Kurt Bevacqua’s 1977-78 Mayagüez Indios Season Highlights a Colorful Career: Part IV

Part IV begins with the January 23-27, 1981 Finals between second-place Mayagüez (31-30) and fourth-place Caguas (29-31). It transitions to some Bevacqua big-league highlights, 1981-85. His composite Major League, Minors, Venezuela, Dominican Republic (DR), Puerto Rico Winter League (PRWL), and Caribbean Series (CS) stats conclude this four-part series.

Mayagüez-Caguas Finals

Mayagüez edged Arecibo, four games to three, in one semifinal. Caguas upended first-place Bayamón, four games to one, in the other semifinal. Dennis Martínez (6-1, 1.36 ERA), Steve Luebber (7-7), Guy Hoffman (2-2), and Mike Boddicker (2-1) were penciled in by Ray Miller to face Mayagüez, who won the regular-season series, eight games to four. Boddicker (1-1), Geoffrey Combe (1-0), Ken Kravec (1-0), and Joe Price (1-1) accounted for four Caguas regular-season wins. Luebber was 0-4, José Calderón (0-1), and Joe Kerrigan (0-1). Conversely, Eric Show (3-0), John Martin (2-0), Jesús Hernáiz (2-0), and José Bastián (1-0) were a combined 7-0 versus Caguas. Volanta Rodríguez (0-2) and Bob Vesselic (0-2) were 0-4 against the Criollos.

Cal Ermer, the Tribe’s GM, was told Game 1 in Mayagüez would be called off due to Islandwide storms, but it hadn’t rained there. Luis [Gómez] wanted to give Show another day’s rest,» said Ermer. «They got the fire department to the ballpark and flooded the infield. I told Luis that only the umpires can call it off. So we ended up playing after all, and old Show struck out 12.»

January 23, 1981: Caguas (1) Indios (3). Show dominated, with a four-hitter, 12 SO, and four BB. Dennis Martínez threw eight innings, fanning two, walking five, and giving up 10 hits. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4, as did Bevacqua, his third base counterpart. Jim Dwyer went 1-for-2 with two walks. (He went 1-for-4 in Game 5; box scores weren’t available for Games 2-4.)

January 24: Indios (2) Caguas (4). Steve Luebber, winless versus Mayagüez in the regular season, turns it around.

January 25: Caguas (3) Indios (2). Guy Hoffman—who was 17-17 as a big-leaguer with the White Sox, Cubs, Reds, and Rangers between 1979 and 1988—outpitched Jesús Hernáiz. Willie Montañez got the game-winning hit in the visitors’ eighth. Hoffman went 9-10 for skipper Pete Rose with the 1987 Cincinnati Reds.

January 26: Indios (0) Caguas (4). Boddicker’s three-hitter, with five SO and walks, was appreciated by the home crowd. Ditto for Ripken, who made a fine defensive play to preserve the SHO. He had an RBI double. Montañez’s two-run double and Héctor Cruz’s solo HR accounted for the other runs.

January 27: Caguas (2) Indios (1). Dennis Martínez held Mayagüez to one run and seven hits, fanning seven and walking two. Show persevered, hurling seven frames. He allowed four hits and two runs, striking out eight and walking five. Ripken walked, stole a base, and scored on Héctor Cruz’s single. Montañez’s sixth-inning HR was decisive. Bevacqua, 1-for-3 with a walk, scored

the Indios’ tally on Boogie Colón’s single. Ripken robbed Ed Romero of a two-run double in the home sixth, which would have given Mayagüez a 3-2 lead. Caguas won their 12^th title.

Cal Ripken Jr. played third base for Caguas, 1980-82, with a .299 BA, 16 HR, and 88 RBI. Photo credit: Caguas Criollos.

Ripken, a decade later, told the author: «We had a lot of big-league players in PR. Our Caguas team—God, it had at least six to seven good big leaguers [José Cruz, Ed Figueroa, Jerry Morales, Willie Montañez, Héctor Cruz, Ozzie Virgil Jr.]. A lot of the pitching was AAA, so the level was between AAA and the big leagues. So coming out of AA [in 1980], I had to compete at a higher level and learned quite a few things playing all those games. It [PRWL] allowed me to reach the big leagues before I was 21, and part of my goal in baseball was to get there early and play a long, long time. I don’t think I’d be able to do it without PR.»

Mike Boddicker went 20-9 for 1983 Baltimore, post-Caguas, and earned a Gold Glove with 1990 Boston. He was determined to pitch well in the 1980-81 PRWL postseason. «The [PR] sportswriters were saying we [Caguas] only had Dennis Martínez as a quality pitcher,» said Boddicker. «So that motivated me.»

Tim McClelland (6-6, 250 lb.) umpired the January 23-27, 1981, finals in a six-man umpiring crew, including natives Manache Hernández and Charlie Román. (Regular-season games had four umpires.) McClelland recalled Bayamón’s skipper, Art Howe, arguing a close call in the 1981 semifinals between Caguas and Bayamón. Tim appreciated local umpires Román and Manache. «Charlie and Manache became our friends,» recalled McClelland. «They would come over for dinner and parties and invite us to their houses.» A driver (Mula) also invited Tim to parties with other umpires—»that’s where we got to learn the native customs; if we needed to get a ride during the day, we’d get a ride with one of the native umpires or take a taxi cab.» Durwood Merrill, another PRWL umpire (mid-1970s), mentioned that Charlie Román would carry a gun.

