the Senadores de San Juan (San Juan Senators) and learned many of his baseball skills. He was later invited to play for the Criollos de Caguas, where he was spotted by a New York Yankees scout. In 1949, he left for the City of Chicago and went to play for a minor league team in Drummondville, Quebec.[4]

Minor leagues Edit

Pellot was signed by the Yankees in 1951, and sent to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Class AAA International League. In 1952, Pellot played for the Kansas City Blues of the Class AAA American Association, where he led the league in doubles and triples, while posting a .331 batting average. The next season, Pellot led the league with a .349 batting average.[5][6] However, despite his skills he was not invited to spring training in either year.

The Yankees' owners at the time, Del Webb and Dan Topping, felt that Power's playing style and personality wasn't suited for the conservative style that they wanted a "black" player to represent as a member of the club.[7] Power dated light-skinned women, leading George Weiss, the general manager of the Yankees, to say that Pellot was "not the Yankee type".[6] The Yankees also had Johnny Mize at first base, and another top prospect, Bill Skowron, in their farm system. Skowron spent most of the 1953 season at first base, while Pellot played 121 games in the outfield.[8] When the Yankees had a need at the major league level, they promoted Gus Triandos, a Caucasian player from Class AA, instead of Pellot.[6] The Yankees decided on Elston Howard to become the first black player in club history. Many blacks and Puerto Ricans protested in front of Yankee Stadium in response to what they believed to have been a racially motivated decision.[9]

MLB career Edit

On December 16, 1953, Pellot was traded by the Yankees, along with Don Bollweg, Jim Finigan, Johnny Gray, Bill Renna, Jim Robertson, and $25,000 to the Philadelphia Athletics for Loren Babe, Harry Byrd, Tom Hamilton, Carmen Mauro and Eddie Robinson, thus becoming the first Puerto Rican to play for that team. Suffering from the racial discrimination which was rampant in the nation during that time, Pellot could neither stay with the rest of the team at the same hotels nor be allowed to eat at the same restaurants as his white teammates. The Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955, where he finished in second place in the batting race. Pellot is one of only six batters, as of August 7, 2010, to have hit both a leadoff and walk-off home run in the same game (having done so in 1957), the others being Billy Hamilton (1893), Darin Erstad (2000), Reed Johnson (2003), Ian Kinsler (2009),[10] and Chris Young (2010).[11]

In 1958, Pellot was sent to the Cleveland Indians. During his 12-year career, he played with the Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics (1954–58), Cleveland Indians (1958–61), Minnesota Twins (1962–64), Los Angeles Angels (1964), Philadelphia Phillies (1964), and California Angels (1965).

Before retiring, Pellot won seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards from when the award was first introduced in 1958 to 1964. He made the American League All-Star team with the Kansas City Athletics in 1955 and 1956 and the Cleveland Indians in 1959 and 1960 (two games were played both seasons). Pellot was also voted the Minnesota Twins Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1962. He has the record of having made one or more assists in 16 consecutive game as a first baseman.[12] At the age of 36, he won his final Gold Glove Award to be the oldest player to win the award at first base; this record was not surpassed until Yuli Gurriel won the first base Gold Glove at 37 in 2021.[13]

He shares the record of making two unassisted double plays in one game, and he is one of 11 players to steal home plate twice in one game, and he also shares the record of being assists leader for six years in a row and of double plays in a single game. Among his career totals are the following: 1,716 hits and 126 home runs, and he was only struck out 247 times out of 6,046 at bats.[14]

Name history Edit

In a letter to historian Bill Haber in 1993, Pellot gave his real, full name as Victor Felipe Pellot Pove; Pove being his mother's maiden name and Pellot his father's surname (as is traditional in Hispanic culture; see Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker). However, when his mother, Maximina Pove, was in the first grade, her teacher changed her last name, changing the "v" to a "w" and adding an "r" at the end.[3]

During Pellot's first two professional seasons, in the French-Canadian town of Drummondville, Quebec, he went by his birth name, Victor Pellot. However, Pellot noticed that the mostly French-speaking crowd began to laugh whenever his name was announced. Initially, he surmised that the crowd was laughing because he was black. This turned out to be incorrect, and Pellot soon learned that the real source of the laughter was not his race, but his last name: the similar-sounding word plotte is slang for "vagina" in the Quebec French.[15] In response, he played under the name of "Vic Power." He kept the name after getting promoted to the majors in United States, but retained "Pellot" when playing winter ball in Puerto Rico.[3]

