A Man of Many Gloves
Entry posted by Paul D in Baseball in the 50's and 60's ·
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Twins Video
One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar.
His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil received a $2,000 signing bonus, Tovar got nothing.
Tovar’s first professional season was with Geneva of the NY-Penn League (Class D). He batted .252 in 87 games with 3 HR’s and 41 RBI’s. His 2nd summer was with Missoula in the Class C Pioneer League. He batted .304 with 12 HR’s and 68 RBI’s. In 1961 he was back in Geneva and he would hit .338 with 19 HR’s and 78 RBI’s, he also stole 88 bases in 100 attempts, shattering the NY-Penn League Record. In 1962 he played for Rocky Mount of the Carolina League (Class B), batting .329 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI’s.
In spite of his success in the minors there was no clear path to the Reds. In 1963 the Reds would have a rookie named Pete Rose playing 2nd base, future major leaguer Bobby Klaus was in AAA, and his buddy, Gus Gil played in Macon (AA). The Reds would end up sending Tovar to the Twins on loan to their AAA team in Dallas-Ft. Worth. At Dallas-Ft. Worth manager Jack McKeon had Jim Snyder at 2B, so Tovar became a utilityman, mostly as an outfielder and shortstop. McKeon commented that “he has to be in my lineup and he has to be my leadoff man, but where do I play him?”
Cesar made 2 friends in his brief time in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Billy Martin, who was a minor league instructor in spring training and Tony Oliva.
Tovar returned to the Reds organization for the 1964 season, playing in San Diego. He hit .275 with 7 HR’s and 52 RBI’s, playing 3B, SS, 2B and the outfield.
On December 4, 1964, Tovar joined the Twins in a 1 for 1 trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo.
Manager Sam Mele gave Tovar a long look at 2nd base during spring training in 1965 in a competition with light hitting Jerry Kindall. Billy Martin who was now the Twins’ infield coach, again became Tovar’s tutor. Tovar would end up being sent to Denver of the Pacific Coast League to start the season.
Cesar would only appear in 18 games for the Twins in 1965, but as a sign of things to come, he would play 4 games at 2B, 1 game at SS, 2 games at 3B and 2 games in CF.
He appeared in 134 games in 1966 and had a WAR of 3.3. Tovar became only the 9th Venezuelan to reach the majors, and he would join two other countrymen, Luis Aparicio and Vic Davalillo in MLB.
For his entire Twins career he had a total of 26.0 WAR over his 7 years (3.7 average). From 1967 to 1971 he received votes for league Most Valuable Player with his best finish of 7th in 1967. In 1967 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP Award, receiving 19 of the 20 1st place votes. Tovar received the other 1st place vote courtesy of Minnesota beat writer, Max Nichols.
Versatility was definitely part of his game. Much like Willi Castro in 2023, Tovar would be all over the field. In 1967 he played at least 6 games at 6 different positions (only missing out at 1B, C and P). He would play at least 5 different positions from 1969 to 1971. But 1968 was the most noteworthy. In 1968 he played 1 game at 1B, 18 games at 2B, 35 at SS, 75 at 3B, 37 in LF, 36 in CF, 11 in RF, 1 game where he caught and 1 game where he pitched.
What made 1968 noteworthy was that he became the 2nd player in major league history to play every position in a game. The date was September 22, 1968 against the Oakland A’s. What was even more special was that playing for the A’s that day was Bert Campaneris, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 1965.
According to an article written by Henry Palattella for www.mlb.com, Campaneris’ accomplishment was taken as a publicity stunt by Angels manager, Bill Rigney and he considered it “bush”. Campaneris ended up dropping a fly ball in the 6th inning that let in a run, and in the 8th inning he pitched and gave up 2 walks followed by a run-scoring single. But the most memorable inning was the 9th when Campaneris went in to catch. The Angels Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with a single, stole 2nd base and eventually ended up at 3rd. While on 3rd there was a pitch in the dirt and he took off for home, there was a jarring collision at home plate between Kirkpatrick and Campaneris that nearly ended with both players coming to blows. The game would end up going extra innings, but without Campaneris who was send to the hospital due to a left shoulder injury caused by the home plate collision.
Tovar’s game was much different. The Twins were managed by Cal Ermer. They would end up in 7th place that season, and the game was played near the end of the season against the A’s who would finish in 6th place. Also the A’s were owned by Charley Finley who was famous for this type of “unique” event (including Bert Campaneris doing the same 3 years earlier).
Ermer started the game with Tovar on the mound. He ended up pitching a scoreless first inning where he got Campaneris to ground out, had a walk, a balk and struck out Reggie Jackson. Getting the toughest positions out of the way, Tovar caught in the 2nd inning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune would report that Tovar was in a semi-crouch stance due to “the shin guards being too long for his stubby legs”. In total for the game, Tovar fielded one ground ball, along with having 5 putouts. The team rewarded him with a color TV for his performance. It was the only game ever that Tovar was to pitch, catch or play 1st base.
Since Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968 only 3 other players have played every position in a game: Scott Sheldon on September 6, 2000 for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox, Shane Halter on October 1, 2000 (less than a month later) for the Detroit Tigers against the Twins, and finally, Andrew Romine on September 30, 2017 for the Detroit Tigers, also against the Twins.
Cesar Tovar definitely had a memorable career. He was a huge contributor while he was on the Twins. He played for 2 pennant winning teams and 2 teams that finished in 2nd.
He would stay with the Twins through the 1972 season when he was traded in the off-season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Joe Lis, Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders. Lis would play for the Twins for the entire 1973 season and would be purchased by the Guardians in June of 1974, Sanders would only last until August of the 1973 season when he was released and Reynolds’ Twins career would end before it started when he was traded before the start of the 1973 season to the Brewers for Mike Ferraro.
After the 1973 season Tovar’s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers. They purchased him because their manager, Billy Martin said “get me Cesar Tovar”.
He would play for the Rangers and Oakland Athletics in 1975, and the Athletics and New York Yankees, managed by Billy Martin in 1976. He would retire after the 1976 season.
Sadly Tovar passed away on July 14, 1994 in Caracus, Venezuela at the age of 54.
- Karbo, gman, Oldgoat_MN and 2 others
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