Cincinnati Reds

First Impression; Hector is having fun. Maybe this was his last laugh because he was going from a third place team to a last place team when he was traded December 12, 1980: Traded by the Cincinnati Reds to the Chicago Cubs for Mike Vail.

Location: Pregame Portrait.

Date of birth: April 2, 1953

Career stats: Hector spread out 624 games in 9 seasons with the Cardinals, Cubs, Giants, Reds and Cubs again. It looks like his big chance was 1976 when he played 151 games and hit .228 with 13 HR and 71 RBI. His most notable career achievement was finishing 3rd in the rookie of the year voting in 1976. That year he had 26 errors at third base.

That year the NL Rookie of the Year was a tie between Butch Metzger and Pat Zachry. Zachry has a card in this 1981 set and Metzger’s final baseball card was 1978 Topps #431.

Both the winners were pitchers Metzger going 11-4 with a 2.92 ERA with the Padres and Zachry going 14-7 with a 2.74 ERA for the Reds (Cruz’s 1981 teammate). Cruz had some good production numbers for that era in 1976 but perhaps his low average and subpar defense cost him some votes, though to be fair he only received 2 votes with the other two getting 11 votes each.

All Time Stat: He made 46 errors in his career with 13 from the OF. But he was credited with 23 assists from the outfield in his career.

Fun Fact: Following his playing retirement, he worked for the United States Postal Service as a mail carrier on the West Side of Chicago.

Links to stories including Cruz.