Rafael Ortiz, better known by the diminutive Rafaelito, was born on July 17, 1914, in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. Proving baseball is all about timing, he unnerved hitters by taking his time on the mound, often flicking dirt to gauge the direction of the wind before winding up.[i]
His parents, Ricardo Ortiz Rodriguez and Justa Correa, had five other children: Felipe, Arturo, Reynaldo, Rosalí, and Olga.[ii] Another child, William, died nine days after Rafaelito’s birth.[iii]
The svelte right-hander quickly earned the nickname «el mago de Magas,» (the magician), a reference to his Magas Abajo neighborhood.[iv] He measured 5-foot-10 and weighed 150 pounds, according to PRWL records, though stateside profiles deem him an inch shorter and six pounds lighter. He began playing in 1932, during the island’s amateur «béisbol romántico» era, when teams would travel across the island for weekend games. The Ensenada Parrot (so named after the Ensenada neighborhood of Guánica, a nearby town, and sponsored by the South Porto Rico Sugar Company) was his main team.[v]
Ortiz debuted with Guayama in 1938-39, the Puerto Rico Winter League’s (PRWL) first season, and was a key cog in the Brujos’s title, going 11-3 to pace the league in victories.[vi] His inside the park home run on December 11 was the first ever round-tripper by a pitcher was the first pitcher to hit a home run.
After the season, Guayama faced the Duncan Cementers in the Semi-Pro World Series. [vii] Ortiz tossed two shutouts, including a six-inning one-hitter called on account of rain.[viii] Guayama won the series, 5 games to 2.[ix] Ortiz is shown, third from the top left, in a team picture published in the Sporting News.[x]
By 1940, he had married the former Angela Merlo, though the exact date is unknown.[xi] The couple had eight five children: Rafael Jr., Rigoberto, Héctor Luis, Humberto, Elia, Judith, Jorge, and Johnny.[xii]
Ortiz was less successful in three other years for Guayama: 6-4 in 1939-40, 2-5 in 1940-41, and 8-4 in 1941-42. Nevertheless, Guayama repeated as champions in 1939-40 behind Satchel Paige‘s 19 victories and consistently contended in the early 1940s.
Ortiz formed a formidable pitching duo with Tomás «Planchardón» Quiñones in Ponce in 1942-43 repeated as league champions. After a 2-6 start, Ortiz won his last six decisions and led the league in ERA while Quiñones (8-7) placed third; both were in the top five in strikeouts.
Before 1943-44, the PRWL shrunk from eight franchises to four by merging teams due to World War II, strengthening the caliber of play.[xiii] Ortiz responded with a stellar campaign: he was unblemished in 15 games (with one no-decision) to set a league record for most consecutive wins in a season. His 21 straight victories (counting the last six of 1942-43) also remain unparalleled.[xiv] In a controversial decision, one of the seven MVP voters left him off the ballot, which he lost his teammate Quiñones.
Ortiz split time between the Indios and the San Juan Senadores in 1944-45 and 1945-46. On December 3, 1944, he was on the wrong end of history as his Mayaguez Indios were no-hit by Quiñones, 8-0, in the first no-hitter in PRWL history.[xv]
Caguas returned for the 1946-47 season, and Ortiz led the Criollos with a 12-6 record. Caguas lead the finals, 3 games to 1, but Ponce won three straight to stun the Criollos. Although his record fell to 7-5 the next year, he led the league in ERA, and Caguas won the title.[xvi] More importantly, teammate Quincy Trouppe, incoming manager for the Chicago American Giants, invited Ortiz, Roberto Vargas, Bienvenido Rodríguez, and Alphonso Gerard to play in the United States.
