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RIP Joaquin Andujar: One Tough Dominican

Generation Xers have some strange major league memories from the mid-70s through the mid-80s. That’s when old school norms like the unwritten rules of baseball started to break down. There is no doubt. Archaic notions of orthodoxy and self-policing still exist in baseball, but things changed forever in 1975. That’s when an arbitrator introduced free agency to MLB, and professional sports were never the same. Players began to bounce from team to team, and along with that movement a new appreciation of individual style emerged. One player who represented the sea change in baseball culture was Joaquin Andujar. Andujar was a major leaguer from 1976 to 1988.

As a Chicago fan some of my most poignant memories were confused adulation for strange happenings and trends. White Sox fans remember those awful 1976 uniforms with short pants and Disco Demolition Night in 1979. I was a Cubs fan watching horrible teams on WGN TV. Every year I had to pick an alternate team to have a rooting interest in the postseason. One of my all-time favorite teams was the 1980 Houston Astros. They had an awesome pitching staff led by Nolan Ryan and the legendary 6’8” fireballer J.R. Richard; but it was Joaquin Andujar who stole the show for me.

Andujar worked mostly out of the bullpen in 1980. I remember him as he wound his arm forward and backward in a circle (like Sugar Ray Leonard against Roberto Duran) before he delivered each warm-up pitch. He threw hard and nasty stuff from myriad angles. He would go up and in with ferocity like Pedro Martinez. He gesticulated and celebrated with intensity. He nicknamed himself “One Tough Dominican.” Andujar told a reporter during the 1985 Word Series:

“You’ve got to be angry. You have to have some guts, some temper. If you’re a (bleep), you can’t play this game.”

The 1980 Astros wore those orange rainbow uniforms with white shoes and played indoors on crazy turf in the Astrodome. They were the first domed team to reach the MLB playoffs. The featured players like Caesar Cedeno, Jose Cruz, Enos Cabell, and Joe Morgan. They were a fast team with outstanding pitching and defense that played small ball under their professorial manager Bill Virdon. They took on the Phillies for the NLCS that year. It was a classic. The best of five showdown featured four extra-inning games with a 10-inning Game Five.

Andujar started his career in 1969 in the Reds organization. In 1975 he was traded to Houston and broke in with the Astros in 1976. He made two All-Star teams before he was traded to St. Louis during the 1981 season. In 1982 Andujar became a world champion as he won both his World Series starts for the Cardinals against the Milwaukee Brewers in a seven game classic. In 1984 he won 20 games for St. Louis and led the Cards into the 1985 postseason with 21 wins. Unfortunately for Andujar, his legacy will be his explosion during Game 7 of the 1985 World Series against Kansas City. He was ejected by umpire Don Denkinger after erupting twice over balls and strikes. He moved on to Oakland in 1986 and 1987 before pitching his final season in a 1988 return to Houston. Andujar was signed to a minor league contract by Montreal in 1990, but was released before the season. At the time he retired Andujar’s 127 wins put him second all-time among Dominican pitchers after Juan Marichal.

Joaquin Andujar was a fascinating study in Gen X baseball. As a proud Dominican he was one of the precursors to a distinct style of play that has changed modern baseball’s definition of a “hot dog.” Many Dominicans play the game with an energy and style that has traditionally ruffled old school baseball feathers. Times have changed, and talent wins out. The Dominican Republic has exported a wave of Hall of Fame players the last several decades; and their cultural influence is a natural part of the game’s evolution. In 2013 Jorge Arangure Jr. wrote an article for Sports on Earth titled “The Changing Face of Baseball.” Arangure wrote:

Not satisfied to be meek bystanders, modern Latino players have begun to impose their own attitudes on a game that, in previous years, had asked them to curtail their behavior to appease a mostly white power structure. But no more. Latinos have become an integral part of the game, and their presence, once under constant threat, now is assured. Baseball needs Latino players not only to improve the talent pool, but also to appeal to a growing Latino audience.

Joaquin Andujar might not be the poster boy for social change. He was profane, antagonistic, and combustible. He didn’t always get along with teammates and surely not the media (although that’s not necessarily a character defect). He played mean and some would say dirty; but he loved to win. Andujar represented a decade of upheaval for major league baseball. From uniforms to attitudes to salaries, everything began to change between 1975 and 1985. Lots of fans couldn’t take it at the time, and there are still segments of the baseball world that have a hard time accepting the modern ballplayer. Time to enter the 21st Century. Even an old timer like Whitey Herzog could appreciate a player like Andujar.

“I loved him,” Herzog said of Andujar. “He made managing fun because every day, it was something. But you know, he would take the ball and he would pitch. He was a good competitor…Guys like that are good for the game.”

Time moves on. Andujar was a young 62 when he died yesterday of complications from diabetes. It’s funny what you remember about players from your youth. I’ll always remember those gyrating warm-up tosses and those ferocious inside fastballs. RIP Joaquin.
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