Former Yankee Hector Lopez dies at 93
Yankees infielder Hector Lopez sits on the dugout wall prior to a game on June 3, 1966, against the Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston. Credit: Diamond Images/Getty Images/Diamond Images
For some, Hector Lopez was the third prong in the iconic Yankees outfield that included Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, and the man whose performance in the 1961 World Series helped propel the Yankees to a title.
But Lopez also was a trailblazer in a way uniquely his own — only the second Panamanian in the major leagues and, in 1969, the first Black man to manage a Triple-A team, helping to pave the way for Frank Robinson to become baseball’s first Black manager six years later.
Lopez, the inffielder-outfielder who played eight of his 12 major-league seasons with the Yankees and eventually retired to start a 20-year career with Hempstead’s Department of Recreation, has died, the team announced Friday. He was 93. The Yankees had a moment of silence before Friday night's game against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium in his honor.
Lopez, who eventually moved to Florida, also served as a baseball coach at Malverne High School during his time on Long Island. His son Darrol is the current basketball coach at Malverne and earned his 300th career win last season.
Born in 1929 in Panama, Lopez achieved his long-held dream of making the major leagues in 1955 when he was called up to the Kansas City Athletics — 22 days after Humberto Robinson became the first Panamanian to reach the majors.
Lopez was traded to the Yankees in 1959, a year in which he hit .283 with 22 home runs and 93 RBIs for the A's and Yankees. Lopez had seven RBIs in the 1961 World Series and went 2-for-4 with five RBIs in the clinching Game 5 against the Cincinnati Reds. He missed being the series MVP only because Whitey Ford threw 14 scoreless innings.
A strong hitter who sometimes struggled defensively, he had a career slash line of .269/.330/.415 with 136 home runs. He played his final major-league game in 1966.
Lopez started the 1967 season in Triple-A and moved from playing to managing in 1969, taking the reins of the Buffalo Bisons, the Washington Senators’ Triple-A affiliate. Lopez had the job for a season, with the Bisons going 58-78.
The West Hempstead resident eventually relocated to Florida in 1992 and was a staple of Yankees Old-Timers’ Day.
Lopez coached or managed regularly until 2008, he told Newsday in 2010, and appeared as Panama’s manager in the World Baseball Classic in 2009. He also managed Yankees farm teams that included Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Bernie Williams.
"When I was younger, parents of friends I went to school with would say, ‘You're Hector Lopez's son? I saw your dad play. He was a great player,' " Darrol told Newsday in 2010. “Then I started seeing shows on TV about what my father had done and the great teams that he played on. When I got older, I never missed Old-Timers' Day. I realized that my father was something special."
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