Ortiz debuted on April 25 at Comiskey Park against the defending Negro World Series champions Cleveland Buckeyes. He showed neither fear nor nerves and handcuffed the Buckeyes to one run on six hits and a walk. He struck out five batters in the exhibition contest.[xvii]
Entrusted with the season opener, Ortiz won the first game of doubleheader against the Indianapolis Clowns and fellow Puerto Rican Luis Cabrera won the second for the Clowns, both with an identical 4-1 score.[xviii]
A month later, Ortiz’s hard-luck 1-0 loss against Gene Collins of the Monarchs on June 11 was deemed «one of the best played games in the Negro American League.»[xix] Rodríguez was his battery mate through the first eight innings, the third all Puerto-Rican battery.[xx]
Regrettably, Negro League statistics are incomplete. Baseball Reference and Seamheads both credit Ortiz with a single game, July 5 against the Kansas City Monarchs, in which he tossed six innings with five strikeouts, three walks, one wild pitch, and five runs (four earned).[xxi] Those numbers correspond to a July 5 game against the Kansas City Monarchs. Retrosheet captures ten other regular-season games and one exhibition contest, of which seven were complete games. Ortiz threw 75 1/3 innings, allowed 61 runs, and posted a 3-6 record.[xxii] James A. Riley notes an extra win, though it is unclear which game accounts for it.[xxiii]
After one more year with Caguas (1948-49, 4-3), Ortiz split time with the Criollos and the Santurce Cangrejeros in 1949-50 and played three seasons with Santurce before his retirement in 1953. In 1951, Ortiz pitched for Puerto Rico in a seven-game series against the Dominican Republic.[xxiv] Shortly thereafter, Luis Villodas, Cocó Ferrer, and Ortiz signed with the Estrellas del Cibey of the Dominican Republic league.[xxv] Ortiz returned to the island a few weeks before his 49h birthday to play in a legends’ game that pitted retired Dominican and Puerto Rican stars.[xxvi]
After his professional career, Ortiz worked for the Canesa Sugar Mill from 1959-1974 in Juncos and occasionally coached the town’s Mulos Double-A team.[xxvii] He was also an assistant coach with Caguas in the late 1960s. At 67 years old, he occasionally pitched in exhibition games organized by the Brotherhood of Retired Baseball Players.[xxviii]
Ortiz was elected to the Puerto Rico Sports Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992. He was chosen as one of the PRWL’s best 75 players of all time in 2013. As of the conclusion of the 2025-26 PRWL season, he is eighth in career wins (85) and is the only pitcher to win 10+ games for three different teams.[xxix] He was 3-0 in season openers, winning for Guayama, Ponce, and Caguas.[xxx]
Ortiz died on December 19, 1989, in Yauco, Puerto Rico, of cardiac arrest.[xxxi] Survived by Angela, he was buried in his hometown. Baseball Players’ Brotherhood president Manolo Alvarez remarked Ortiz was «one of the league’s finest…he would have been a millionaire in today’s era of baseball.»[xxxii] The year, which included the devastating Hurricane Hugo, robbed the island of five other baseball legends: Francisco «Pancho» Coímbre, Jorge «Griffin» Tirado, Luis «Canena» Márzquez, Carlos Bernier, and Jesús Guilbe.
References
The author consulted Seamheads, Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, and Beisbol101.
Notes
[i] Héctor Barea, «Qué ha sido de…Rafaelito Ortiz,» El Imparcial, November 24, 1970: 13, https://gpa.eastview.com/eida/newspapers/eida19701124-01.1.13
[ii] US Census Records, 1930 Puerto Rico, «United States, Census, 1920», FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X97P-6SR : Mon Jan 20 23:06:00 UTC 2025), Entry for Ricardo Ortiz Y Rodriguez and Justa Correa De Ortiz, 1920.
[iii] «Puerto Rico, Registro Civil, 1805-2002», FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJN-D5QV : Wed May 14 07:15:46 UTC 2025), Entry for William Ortiz Correa and Ricardo Ortiz Rodriguez, 3 Jul 1921.
[iv] Thomas E. Van Hyning, Puerto Rico’s Winter League, MacFarland Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1995, 93.
[v] Luis Romero Cuevas, «Dónde están ahora?,» El Mundo de Puerto Rico, November 30, 1983: 42, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19831130-01.1.41
[vi] Van Hyning, 93.
[vii] At the time, the Puerto Rico Winter League was considered a semi-professional circuit.
[viii] Van Hyning, 93.