Later years Edit

Pellot spent his retirement in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The city built a ballpark, which he could see from the window of his apartment, and named it "Parque Victor Pellot" (Victor Pellot Park), after him. During the summers, he helped youngsters develop their baseball skills in both Puerto Rico and San Pedro de Macorís in the Dominican Republic.[5] According to historian Bill James, Pellot was probably a main reason why San Pedro de Macorís became "the world's richest source of baseball talent".[5] Pellot died on November 29, 2005, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico from cancer, at the age of 78. He was buried at Porta Coeli Cemetery in Bayamón Puerto Rico.[16]

Legacy Edit

Pellot has been considered by many Puerto Ricans to be one of the island's greatest baseball players, a legend only surpassed by Roberto Clemente.[7] In 2005, he spoke about his baseball career in the American documentary Beisbol,[17] directed by Alan Swyer and narrated by Esai Morales, which covers the early influences and contributions of Hispanics to baseball. In 2000, the Cleveland Indians honored him by declaring him to be among its 100 all-time greatest players. He was named the 81st greatest first baseman in Major League history by historian Bill James in his book "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract".[5]

Pellot's unorthodox and often flashy approach to fielding first base proved over the years to be very influential. Although at the time he was often criticized by the press and his peers for fielding the ball using only one hand instead of two, stating it was "flamboyance", this would later become his trademark move.[3][7] More importantly, it anticipated a change in how the position is played: nowadays, virtually all first basemen field the ball one-handed (this because it increases their reach and provides for greater flexibility).

Pellot is also remembered by baseball historians and fans for his sharp wit and dark, deadpan humor, a lot of which was directed at the racism and segregation he experienced during spring training in the southern United States. One of the more celebrated examples of his dark wit by which Pellot subverted the ugly rejection experienced through institutionalized racism, documented in David Maraniss's biography of Roberto Clemente, has Pellot entering a whites-only (segregated) restaurant while playing for Syracuse. Upon being told by the waitress that the restaurant didn't serve "Negroes", Pellot promptly told the waitress not to worry, that he didn't eat "Negroes".[5]

Bibliography Edit

  • Bjarkman, Peter C. (2005). Diamonds Around The Globe: The Encyclopedia Of International Baseball. Greenwood Publishing group. ISBN 0-313-32268-6.
  • James, Bill (2003). The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80697-5.
  • Moffi, Larry; Kronstadt, Jonathan (2006). Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947–1959. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-8316-9.

See also Edit

References Edit

  1. ^ Carle, Bill (2005). "SABR Biographical Research Committee November/December 2005 Report" (PDF). SABR.org. SABR. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
  2. ^ "Hi Bithorn Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e Wolinsky, Russell (July 7, 2004). . baseballhalloffame.org. National Baseball Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 8, 2007. Retrieved May 25, 2007.
  4. ^ a b El Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Latino el sitio de los inmortales del béisbol Latino
  5. ^ a b c d e James, p. 469
  6. ^ a b c Rosengren, John (April 13, 2015). "Elston Howard became the Yankees' Jackie Robinson 60 years ago". SI.com. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
  7. ^ a b c Bjarkman, p. 249
  8. ^ "1953 Kansas City Blues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  9. ^ Kahn, Roger (1976). A Season in the Sun. University of Nebraska Press. p. 5. Excerpt quoted at Google Books.
  10. ^ Andro, Anthony (July 21, 2009). "Francisco shelved by pneumonia". star-telegram.com. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 3D. Retrieved September 16, 2009.[dead link] Alt URL
  11. ^ Karpinski, David (May 17, 2018). "Perfect Bookends: Lead-Off and Walk-Off Long Ball … Same Player – Same Game". baseballroundtable.com. Baseball Roundtable. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  12. ^ "Assist Records by First Baseman". Baseball-Almanac.com. Baseball Almanac. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
  13. ^ @SlangsOnSports (8 November 2021). "At 37 years old, Yuli Gurriel is the oldest 1B to win a Gold Glove (surpassing 36-year-old Vic Power in 1964)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. ^ "Vic Power: Won Gold Glove seven times". historic baseball.com. Historic Baseball. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
  15. ^ "That One Glorious Season" – Baseball Players With One Spectacular Year; by Richard H. Letarte; Chapter 9; Publisher: Peter E Randall Publisher; ISBN 1-931807-51-5
  16. ^ Goldstein, Richard (November 30, 2005). "Vic Power, 78, Pioneer Latino And First Baseman With Flair". The New York Times. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  17. ^ "Beisbol". IMDb.com. Internet Movie Database. 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2020.

