He La Romana Latin Baseball Hall of Fame (Dominican Republic), It has two new immortals. It’s about the Venezuelans Johan Santana and Félix Hernándezwho were exalted in the eleventh ceremony held at the venue.
The expeloters Andruw Jones from Curacao and the Dominicans Álex Rodríguez and Alonso Sorianowere also awarded.
Hernández arrives at the temple of Latin immortals, after having had a brilliant career in the Major Leagues with the Seattle Mariners, with which pitched Major League Baseball’s 23rd perfect game, a feat he accomplished on August 15, 2012, against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Creole reached the first perfect game in the history of the franchise, while in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP) he saw action with the Cardenales de Lara in the 2003-04 season and with Navegantes del Magallanes in the 2013-14 season .
It must be remembered that Hernández heads the historical list of winners with 169 wins in 419 games with the Mariners in 15 seasons between 2005 and 2020.
As far as Santana is concerned, The 45-year-old former pitcher began his career as a center fielder until he was converted, due to the speed of his arm, into a pitcher.
The Venezuelan played for the Minnesota Twins from his debut in 2000 to 2007, and for the Mets from 2008 to 2012. He twice won the Cy Young Award and the Pitching Triple Crown with the Twins in 2006.
In the same way He made history by throwing the first no-hitter for the New York Mets, a feat that occurred on June 1, 2012.which at the same time was the first no-hitter by a left-handed pitcher in franchise history. Santana appeared in 360 games, 284 as a starter, and left a balance of 139 successes and 78 losses.
The former Creole players arrive at the Latin Baseball Hall of Fame where they will share with 76 elected membersamong them all the Latin American members of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.
With the inclusion of both in the Hall, which opened in 2010, The number of Venezuelan baseball players rose to 14 distinguished. These are the other exalted Venezuelans:
Luis Aparicio (2010), David Concepción (2010), Andrés Galarraga (2011), Jesús Marcano Trillo (2012), Antonio Armas (2013), Luis Salazar (2014), César Tovar (2014), Oswaldo Guillén (2015), Omar Vizquel (2016), Edgardo Alfonzo (2017), Baudilio Díaz (2018) and Bob Abreu (2023).
