Page 146 - 1975 BoSox

JUAN BENIQUEZ WAS ONE OF MANY great position prospects for the Red Sox in the early 1970s, beginning his career as an
in elder. After switching to the out eld he was faced with a logjam of star talent, and had to leave Boston to nding regular playing time. rough it all, he managed to play parts of 17 seasons for eight American League teams. He played in a World Series, won a Gold Glove, received votes for Most Valuable Player, and hit three home runs in one game.
Juan Jose Beniquez Torres was born on May 13, 1950, in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico. His father, Jose Julian “Pepe” Beniquez-Font, was an outstanding athlete whose sports included baseball, basketball, volleyball, and track and eld. His mother, Clemencia Torres, remained at home to raise the children, one of who was Jose Juan “Pepito” Beniquez, who never went pro but played for the hometown club, Patrulleros de San Sebastian.1
Juan began his own career with the Patrulleros at the age of 16 and played for them until scout Pedro Vasquez signed him to the Red Sox at the tender age of 18. He played in Winter Haven, Florida, in Class A in 1969, hitting .261 in 120 games, and in Double-A in 1970 for Winston-Salem (92 games) and Pawtucket (56 games), showing some power with 13 homers for the two teams combined. In 1971 Beniquez played for the Triple-A Louisville Colonels and batted .279. at earned him a call-up to the big leagues in September.
In 1969 Beniquez married Irma Gonzalez. ey had two children, Irma Nanette and Juan Jose Jr.
Beniquez made his major-league debut as a shortstop only three years after signing, on September 4, 1971, coming in to play in the eighth inning and ground- ing out in the ninth. But he had a great
game the next day, in his rst major-league start, batting 3-for-4 with two doubles and driving in two runs as the Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-1.
Beniquez played a lot of shortstop for the rest of 1971, alternating with incumbent Luis Aparicio. He nished the season with a .298 batting average with four runs batted in and three stolen bases in 57 at-bats. However, he also made six errors in just 15 games. He didn’t make the team out of spring training in 1972, but was called up from Louisville in June when Aparicio was disabled with a broken nger, and played daily until he set a modern major-league record with six errors in two consecutive games in July (making it a total of seven for three consecutive games). At Louisville he played in 66 games and hit .296. Aparicio returned in August, and Beniquez rode the bench for the rest of the season. He did play in the 1972 season nale, which the Red Sox won, but the strike-shortened schedule ended with the Red Sox a scant half-game behind the division-winning Detroit Tigers.
Beniquez was slated as the Sox utilityman for 1973, but Mario Guerrero’s strong spring training won him the slot, and Beniquez was assigned to Pawtucket (now Boston’s Triple-A team) where he started o at shortstop but was ultimately moved to the out eld. He spent the entire season at Pawtucket re ning his out eld play. He hit .298, su cient to lead the International League in batting. Pawtucket won the league championship.
In 1974 Beniquez was the Red Sox center elder on Opening Day, and ended up sharing the position with Rick Miller, playing in 106 games (91 in center eld), and batting .267 with an on-base percent- age of .313. He normally hit rst or second in the batting order, and stole 19 bases while being caught 11 times.
Juan Beniquez
by Jonathan Arnold
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