External links Edit

  • Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
  • Vic Power at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
  • Vic Power at Baseball Almanac
  • Vic Power at The Deadball Era

October 09, 2023
power, other, people, named, disambiguation, victor, felipe, pellot, november, 1927, november, 2005, known, professionally, puerto, rican, professional, baseball, first, baseman, played, twelve, seasons, major, league, baseball, philadelphia, kansas, city, ath. For other people named Vic Power see Vic Power disambiguation Victor Felipe Pellot November 1 1927 November 29 2005 1 known professionally as Vic Power was a Puerto Rican professional baseball first baseman He played twelve seasons in Major League Baseball MLB for the Philadelphia Kansas City Athletics Cleveland Indians Minnesota Twins Los Angeles California Angels and Philadelphia Phillies from 1954 through 1965 Pellot was the second Puerto Rican of African descent to play in MLB and the second Puerto Rican to play in the American League AL following Hiram Bithorn 2 Victor Pellot Vic Power Power in 1958First basemanBorn 1927 11 01 November 1 1927Arecibo Puerto RicoDied November 29 2005 2005 11 29 aged 78 Bayamon Puerto RicoBatted RightThrew RightMLB debutApril 13 1954 for the Philadelphia AthleticsLast MLB appearanceOctober 3 1965 for the California AngelsMLB statisticsBatting average 284Home runs126Runs batted in658TeamsPhiladelphia Kansas City Athletics 1954 1958 Cleveland Indians 1958 1961 Minnesota Twins 1962 1964 Los Angeles Angels 1964 Philadelphia Phillies 1964 California Angels 1965 Career highlights and awards6 All Star 1955 1956 1959 1960 7 Gold Glove Award 1958 1964 Pellot used the name Vic Power during his major league career but played as Victor Pellot when he played winter baseball in Puerto Rico 3 He was an AL All Star for four seasons playing in five of the six All Star games that were played and won seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards Contents 1 Early life 2 Minor leagues 3 MLB career 4 Name history 5 Later years 6 Legacy 7 Bibliography 8 See also 9 References 10 External linksEarly life EditBorn Victor Felipe Pove Pove was born in Arecibo Puerto Rico the second child in a family of six Pove was his mother s maiden name while Pellot was his father s surname as is traditional in Hispanic culture such as Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker However when his mother Maximina Pove was in the first grade her teacher changed her last name changing the v to a w and adding an r at the end due to believing she was too illiterate to spell her own name and Pove became Power 3 Power showed an interest in baseball at a young age but his father didn t want him to play baseball and would punish him if he caught him doing so When he was thirteen years old his father died and it was only then that he was able to play the game he loved His mother moved to the city of Caguas there he attended and graduated from Jose Gautier Benitez High School 4 In 1946 Pellot started to practice with a local baseball team called the Senadores de San Juan San Juan Senators and learned many of his baseball skills He was later invited to play for the Criollos de Caguas where he was spotted by a New York Yankees scout In 1949 he left for the City of Chicago and went to play for a minor league team in Drummondville Quebec 4 Minor leagues EditPellot was signed by the Yankees in 1951 and sent to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Class AAA International League In 1952 Pellot played for the Kansas City Blues of the Class AAA American Association where he led the league in doubles and triples while posting a 331 batting average The next season Pellot led the league with a 349 batting average 5 6 However despite his skills he was not invited to spring training in either year The Yankees owners at the time Del Webb and Dan Topping felt that Power s playing style and personality wasn t suited for the conservative style that they wanted a black player to represent as a member of the club 7 Power dated light skinned women leading George Weiss the general manager of the Yankees to say that Pellot was not the Yankee type 6 The Yankees also had Johnny Mize at first base and another top prospect Bill Skowron in their farm system Skowron spent most of the 1953 season at first base while Pellot played 121 games in the outfield 8 When the Yankees had a need at the major league level they promoted Gus Triandos a Caucasian player from Class AA instead of