Juan Esteban Vargas (April
11, 1906 – 1971), better known as Tetelo Vargas,
was an internationally known baseball
player from the Dominican Republic
.
Baseball career
An athletic teenager, Vargas spent his early years playing pick-up
baseball games, which helped him develop ability and
strength.
By 1927,
when Vargas was 21, scouts from the United States
and the Dominican Republic had noticed him.
Vargas was
Black, however, and he
became a member of the
Negro
leagues' famed
New York Cubans.
Meanwhile, at home, he was signed by the
Leones del Escogido, one of the four
original Dominican Republic winter baseball league teams that
remain in competition.
Nicknamed
"The Dominican Deer", Vargas gained recognition around the Caribbean
and in New York City
. He established a Negro league record by
hitting
home runs in seven consecutive at
bats.
In
1932, Vargas went to play in
Venezuela
, where he became a star and remained until 1938, when the New York Cubans re-signed
him.
In
1940, Vargas went to play at the
Puerto Rican winter baseball league. He
would eventually become an established resident of Puerto Rico.
Vargas was once again signed by the New York Cubans from
1941 to
1944, his last year as an active player in
the Negro leagues.
Meanwhile, in Caguas, Puerto Rico
, Vargas established himself as an All-Star, playing
in the Puerto Rican All-Star game multiple times during the
1940s. At the time, a series of different sports
competitions preceded the All-Star game in Puerto Rico, all of them
involving baseball players and for the All-Star game's public's
enjoyment. Vargas, who won various
stolen
base titles through his career, won a number of sprint races as
an All-Star player in Puerto Rico.
He went on to play with the Guayama
Witches and the Santurce Crabbers before heading to the
Mexican
winter baseball league in 1952. Vargas, in the twilight of his
career, returned to the Dominican Republic's winter league also in
1952, this time with the
Estrellas
Orientales team. At the age of 46, he led the Dominican
Republic league with a
batting
average of .350. Vargas retired from baseball in
1953, after having played 27 seasons in
five countries.
Statistics
Apart from hitting .350 in 1952 in the Dominican Republic's winter
league, Vargas also led the Puerto Rican winter league in batting
average three times, hitting .410 in
1943, and winning back to back titles in
1946 and
1947, when he hit .382 and .362,
respectively. Vargas played a number of exhibition games against
Major League Baseball's
New York Yankees, averaging .500
against Yankees pitchers.
Positions
Vargas played a number of positions on the baseball field,
including
right field,
left field,
center
field,
shortstop and
second base.
After baseball
Vargas was idolized both in the Dominican Republic and in Puerto
Rico, but he decided to settle in the Puerto Rican city of Guayama,
where he had previously starred for the local team. Vargas was
elected to the Puerto Rican baseball Hall of Fame, and he led a
rather quiet life until he died in 1971.
Because of his involvement as a player with the New York Cubans,
Vargas is also a member of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame.
External links
He remarried in 1954 in PR and lived a humble life in Guayama with
his wife, Violeta Enchautegui de Vargas and three daughters Carmen,
Ana and Iris and son Juan Esteban Vargas Jr. He died Dec. 30, 1971
after battling lung cancer and is now resting in peace next to his
wife in Guayama's main cemetery (Cementerio Municipal de
Guayama).
It is said to believe that Tetelo also beat Olympic track runner
Jesse Owens.
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