Seattle Pilots pitcher Miguel Fuentes earned his first Major League Baseball (MLB) victory on September 8, 1969. The twenty-three-year-old rookie threw a complete game, giving up seven hits in leading the Pilots to a 5-1 win over the Chicago White Sox. It was the only win of his big league career. Three-and-half months later, his life was taken from him.

After the MLB season ended, Fuentes returned to his native Puerto Rico to play in the Winter League. On January 29, 1970, a few days after his team, the Caguas Criollos, were eliminated from the playoffs, Fuentes was shot to death outside a bar in his native Loiza Aldea, twenty miles east of San Juan.

The bar’s bathrooms were out of order due to a plumbing problem. When Fuentes went outside to relieve himself, he was shot to death by a man who thought Fuentes was urinating on his car. The ballplayer was rushed to a hospital but succumbed to his wounds.

I could not find the name of the man who shot Fuentes or what punishment he received.

Miguel Fuentes

After pitching exceptionally well with the Class A Clinton Pilots of the Midwest League, Miguel Fuentes was promoted to the big league club on September 1, becoming the first player the Seattle Pilots signed as a Free Agent to make it to the big leagues. He was flown to the Bronx for the team’s game against the Yankees. Because of his limited English, he was given cue cards reading “I am a Ballplayer” and “Take Me to Yankee Stadium.”

Starred in Class A Ball

In pitching the ninth inning against the Oakland A’s in the 1969 season finale, Miguel Fuentes earned the distinction of throwing the final pitches in the history of the Seattle Pilots. The franchise moved to Milwaukee the following season and became the Brewers.

Seattle Pilot Distinctions

Fuentes appears in the 1970 set of Topps baseball cards as a Seattle Pilot because the Topps cards were already in production and the Seattle franchise had not yet announced their move to Milwaukee at the time of his murder.

Miguel Fuentes’ Last Baseball Card

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12946833/miguel-fuentes#

SOURCES:

• Baseball-Reference.com
• ESPN
• News Tribune
• Seattle Times