Pellot 6 The Yankees decided on Elston Howard to become the first black player in club history Many blacks and Puerto Ricans protested in front of Yankee Stadium in response to what they believed to have been a racially motivated decision 9 MLB career EditOn December 16 1953 Pellot was traded by the Yankees along with Don Bollweg Jim Finigan Johnny Gray Bill Renna Jim Robertson and 25 000 to the Philadelphia Athletics for Loren Babe Harry Byrd Tom Hamilton Carmen Mauro and Eddie Robinson thus becoming the first Puerto Rican to play for that team Suffering from the racial discrimination which was rampant in the nation during that time Pellot could neither stay with the rest of the team at the same hotels nor be allowed to eat at the same restaurants as his white teammates The Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955 where he finished in second place in the batting race Pellot is one of only six batters as of August 7 2010 to have hit both a leadoff and walk off home run in the same game having done so in 1957 the others being Billy Hamilton 1893 Darin Erstad 2000 Reed Johnson 2003 Ian Kinsler 2009 10 and Chris Young 2010 11 In 1958 Pellot was sent to the Cleveland Indians During his 12 year career he played with the Philadelphia Kansas City Athletics 1954 58 Cleveland Indians 1958 61 Minnesota Twins 1962 64 Los Angeles Angels 1964 Philadelphia Phillies 1964 and California Angels 1965 Before retiring Pellot won seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards from when the award was first introduced in 1958 to 1964 He made the American League All Star team with the Kansas City Athletics in 1955 and 1956 and the Cleveland Indians in 1959 and 1960 two games were played both seasons Pellot was also voted the Minnesota Twins Most Valuable Player MVP in 1962 He has the record of having made one or more assists in 16 consecutive game as a first baseman 12 At the age of 36 he won his final Gold Glove Award to be the oldest player to win the award at first base this record was not surpassed until Yuli Gurriel won the first base Gold Glove at 37 in 2021 13 He shares the record of making two unassisted double plays in one game and he is one of 11 players to steal home plate twice in one game and he also shares the record of being assists leader for six years in a row and of double plays in a single game Among his career totals are the following 1 716 hits and 126 home runs and he was only struck out 247 times out of 6 046 at bats 14 Name history EditIn a letter to historian Bill Haber in 1993 Pellot gave his real full name as Victor Felipe Pellot Pove Pove being his mother s maiden name and Pellot his father s surname as is traditional in Hispanic culture see Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker However when his mother Maximina Pove was in the first grade her teacher changed her last name changing the v to a w and adding an r at the end 3 During Pellot s first two professional seasons in the French Canadian town of Drummondville Quebec he went by his birth name Victor Pellot However Pellot noticed that the mostly French speaking crowd began to laugh whenever his name was announced Initially he surmised that the crowd was laughing because he was black This turned out to be incorrect and Pellot soon learned that the real source of the laughter was not his race but his last name the similar sounding word plotte is slang for vagina in the Quebec French 15 In response he played under the name of Vic Power He kept the name after getting promoted to the majors in United States but retained Pellot when playing winter ball in Puerto Rico 3 Later years EditPellot spent his retirement in Guaynabo Puerto Rico The city built a ballpark which he could see from the window of his apartment and named it Parque Victor Pellot Victor Pellot Park after him During the summers he helped youngsters develop their baseball skills in both Puerto Rico and San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic 5 According to historian Bill James Pellot was probably a main reason why San Pedro de Macoris became the world s richest source of baseball talent 5 Pellot died on November 29 2005 in Bayamon Puerto Rico from cancer at the age of 78 He was buried at Porta Coeli Cemetery in Bayamon Puerto Rico 16 Legacy EditPellot has been considered by many Puerto Ricans to be one of the island s greatest baseball players a legend only surpassed by Roberto Clemente 7 In 2005 he spoke about his baseball career in the American documentary Beisbol 17 directed by Alan Swyer