Saturday, January 20, 2024

Happy # 90 Camilo Pascual







The great Camilo Pascual was born in La Habana, or Havana Cuba, on this day in 1934. 

As a young kid, my favorite Cuban baseball player was Camilo Pascual.  He pitched most his career for the original Washington Senators who became the Minnesota Twins in 1961.

As a Senator, Pascual pitched for very bad teams.   It got better when the team moved to Minnesota and the Twins became a perennial contender with a young Harmon Killebrew, power hitter Bob Allison,  the very good lefty Jim Kaat and fellow Cubans Tony Oliva & Zoilo Versalles.

His numbers were great with the Twins:   20-11 in 1962 and 20-9 in 1963.     He led the league in strikeouts 3 years in a row.  In other words, he was one of the best right handed pitchers in baseball.

Overall, he won 176 games with a very good 3.63 career ERA.    He would have easily won 230 games with a better team!

We say happy birthday to one of my heroes.    I don't know what Camilo is doing these days.   I read a few years ago that he was scouting for the Twins in Latin America.

Happy birthday to the great Camilo.   I hope that you really enjoy your birthday!

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