Tag: Frank Lary

Jose Valdivielso – a member of 1961 Twins passes away

Jose Valdivielso

One of the few remaining members, Jose Valdivielso, of the 1961 Minnesota Twins passed away on March 4, 2025 at the age of 90. José Martinez de Valdivielso Lopez was born on May 22, 1934 in Matanzas, Cuba.

Valdivielso started his professional baseball career as a shortstop with the Class C 1953 Lubbock Hubbers in the West Texas-New Mexico League. During the 1954 season Valdivielso was assigned to the Washington Nationals in an unknown transaction and was sent from Lubbock to the Class B Rock Hill Chiefs and then on to the Class A Charlotte Hornets. He started the 1955 season with Charlotte but was called up by the Washington Nationals and made his MLB debut on June 21, 1955 at Griffith Stadium against the Chicago White Sox in a 6-1 Nats loss in which Valdivielso went 0 for 3. Valdivielso split his time with the Nats and their minor league teams in 1955-1956.

Valdivielso with Minneapolis Millers in 1958

Somehow he ended up playing for the Chicago White Sox AAA Indianapolis Indians in 1957 and in 1958 he split his time with the AAA Boston Red Sox Minneapolis Millers and the AAA San Francisco Giants Phoenix Giants. He started the 1959 season with the AAA Baltimore Orioles Miami Marlins and then low and behold he showed back up with the Washington Nationals where he played in the rest of the 1959 and the 1960 season.

In 1960, the team’s sixtieth and last season in Washington, Valdivielso was the Senators’ most-used shortstop, starting in 92 games and playing a career-high 117 contests. But by late September he had lost his starting job to Zoilo Versalles, a 20-year-old fellow countryman.

Valdivielso spent the 1961 season with the Minnesota Twins but only played in 76 games mainly as a defensive replacement and had just 158 PA’s in which he hit .195 with 29 hits and 9 RBI. One of those 29 hits was his lone Twins home run a long blast to left field that took place on June 4, 1961 at Tiger Stadium off Frank Lary in a 10-4 Twins loss to the Detroit Tigers. Jose played his final major league game at Met Stadium against the Detroit Tigers and went 2 for 3 with an RBI on the 1961 season’s final game, which was called in the top of the sixth inning on account of rain.

Valdivielso never played in the major leagues again and finished his career with the Minnesota Twins AAA Vancouver Mounties in 1962, and the Chicago White Sox AAA Indianapolis Indians in 1963-1964. In total, Jose Valdivielso collected 213 hits in the majors, with 26 doubles and eight triples to go along with his nine home runs.

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Former Twins catcher Russ Nixon passes at 81

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For some reason this was one of my favorite Twins baseball cards back when I was a kid collecting baseball cards for a nickel a pack.

Russ Nixon was born in Cleves, Ohio on February 19, 1935 and passed away on November 9*, 2016 at the age of 81 in the same city that he was born. Nixon, a left-handed hitting catcher played in the big leagues for all or part of 12 seasons between 1957-1968 with the Indians, Red Sox, and the Minnesota Twins.

Russ Nixon attended Western Hills High School in Cleves and went on to attend the University of Cincinnati where he studied mechanical engineering. In 1952 Russ Nixon was selected as the American Legion ball “Player of the Year. Russ Nixon had a twin brother, Roy, a first baseman and each signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1953. Roy however; never played above class A ball and did not get to wear a major league uniform.

Russ Nixon in 1957
Russ Nixon in 1957

Russ Nixon made his major league debut with the Indians on April 20, 1957 at Briggs Stadium when he replaced starting catcher Hal Naragon in the seventh inning with the tribe trailing the Tigers 6-0. Nixon had one at bat in that game and he singled to right field off Tiger hurler Frank Lary and then was lifted for a pinch-runner. Russ was a good hitter and had a .268 average in 906 games but most of his career was spent as a back-up catcher and he only appeared on 100 or more games in 1958 and 1960 and never reached 400 at bats in any season.

The Minnesota Twins and Russ Nixon crossed paths when the Twins acquired Nixon and second baseman Chuck Schilling from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for pitcher Dick Stigman and minor league infielder Jose Calero on April 6, 1966. Calvin Griffith was hoping to strengthen his team by acquiring Schilling and Nixon but many wondered how acquiring two players from the ninth place Red Sox was going to help the defending American League champions. Both Nixon and Schilling were excited about being acquired by a club as good as Minnesota and looked forward to the 1966 season. Schilling was one of the final cuts before the 1966 final 25 man squad was finalized and refused his assignment to the minors and decided to quit pro ball at the age of 28 with five seasons in the big leagues under his belt rather than play in the minor leagues. Nixon, now at the tail end of his career played for the Twins in 1966 and 1967 and hit .244 in 125 games with one home run and that ironically was at Fenway Park off Red Sox starter Billy Rohr in a Twins 4-0 win. The Twins released Russ Nixon in April of 1968 and he signed with the Red Sox again and played one final season in the big leagues before hanging up his catching gear for the final time.  But Russ Nixon couldn’t leave baseball, he went on to scout, coach and manage both in the minor leagues and the major leagues through 2008. Russ Nixon had a 231-347 record as a manager in the major leagues with the Cincinnati Reds in 1982-1983 and the Atlanta Braves from 1988-1990. Nixon called it quits after the 2008 season which was year number 56 in pro ball. Russ Nixon has the distinction of being active in Major League Baseball for 56 consecutive years in various roles. 

Away from baseball in the off-season Nixon bred Arabian horses on his ranch. Here is a bit of baseball trivia that involves Russ Nixon that you may not know. Russ Nixon played in more (906) major leagues games than any other player and yet was never able to steal a single base, he did get caught stealing seven times.

Glancing back, and remembering Russ Nixon from 1960s baseball

Russ Nixon  Obituary

The photo’s below are provided courtesy of Western Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. You can click on the pictures to make them larger.

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Russ Nixon high school photo
Not sure who is Russ and who is Ray in this photo

Russ Nixon
Russ Nixon

We at Twins Trivia would like to pass on our condolences to Russ Nixon’s family and friends and to thank them all for the great memories.

* = Some sources and obituary’s list date of death as 11/9/2016 while others had 11/8/2016, still doing some checking as I want to get it correct. UPDATE – I have confirmation from the family that Russ Nixon passed away on 11/9/2016.

According to ELIAS

Tigers McCann hits his first career homer….and it doesn’t leave the park

James McCann‘s two-run inside the park home run, the first home run of his career, tied the game in the seventh innings in a contest the Tigers won, 10-7, over the Twins yesterday afternoon. McCann became just the third catcher in the last 36 years whose first career home run was an inside the parker, joining Minnesota’s Chad Moeller (July 29, 2000) and Pittsburgh’s Angelo Encarnacion (August 19, 1995).

McCann was the first Tigers player whose first career home run was an inside the park homer in over 59 years, since pitcher Frank Lary accounted for Detroit’s only run with a homer that didn’t leave the park in a season-opening loss to the Kansas City Athletics on April 17, 1956. Source: ELIAS