and narrated by Esai Morales which covers the early influences and contributions of Hispanics to baseball In 2000 the Cleveland Indians honored him by declaring him to be among its 100 all time greatest players He was named the 81st greatest first baseman in Major League history by historian Bill James in his book The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract 5 Pellot s unorthodox and often flashy approach to fielding first base proved over the years to be very influential Although at the time he was often criticized by the press and his peers for fielding the ball using only one hand instead of two stating it was flamboyance this would later become his trademark move 3 7 More importantly it anticipated a change in how the position is played nowadays virtually all first basemen field the ball one handed this because it increases their reach and provides for greater flexibility Pellot is also remembered by baseball historians and fans for his sharp wit and dark deadpan humor a lot of which was directed at the racism and segregation he experienced during spring training in the southern United States One of the more celebrated examples of his dark wit by which Pellot subverted the ugly rejection experienced through institutionalized racism documented in David Maraniss s biography of Roberto Clemente has Pellot entering a whites only segregated restaurant while playing for Syracuse Upon being told by the waitress that the restaurant didn t serve Negroes Pellot promptly told the waitress not to worry that he didn t eat Negroes 5 Bibliography EditBjarkman Peter C 2005 Diamonds Around The Globe The Encyclopedia Of International Baseball Greenwood Publishing group ISBN 0 313 32268 6 James Bill 2003 The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract Simon amp Schuster ISBN 0 684 80697 5 Moffi Larry Kronstadt Jonathan 2006 Crossing the Line Black Major Leaguers 1947 1959 University of Nebraska Press ISBN 978 0 8032 8316 9 See also Edit nbsp Baseball portal nbsp Biography portal nbsp Puerto Rico portalBlack history in Puerto Rico French immigration to Puerto Rico List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders Players from Puerto Rico in MLB List of Puerto RicansReferences Edit Carle Bill 2005 SABR Biographical Research Committee November December 2005 Report PDF SABR org SABR Retrieved June 4 2007 Hi Bithorn Stats Baseball Reference com Sports Reference LLC Retrieved June 29 2016 a b c d e Wolinsky Russell July 7 2004 Vic Power Power to the People baseballhalloffame org National Baseball Hall of Fame Archived from the original on April 8 2007 Retrieved May 25 2007 a b El Salon de la Fama del Beisbol Latino el sitio de los inmortales del beisbol Latino a b c d e James p 469 a b c Rosengren John April 13 2015 Elston Howard became the Yankees Jackie Robinson 60 years ago SI com Sports Illustrated Retrieved April 15 2015 a b c Bjarkman p 249 1953 Kansas City Blues Statistics amp History Baseball Reference com Sports Reference LLC Retrieved September 20 2012 Kahn Roger 1976 A Season in the Sun University of Nebraska Press p 5 Excerpt quoted at Google Books Andro Anthony July 21 2009 Francisco shelved by pneumonia star telegram com Fort Worth Star Telegram p 3D Retrieved September 16 2009 dead link Alt URL Karpinski David May 17 2018 Perfect Bookends Lead Off and Walk Off Long Ball Same Player Same Game baseballroundtable com Baseball Roundtable Retrieved May 14 2020 Assist Records by First Baseman Baseball Almanac com Baseball Almanac Retrieved June 5 2007 SlangsOnSports 8 November 2021 At 37 years old Yuli Gurriel is the oldest 1B to win a Gold Glove surpassing 36 year old Vic Power in 1964 Tweet via Twitter Vic Power Won Gold Glove seven times historic baseball com Historic Baseball Retrieved June 4 2007 That One Glorious Season Baseball Players With One Spectacular Year by Richard H Letarte Chapter 9 Publisher Peter E Randall Publisher ISBN 1 931807 51 5 Goldstein Richard November 30 2005 Vic Power 78 Pioneer Latino And First Baseman With Flair The New York Times Retrieved May 14 2020 Beisbol IMDb com Internet Movie Database 2010 Retrieved May 13 2020 External links EditCareer statistics and player information from MLB or ESPN or Baseball Reference or Fangraphs or Baseball Reference Minors or Retrosheet Vic Power at SABR Baseball BioProject Vic Power at Baseball Almanac Vic Power at The Deadball Era Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Vic Power amp oldid 1169572727, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.