There are a few decent players who wore number 17. Chico Carrasquel, Mike Caruso, Tony Graffanino, Carlos May (the only player to wear his birth date on his uniform) and Chris Sabo. If I had to pick one, and I kinda have to here, I pick Chico Carrasquel.Chico played with the White Sox from 1950 until 1955. He was a four time All-Star with the White Sox. He was the first in a great line of Latin American shortstops. Chico was also the first Latin American to be selected as a starter in the All-Star game in 1951.
Even though he replaced Luke Appling at shortstop, Chico excelled in the role on the Sox. He was solid defensively and worked the plate while batting. Chico Carrasquel is the best player to wear #17.
2 comments:
While living in Venezuela my roomie and myself were approached by a man who said in broken English that he had been to Chicago when he was young. He went on to explain that his father played baseball in the US. He also explained that he had a document that he needed translated. As it turned out his father was Chico Carresquel. We helped him out with the translation. As a thank you he let us pick a memento from his collection of memorabilia. I chose a print from Chico's days as a Cleveland Indian as that is my hometown. This has always been one of my favorite stories from my time in Venezuela, and for some reason I was thinking of it tonight. I decided to do a google search to see what new information was out on the web (back when this happened the Internet was not what it is today!). I was very happy to stumble across your blog naming Chico Carresquel as the best player to wear #17 :)
Thanks for the great story! That's so cool. Enjoy your momento!
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