[ix] F. Soto Respeto, Torres Pérez and Santín, «Guayama-Venerable Proclamado Campeón Mundial de Béisbol Semiprofesional,» El Imparcial, September 18, 1939: 18, 31, https://gpa.eastview.com/eida/newspapers/eida19390918-01.1.18
[x] «1939 Semi-Pro World’s Baseball Champions,» Sporting News, April 4, 1940: 9,
[xi] «United States, Census, 1940», FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KFJF-FP4 : Sat Oct 18 13:16:53 UTC 2025), Entry for Rafael Ortiz Y Correa and Angela Merlo De Ortiz, 1940.
[xii] «Fallece Rafaelito Ortiz,» El Mundo de Puerto Rico, December 20, 1989: 70, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19891220-01.1.69
[xiii] San Juan and Guayama, Santurce and Caguas, Ponce and Arecibo, Mayaguez and Aguadilla merged, with the former team remaining in the league. In 1946-47, Aguadilla and Caguas returned.
[xiv] Van Hyning, 93.
[xv] José M. Miranda, «Los Cinco Juegos Sin Hits Ni Carreras,» El Imparcial, October 18, 1958: 71, https://gpa.eastview.com/eida/newspapers/eida19581018-01.1.70
[xvi] Van Hyning, 93.
[xvii] «Am. Giants In 8-1 Win Over League Champs,» Chicago Defender, May 1, 1948: 11, https://profile.sabr.org/hnpblacknewscoll/newspapers/am-giants-8-1-win-over-league-champs/docview/492849613/sem-2?accountid=208426
[xviii] «Chicago, Clowns Split,» Chicago Defender, May 8, 1948: 10, https://profile.sabr.org/hnpblacknewscoll/newspapers/chicago-clowns-split/docview/492745066/sem-2?accountid=208426
[xix] «Gene Collins Wins Pitching Duel,» The Call (Kansas City, MO), June 18, 1948: A8, https://profile.sabr.org/hnpblacknewscoll/newspapers/gene-collins-wins-pitching-duel/docview/2883664570/sem-2?accountid=208426
[xx] «Kansas City Monarchs 1, Chicago American Giants 0,» June 11, 1948, Retrosheet, https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1948/B06110CAG1948.htm
[xxi] Rafael Ortiz, Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/ortizra03.shtml
[xxii] Rafaelito Ortiz Pitching Log, Retrosheet, https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1948/Portir1021948.htm
[xxiii] James A. Riley, “The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues,” Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York,1994: 590.
[xxiv] «Dominicanos Derrotan a Boricuas 6-4 y 4-3,» El Imparcial, April 16, 1951: 37, https://gpa.eastview.com/eida/newspapers/eida19510416-01.1.36
[xxv] «Villodas, Ferrer, Ortiz y Lanauze, contratados,» El Imparcial, April 9, 1951:36, https://gpa.eastview.com/eida/newspapers/eida19510409-01.1.35
[xxvi] «En Santo Domingo, Ex Estrellas Béisbol de PR Celebrarán un Partido de Exhibición,» El Imparcial, June 17, 1963: 55, https://gpa.eastview.com/eida/newspapers/eida19630617-01.1.55
[xxvii] Héctor Barea, «Qué ha sido de…Rafaelito Ortiz,» El Imparcial, November 24, 1970: 13, https://gpa.eastview.com/eida/newspapers/eida19701124-01.1.13
[xxviii] Luis Romero Cuevas.
[xxix] Rafael Ortiz, Beisbol101, https://beisbol101.com/jugador/rafael-ortiz/
[xxx] Eduardo Valero Valero, «San Juan Ha Ganado Más Inaugurales,» El Imparcial, October 15, 1955: 22, https://gpa.eastview.com/eida/newspapers/eida19551015-01.1.22
[xxxi] «Puerto Rico, Registro Civil, 1805-2002», FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJF-R7LH : Wed May 14 03:11:22 UTC 2025), Entry for Rafael Ortiz Carrea and Recardo Ortiz, 19 Dec 1989.
[xxxii] «Sepultan a Rafaelito Ortiz,» El Mundo de Puerto Rico, December 23, 1989: 62, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19891223-01.1.61