Tim McClelland, big-league umpire, September 3, 1981 to 2013, umpired 4,236 major league regular season games, five Division Series, nine League Championship Series, and four World Series. The PRWL was a «launching pad» for his umpiring career—source: eBay.

Some 1981-1982 Big-League Highlights, Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres

Bevacqua became friends with some of the 1981 Pittsburgh Pirates, including captain Willie Stargell. A long 1981 big-league players’ strike resulted in Bevacqua being sent to AAA Portland. Per his SABR bio by Max Effgen, Bevacqua announced «that he would not go down to the minors at age 34,» but Stargell, after a long talk, said: «Keep the uniform on your back.»

From 1982 to 1985, Bevacqua was a good role player for skipper Dick Williams and their unofficial clubhouse spokesman. On June 29, 1982, Bevacqua hit a key ninth-inning double off LHP Jerry Reuss of the Dodgers. Manager Tom Lasorda removed Reuss while staring at Bevacqua. The SABR bio had this Bevacqua quote: «He [Lasorda] called me an [expletive] hitter. I yelled at Lasorda, grabbed my crotch, told him where to stick it…Alan Wiggins was tapping me on the shoulder.» (Dick Williams sent in Wiggins to pinch-run for Bevacqua, and the Padres won that game in 10 innings.)

In Game 2 of a June 30, 1982, twin-bill (the next day), Bevacqua charged the mound after Tom Niedenfuer hit Joe Lefebvre with a pitch after Niedenfuer allowed a HR to Broderick Perkins. Umpire Joe West ejected Bevacqua, who was not in the lineup. Niedenfuer was fined $500 for the beaning. Bevacqua, per Chris Cobbs of the Los Angeles Times, said: «They ought to fine the fat little Italian [Lasorda] who ordered the pitch.» This «feud» continued for some years but did not affect their goodwill off the field. Bottom line: Bevacqua was a Padres fan favorite.

San Diego Padres, 1983 to 1985

Kurt Bevacqua was a San Diego Padres fan favorite and a top-notch role player. In 1983, he impressed manager Dick Williams: pinch-hitting .412 BA, one HR, 16 RBI. Photo credit: Fleer.

San Diego (92-70) won the NL West and defeated the Chicago Cubs, three games to two, for the NL pennant. Bevacqua went 0-for-2 in the NLCS after going 16-for-80 in the regular season, but in Game 1 of the 1984 World Series, he was the DH against Detroit’s ace, Jack Morris, his ex-1978-79 Mayagüez teammate. Bevacqua doubled off Morris, leading off the seventh, and third-base coach Ozzie Virgil Sr. waved him to third. However, he stumbled rounding second, and Lou Whitaker—taking the relay from Kirk Gibson—threw Bevacqua out at third.

In Game 2, October 10, 1984, Kurt’s three-run HR gave the Padres a 5-3 win, San Diego’s first Fall Classic victory. He had fun running around the bases. This included blowing kisses to the crowd, rounding third. Detroit won Games 3-5 to take the series, four games to one. Bevacqua singled in Game 3; doubled in Game 4; and homered in the seventh off Willie Hernández, his 1977-78 Indios teammate, cutting Detroit’s lead to 5-4. Detroit scored three more to win it, 8-4. Bevacqua’s .412 BA (7-for-17), .882 SLG (two doubles, two HR, four RBI) were impressive.

His SABR bio noted: on April 1, 1985, Bevacqua announced on the KBZT radio phone-in show that San Diego traded Tim Flannery to Milwaukee for Rollie Fingers; then, Fingers, Steve Garvey, and Gerry Davis to the Yankees for Don Mattingly and Willie Randolph! April Fools’ Day joke!

Table I highlights some of Bevacqua’s stats across the big leagues, minor leagues, the Dominican Winter League, the Venezuelan Winter League, and the PRWL. Table II has more hitting stats.

Table I: Partial Bevacqua Basic Hitting Stats (Majors, Minors, Winter Baseball)

LIDOM: DR Winter League. VZWL: Venezuela Winter League. CS: Caribbean Series.

Table II: More Bevacqua Basic Hitting Stats (Majors, Minors, Winter Baseball)

Sources: Baseball-Reference, Winterball Data, Miguel Dupouy Gómez, Germán Rivas, Jorge Colón Delgado, and Tom Van Hyning.

Bevacqua’s 1977-78 Mayagüez MVP season, with a .308 BA, 10 HR, and a PRWL-leading 64 RBI, remains the regular-season centerpiece of his pro baseball career. His 1984 World Series performance for San Diego was his best postseason. Boddicker and Ripken’s Caguas team never made it to Caracas, Venezuela, for the February 1981 CS—that event was canceled. Special thanks to Kurt Bevacqua, Mike Boddicker, Max Effgen, Cal Ermer, Tim McClelland, Durwood Merrill, and Cal Ripken Jr. Jorge Colón Delgado did the editing and photo placements.

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Tom Van Hyning

Tom Van Hyning se crió en Santurce, Puerto Rico. Su familia se mudó a esta preciosa Isla cuando tenía dos años. Tom es el autor de tres libros: “Puerto Rico’s Winter League”, “The Santurce Crabbers” y “The Caribbean Series: Latin America’s Annual Baseball Tournament 1949-2024, que fue publicado en 2025. Laboró como Economista de Turismo en el estado de Mississippi y es miembro de SABR, Capítulo Cool Papa Bell en Mississippi. Sus artículos han sido publicados por SABR en la revista National Pastime y Baseball Research Journal. Igualmente escribe para las páginas web negroleaguerspuertorico.com y safabpp.com.