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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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Felix Torres, a pioneering Puerto Rican baseball player who spent three seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, died Friday. He was 93.
The mayor's office of his hometown of Santa Isabel confirmed the news of Torres' death to Newsweek Sports.
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Torres was 30 years old when he debuted as the Angels' Opening Day third baseman in 1962. Over the next three seasons, he would hit .254 with 27 home runs and 153 RBIs in 365 games.
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The Angels selected Torres in the December 1961 Rule 5 draft after he slashed .278/.321/.474 for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, a Philadelphia Phillies Triple-A affiliate.
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By then, Torres was already a hometown hero in Santa Isabel, and a veteran of more than 10 seasons of baseball in Puerto Rico and the affiliated minor leagues. In 1953 he participated in the World Amateur Baseball Championship in Venezuela, helping Puerto Rico to a sixth-place finish. In 1960 he hit three home runs in the annual Caribbean Series.
Torres became the first native of Santa Isabel and the 21st Puerto Rican to appear in a major league game when he was chosen the Angels' Opening Day third baseman by manager Bill Rigney in 1962.
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The language barrier was a significant one for Torres as a rookie. Not until Puerto Rican-born pitcher Julio Navarro made his debut in September did the Angels have a fluent bilingual speaker in the clubhouse.
"Felix was lost here," Angels infielder Leon Wagner told Jackie Robinson in the 1964 book Baseball Has Done It. "He had a wife and couldn't get an apartment and only had two words of English: 'money' and 'beefsteak' . . . I went out and got the apartment for him."
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Angels trainer Freddie Federico told author Samuel Octavio Regalado in the book Viva Baseball! that, when Torres complained of a sore arm, "I worked on his left arm for a couple of days before I discovered he was right-handed."
Torres played no fewer than 100 games in his three seasons with the Angels. But by Year 3, he was beginning to cede more playing time, and he believed his salary reflected a similar sentiment from the Angels' front office. Torres told the Associated Press in March 1965 that he made $12,500 in each of his first three seasons and was willing to hold out for $15,000.
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The holdout did not work. Torres didn't log an at-bat until the Puerto Rican Winter League season began. His career in MLB was over.
Torres would play two more seasons in the affiliated minor leagues, with the Seattle Angels in 1966-67, but was not promoted.
After retiring as a player, Torres returned home to the southern coast of Puerto Rico. He was inducted into the Ponce Sports Immortals Gallery in 1985. In 2012, he was honored with the Francisco "Pancho" Coimbre Atiles Award, which recognizes outstanding professional baseball players in Puerto Rico.
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