Page 148 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 141
After parts of 17 years in the big leagues, an American League championship ring, a Gold Glove, and experi- ences all over the country, Juan Beniquez could retire with a lot to be proud of. But he was not through. In 1989 he hit .359 for the St. Lucie Legends of the short-lived the Senior Professional Baseball Association. With that league’s demise the following season, he ended his career in Organized Baseball.
Beniquez, however, had never stopped playing ball in Puerto Rico. He played for 22 seasons, from the winter of 1968-69 to that of 1990-91. Four seasons were with the Arecibo Wolves and 18 with the Santurce Crabbers. He hit for a career average of .273 with 1,039 base hits in Puerto Rican baseball (only six players have hit 1,000 or more—the others being Luis Marquez, Carlos Bernier, Nino Escalera, Sandy Alomar, Sr., and Vic Power.)
After he retired, Beniquez managed Superior baseball at San Sebastian, and in the Winter League he
managed the Mayaguez Indians and coached for other teams.
In 1998 he was inducted into the Puerto Rico Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2013 to the Santurce Sports Hall of Fame.
Sources
An earlier version of this biography appeared in ‘75: e Red Sox Team at Saved Baseball (edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan, and published by Rounder Books of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2005).
Baseball-Reference.com.
Retrosheet.org.
BaseballLibrary.com.
anks to Rod Nelson for information about Pedro Vasquez.
Notes
1 Considerable material has been added to supplement the origi- nal Juan Beniquez biography, thanks to SABR member Edwin Fernandez Cruz.