Tony Armas: The first great Venezuelan slugger
By César Augusto Márquez
Antonio “Tony” Armas never thought that he was that good a batter. The first great slugger and million-dollar player from Venezuela readily admits that he was a free swinger.
He hit them hard and hit them far, blasting 251 dingers in a 14-year career repeatedly interrupted by injuries. But, by his own account, his slugging prowess was all due to instinct and natural skill.
“My family, we’re country folks,” Armas said in a recent interview in Spanish with La Vida Baseball. “We grew up helping my father carry sacks stuffed with vegetables for many kilometers and that’s how I think that I got my strength.”
Armas, 64, is the oldest of 13 boys raised by his parents, José Rafael Armas and Julieta Machado, in Puerto Píritu, a fishing village in the state of Anzoátegui, 166 miles east of Caracas. His father was an electrician; his mother kept track of their enormous brood.
To help feed his family, instead of harvesting the ocean, the father worked the land, planting all kinds of beans, vegetables and fruit. Imagine carrying pumpkins, sacks of corn, watermelons — Armas learned the game in the sandlots, but for him there was no substitute for hard work.
Making the leap
“My father was a very conservative man and, of course, he didn’t like the idea of me playing baseball,” Armas said. “While I wasn’t a great hitter, I had a good arm, a lot of power and was a good outfielder. That’s how I caught the scouts’ eyes.
It wasn’t until he turned 17 that Armas had a chance to play in an organized league, the amateur circuit called Doble A in Spanish. Back then, you didn’t have scouts everywhere, but he was playing with people older than him and word spread quickly to the folks running a regional youth team.
Armas easily made the leap, helping his squad capture the Anzoátegui state title. On a bigger stage, Armas caught the eye of several baseball people, among them Pompeyo “Yo-Yo” Davalillo, the brother of All-Star centerfielder Víctor “Vic” Davalillo and a former major leaguer who scouted for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
To cap a dizzying stretch of baseball, Armas moved up to a national team that was competing in an international youth championship in Maracaibo. He may have been a raw country boy back then in 1970, but Davalillo saw him as a perfect fit in an organization that had two of the best bad-ball hitters of all-time — Roberto Clemente and Manny Sanguillén.
Convincing Dad
“When I returned home after the youth championship, Davalillo tried to negotiate with my father, who kept insisting that I wouldn’t go far because I couldn’t speak a lick of English,” Armas said.
“We finally convinced him, and my bonus of $5,000 went directly to him. My father ended up accepting baseball as the career for me, my brother [Marcos] and later, my son [Tony Jr.]. We’re now a happy family,” Armas added with a chuckle.
Armas signed in early January 1971 with both the Pirates and the Leones del Caracas. Like many of his Latino peers of the era, his journey through the minors was not without mishaps and heartbreaks.
“I was not used to pro ball and I quickly had to learn how to get around in English,” Armas said. “Once, in Single-A ball, I went through a big embarrassment. I fouled off a ball that ricocheted off me, and I took off to first base, claiming that I had been hit by the pitch.
“The minors were hard. I think that now it’s a bit easier to get to the major leagues, mainly because of expansion,” Armas said.
Reluctant batboy
Armas said that he had to work twice as hard as the American players to get noticed. In fact, after hitting .266 with nine home runs and 51 RBI in 1972 with the Single-A Gastonia (N.C.) Pirates, he started the next season not on the roster, but as a bat boy.
Armas wanted to go home. But a fellow minor leaguer from Mexico, infielder Mario Mendoza, counseled him to keep his wits, arguing that coaches were gauging his temperament. Two weeks into the season, during a game between the Double-A and Triple-A squads, the centerfielder for the Double-A Sherbrooke (Quebec) Pirates went down.
According to Augusto Cárdenas, author of Armas’ SABR BioProject, the manager simply shouted, “Armas, get in there.”
“I got to Double-A as a batboy,” Armas said. “But in that moment, I showed that I belonged and, thank God, I had a long career in the major leagues. I’m still living off it.”
Armas debuted with the Pirates on Sept. 6, 1976. But it was clear that he was not going to easily crack a lineup that included Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Al Oliver and Richie Zisk taking turns in the outfield.
Player of the Year
Next spring, he ended up in Oakland after a nine-player trade between the Pirates and the rebuilding A’s. Armas hit .240 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI in 118 games in his rookie season, but injuries curtailed his production the following two years.
His coming out party had to wait until 1980, but Armas quickly grabbed everybody’s attention. Able to stay healthy, he hit .279 with 35 home runs and 109 RBI.
Armas seemed destined for an encore in 1981, but the players’ strike interrupted play. He still ended in a four-way tie for the American League home run title, slugging 22 homers in 109 games and becoming the first Venezuelan to lead in the majors in dingers. Throwing in his 76 RBI, his first All-Star selection and a fourth-place finish in the MVP voting was enough for The Sporting News to crown him Player of the Year.
“I always thought that I could have done much more in the 1981 season, but the strike got in the way,” Armas said. “I ended up being the home run king, but not like I wanted.”
Armas’ batting average dipped in 1982, but he still managed 28 home runs and 89 RBI. Then came the trade to Boston, a demanding place to play for anyone, let alone a Latino.
Folk hero
In his first season with the Red Sox, Armas did something unusual, hitting .218 while still finishing with 36 dingers and 107 RBI. Fans didn’t know whether to cheer or boo.
They loved him unconditionally in 1984. Armas averaged .268 while leading the majors with 43 home runs, 123 RBI and 339 total bases. Back home, Armas became a folk hero, with salsa king Rubén Blades dropping his name in the lyrics of the hit song Decisiones.
Heady stuff, but Armas also had to deal with moody teammate Jim Rice, a sweet-swinging outfielder who ended up in Cooperstown in 2009. They battled until the end for the RBI crown — and Armas beat him out by one run.
“I remember that Rice used to get mad because they kept walking him and he couldn’t catch me,” Armas said. “Back then, you didn’t see the mega contracts that they give out today. But it helped what I did. Thanks to my offensive production, I improved my family’s life.”
Armas parlayed 1984 into a $915,000 contract the following season. And despite injuries and dipping down to 23 home runs and 64 RBI, he became the first million-dollar Venezuelan in the majors, in 1986.
Final legacy
From 1980 to 1985, Armas hit 187 home runs — more than any other American League slugger. But in his $1 million season, he managed only 11 with 58 RBI and got booed with frequency. Not surprisingly, the Red Sox let him go at season’s end as a free agent.
Armas played three more years with the Angels, never recovering his feared form. Nonetheless, the country boy went further than his father ever imagined. On top of that, he added another 97 dingers in 20 Venezuelan winter league seasons, a record that stood until 2007.
So, if anyone asks: Before Miggy, there was Armas. Suffice to say, he’s enshrined in the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame and Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
“All these things that I have accomplished are very nice,” Armas said. “I’m a humble person from a humble town called Puerto Píritu.”
Armas continues in the game as the long-time hitting coach of the Leones. He’s shaved the thick mustache of his youth, lost most of his hair and wears glasses. But he’ll still grab a bat and take his hacks.
Just don’t ask him whether he was a good hitter.
“No,” Armas said. “That’s José Altuve and Miguel Cabrera. End of conversation.”
Featured Image: Mike Powell / Getty Images Sport