Los Angeles: Minnie Minoso, the Cuban-born White Sox star who was Major League Baseball’s first black player in Chicago, has died, the team said on Sunday.
The White Sox didn’t release details of Minoso’s death, but said he passed away on Saturday night in Chicago.
“Our organisation and our city have suffered a heartbreaking loss today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said. “We have lost our dear friend and a great man. Many tears are falling.”
Minoso began his major league career with Cleveland in 1949 and became the first black player based in Chicago when the White Sox acquired him from the Indians in 1951.
In his first at-bat for the White Sox, he homered against Yankees right-hander Vic Raschi.
President Barack Obama, who launched his political career and started his family in Chicago, said Minoso would be missed.
“For South Siders and Sox fans all across the country, including me, Minnie Minoso is and will always be ‘Mr White Sox’,” Obama said in a statement, noting that Minoso came up through the Negro Leagues and battled a language barrier as well as racism as he pursued his big league dream.
Minoso, whose full name was Saturnino Orestes Armas Minoso, was nicknamed the “Cuban Comet” and blazed a trail for Latino players in the major leagues.
He went on to spend 12 of his 17 seasons with the White Sox.
A nine-time All-Star, Minoso played most of his career in the outfield and was a lifetime .298 hitter with 336 doubles, 83 triples, 186 homers and 1,023 runs batted in.
He won three Gold Glove awards, led the American League in triples and stolen bases three times and topped the AL in doubles once.
