More than 45 years have passed since his last meeting with the New York Yankees in September 1976, and César Tovar holds the record as the only Venezuelan utility player to have played in at least 200 games at five different positions, and is in force as one One of the most versatile players in Major League history.
Perhaps that is why it aroused so much enthusiasm in the local environment, ending last week, that justice was done by elevating the remembered baseball player from Caracas to the Hall of Fame of the Minnesota Twins who since 2011 appeared among the nominated candidates and always left him in the waiting circle.
Through the fields of Caracas
At the age of 8, Tovar began to play baseball in a formal way. At that time he was a regular visitor to a piece of land where “games stopped”, very close to his residence, in the Los Cocuyos neighborhood of Los Rosales, where the La Bandera terminal is today.
He studied primary school, helped the family with his work as a shoe shiner and started with his first children’s team, the Marista led by Mr. Pablo Sánchez.
In youth he played Banco Obrero, in the mid-1950s and in the senior categories he performed with the Class A Naval Quartermaster and with the AA National Cartography.
Signature without bonus
Gabe Paul, general manager of Cincinnati, arrived in Caracas at the beginning of 1959 to evaluate Gustavo Gil, who made such a good impression on him that he offered him a $2,000 bonus, a very attractive figure at the time.
As a condition, Gil asked that he also recruit Tovar. And Paul pleased him, although there was no bonus, only the air ticket to go to training. And at the same time, Pompeyo Davalillo and Oscar “Black” signed him for Caracas for ten thousand bolívares. Thus began his career of 26 seasons in Venezuelan professional baseball, 16 of them with the long-haired, in which he formed a special combination with Víctor Davalillo.
With affiliates of Cincinnati he played for six years, the Reds had no plans to promote him to the Major Leagues as an infielder because they were developing another very “joseador” youngster: Pete Rose. In December 1964 he was traded to Minnesota and in 1965 he graduated, and played the first 8 of his 12 MLB seasons.
In the LVBP he was one of the darlings of the Caracas fans of the 1960s and 1970s. Tovar was what we know as a great baseball fanatic, he returned from the United States and arrived directly at the UCV stadium. He often attended caimaneras that were held in Caracas and was always willing to give clinics to the children.
