At the age of 81, former outfielder Merv Rettenmund, who had an outstanding performance in Venezuelan professional baseball with the Tiburones de La Guaira, died last Saturday in San Diego, California.
Rettenmund wore the sharks uniform twice in the sixties. He was part of the championship team of the 1968-69 season led by Cuban Wilfredo Calviño.
Recommended by Luis Aparicio, he reinforced La Guaira for the first time in the 1967-68 contest, in which he finished as the leader of the circuit in scored (51) and left an average of .313 in 61 games. He participated in the round-robin final of his first campaign and went 5-for-31 with five runs scored, a home run and three hits.
He returned for the next contest and helped the Sharks win the third of eight pennants they have won in the LVBP. In that final series of four clubs against all, La Guaira won 6 of 9 games and Rettenmund hit .267 (8-for-30) with four runs scored, hit a home run and scored 4 runs.
In the 1974-75 contest he came to Venezuela for the third time, this time with Magallanes, directed by Steve Demeter. In 24 games he hit .225.
In the Major Leagues he played for thirteen seasons (1968-80) with the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres and California Angels. In 1023 games he had a career average of .271 with 66 homers and 329 RBIs.
He attended four World Series, three with the Orioles and one with the Reds.
He was champion twice: with Baltimore in the 1970 edition, in five games against Cincinnati, and with the Reds, in 1975, in seven games against the Boston Red Sox.
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Between 1983 and 2007 he served successfully as hitting coach for five different Major League teams. He worked with the Padres for eleven seasons in two stages (1991-99 and 2006-07). He also served in that role with the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves and Detroit Tigers. Three of those teams became champions, including Oakland, winner of the 1989 World Series.
