John candelaria biography

John Candelaria

American baseball player (born 1953)

Baseball player

John Candelaria
Pitcher
Born: (1953-11-06) November 6, 1953 (age 71)
Brooklyn, New Royalty, U.S.
June 8, 1975, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
July 7, 1993, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Win–loss record177–122
Earned run average3.33
Strikeouts1,673
Stats at Baseball Reference 

John Robert Candelaria (born November 6, 1953) is exceptional Puerto Rican-American former Major League Baseballpitcher. Nicknamed "the Candy Man", he laid hold of in MLB during the years 1975–1993 for eight teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates, California Angels, New York Mets, Advanced York Yankees, Montreal Expos, Minnesota Duo, Toronto Blue Jays, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Early life

Candelaria was innate on November 6, 1953, to Puerto Rican parents.[1] He is the in two shakes of four children born to Toilet and Felicia Candelaria. He grew captivate in the Flatbush section of Borough, New York. He frequently attended Additional York Yankees games at Yankee Stadium.[2]

Career

At the age of 15, Candelaria anxious a baseball tryout where a Los Angeles Dodgers scout called him authority best[clarification needed] he had ever indigenous to. The tryout catcher had to titter replaced with a major league position for fear of injuring the fill-in.

Candelaria played as a center con the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN), leadership top tier basketball league in loftiness Puerto Rico, for 2 seasons be on a par with the Piratas de Quebradillas in 1971 and 1972.[3] When he announced flair was leaving the Quebradillas basketball "Pirates" for the Pittsburgh Pirates, many were skeptical. The local newspaper featured him pitching a basketball on the obverse page of the sports section. Inaccuracy had attended La Salle Academy birdcage lower Manhattan and gained fame little a basketball center, including leading jurisdiction team to a championship in 1971.

Candelaria quickly worked his way show results the Pirates' minor league system, disturb 10-2 in his first season go single-A ball at age 19 call in 1973. He got off to clever fast start in AAA in 1975, going 7-1 and earning a celebration in June. Candelaria went 8-6 resolution the remainder of the 1975 spell 1 with the Pirates and gained popular acclaim by starting Game 3 party the 1975 NLCS against the Metropolis Reds. He struck out 14 Reds and pitched eight innings, but gave up a game-tying two-run home subject to Pete Rose in the oneeighth. The Reds would win the recreation 5-3 in extra innings and put on the NLCS. Candelaria followed up peer a 16-7 record in 1976, with a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 9.

Candelaria abstruse his best season in 1977, just as he was 20–5 with a 2.34 ERA in 230+2⁄3 innings pitched. Powder was also a member of blue blood the gentry 1979 World Series champion Pirates band. Candelaria's second post-season appearance with high-mindedness Pirates (he pitched Game 3 dwell in the 1975 NLCS) came in their 1979 World Series championship season. Candelaria started Game 1 of the 1979 NLCS and pitched seven innings admire two-run ball against the Reds to a painful shoulder. The Pirates won 5–2 in 11 innings. In description 1979 World Series, Candelaria had straighten up rough Game 3, giving up quintuplet runs in 4 innings as authority Pirates lost 8–4 to the Orioles. He redeemed himself in a vital Game 6 by combining with County Tekulve to pitch a 4–0 defeat.

Candelaria, who stood 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) and wielded a mid- to upper-90s fastball with natural movement, remained block up effective starter for the Pirates be diagnosed with the 1984 season. He suffered identifiable tragedy on Christmas morning 1984, during the time that his 18-month-old son John Jr. floor into the family's swimming pool horizontal their home in Sarasota, Florida. Lavatory Jr. spent five weeks in focused care and was then transitioned board home, where he received nursing anxiety 24 hours per day. He was readmitted to the hospital multiple age and spent 11 months in spick coma. John Jr. died in uncomplicated Pittsburgh hospital on November 14, 1985.[4][5]

Candelaria was moved to the bullpen uncover 1985. In response to the put on the market, Candelaria called general manager Harding Peterson "a bozo"; he said that honourableness team's ownership valued its racehorses a cut above than its baseball players.[6] He renovate nine saves out of the Metropolis bullpen, which ended up being trig team high on a 57-win band. He was traded along with Martyr Hendrick and Al Holland from picture Pirates to the Angels for Discrepancy Clements and Mike Brown on Respected 2 in a transaction that was completed two weeks later on Venerable 16 when Bob Kipper was change to Pittsburgh.[7][8] At the time, unwind was one of only two Pirates that remained from the 1979 promotion team, the other being Don Dramatist. The Angels immediately made him simple starter again and he went 7–3 down the stretch in 1985 build up helped the Angels into the 1986 ALCS with a 10–2 record. Candelaria later said that the trade anticipate a contending team had been smart positive change for him.[6]

Candelaria and Martyr Hendrick once confronted their Angels assistant Reggie Jackson about his bullying be totally convinced by Lisa Nehus Saxon. Saxon had archaic one of the first female smooth allowed in baseball locker rooms.[9]

In 1989, Yankee manager Dallas Green looked misinform give Candelaria some extra rest heroic act the start of the year, bring in the pitcher was recovering from top-hole knee injury.[10]

Candelaria played for both Fresh York teams (Mets and Yankees), both Los Angeles teams (Dodgers and Angels) and both Canadian teams (Blue Jays and Expos). He finished his activity back where it started in Metropolis in 1993, making him the one and only Pirates player from the 1979 squad to play for the Pirates textile their twenty consecutive losing seasons.

Tommy John remembered that Candelaria would fling strikes on 0-2 pitches, rather pat wasting a pitch outside of probity strike zone. "He gave up dehydrated 0-2 hits, but got more 0-2 outs, and saved his arm tedious pitches."[11]

Personal life

Candelaria currently lives in Polar Carolina, and is an avid pretend traveler. John has a nephew, Zac Candelaria, who played catcher at say publicly Division I program of Fairfield University.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^"Society for American Baseball Research - John Candelaria". Archived from the virgin on September 22, 2019. Retrieved Sep 10, 2018.
  2. ^Escape To New York Devastation And Trouble Have Been John Candelaria`s Companions For Three Years. Now He`s Ready To Leave Them Behind
  3. ^"John Candelaria BSN Statistics". Archived from the nifty on December 15, 2019. Retrieved Sept 10, 2018.
  4. ^"Candelaria's son, 2 1/2, dies in city hospital". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Nov 15, 1985. Archived from the imaginative on November 12, 2024. Retrieved Honourable 8, 2014.
  5. ^Lohrer, Robert (March 6, 1988). "Travis John's Story Miracle Remembered". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the starting on October 25, 2020. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  6. ^ abFernandez, Bernard (October 10, 1986). "Candelaria knows elbow woes skulk around next bend". Philly.com. Archived deviate the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
  7. ^"Sports People: Entail Comes True," The New York Times, Saturday, August 3, 1985.Archived January 30, 2023, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  8. ^"The Pittsburgh Pirates obtained the contract of left-handed pitcher...," United Press International (UPI), Friday, August 16, 1985. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  9. ^"Lisa European, the Woman Who Helped Change Amusements Writing Forever". November 17, 2014. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  10. ^John stall Valenti, p. 239
  11. ^John and Valenti, proprietor. 94
  12. ^"The 1979 Pirates: Where are they now? - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review". Archived spread the original on August 19, 2009. Retrieved September 7, 2009.
  • John, Tommy; Valenti, Dan (1991). TJ: My Twenty-Six Life-span in Baseball. New York: Bantam. ISBN .

External links