Thursday, August 12, 2010

National Success-Juan "Titi" Beniquez

Juan had a much longer MLB career than I thought he did, and played in exactly 1500 games over 17 seasons for 8 different American League teams from 1971-1988.  He spent the 1986 season with the Orioles as a super utility player, appearing at all three OF positions, first & third base and also serving as the DH.  Juan's O's highlight occurred on June 12 when he hit three home runs, half of his season total, in one game against the Yankees.  Atta boy, Juan!

Over his career, Juan was generally used in a super utility role, and rarely filled a single position for any substantial period of time, only appearing in over 135 games once in his career, when he played 145 games for the '76 Rangers.  His 5 seasons with the Angels were the most amount of time he spent with any of the 8 teams he played for, and his career highlights were winning a Gold Glove on the '77 Rangers and receiving some MVP votes for his '84 season with the Angels.

I really like Juan's autograph, it's very stylized and smooth.  I can also more or less read Juan Beniquez, but only because I know what I'm looking at.  Juan's autograph is readily available online, but I've had no luck going after the very few Orioles autographs I've seen for sale.  I bought this card from the same dealer who had the Hazewood & Melendez autos.  I have one more Crown card to show that I bought from him. 

As was the case with Melendez yesterday, I can't find a translation for Juan's nickname, Titi.  I have an idea based on my knowledge of American slang, but I don't see how that makes any sense...

2 comments:

Matthew said...

I like your theory about the nick name. Some people get named for things they like, not necessarily what they act or look like. It could work.

Orioles Magic said...

Thanks man. If that was the case, I have to feel like a lot of us guys might have a similar nickname to Juan's.