Industriales de Valencia players

Bobby_Balcena

Robert Rudolph Balcena (August 1, 1925 – January 5, 1990) was an American professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Redlegs during the 1956 season. He had two at-bats and scored two runs as a pinch runner.
Listed at 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), 160 pounds (73 kg), Balcena batted right-handed and threw left-handed. He was born in San Pedro, California.
Prior to playing professional baseball, Balcena served in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II with the United States Navy.Balcena became the first player of Asian American and Filipino ancestry to appear in a major league game. He had a long distinguished Triple-A career with the Seattle Rainiers as a center fielder in the 1950s; one paper described him as a "popular miniature dynamo of almost infallible perpetual motion" after his Rainier team won the 1955 Pacific Coast League title.He also played from 1952 through 1962 in the Minor Leagues, including stints with the Leones del Caracas and the Industriales de Valencia in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.
He batted .284 with 134 home run and 441 runs batted in in 1948 minor league games. In a VPBL two-season career, he posted a .306 average with five homers and 44 RBI in 87 games.
After his baseball career ended, he worked as a longshoreman in Seattle where he had played parts of four seasons in the minor leagues.Despite being the first Filipino-American to play in the major leagues, Balcena kept company with Slavs during his life. His union president told the Los Angeles Times that he was an "honorary Slav. He always r[a]n around with the San Pedro Slavs. He speaks Slav. He sings Slav." Outside of his professional career, he also played baseball with an amateur team of Yugoslav Americans.Balcena died in his hometown of San Pedro, California at the age of 64.

Dick_LeMay

Richard Paul LeMay (August 28, 1938 – March 19, 2018) was an American professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, LeMay appeared in parts of three Major League Baseball seasons (1961–63), but had a long career in minor league baseball. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from Withrow High School.
LeMay attended the University of Michigan, stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg). He signed with the San Francisco Giants in 1958 and was recalled from the minor leagues during the 1961 season, appearing in 27 games for the Giants that season, starting five. He dropped six of nine decisions and recorded an earned run average of 3.56 and one complete game in 83+1⁄3 innings pitched. He had nine-game trials with the 1962 Giants and the 1963 Chicago Cubs, and was winless in two decisions. All told he won three games, lost eight and had a career ERA of 4.17 in 45 Major League games. In 108 innings pitched, he surrendered 100 hits and 49 bases on balls. He struck out 69, and was credited with four saves. In his lone MLB complete game, on June 24, 1961, at Busch Stadium, he defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 6–1, allowing six hits; future Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Gibson took the loss.After he returned to minor league baseball in 1963, LeMay had a successful career as a starting pitcher at the Triple-A level through 1970, reaching the double digits in wins for six consecutive seasons, including 17- and 16-victory seasons in 1965 and 1968. All told, he won 139 games and lost 124 as a minor league pitcher. LeMay also managed at the Class A level in the Cubs' farm system in 1971–72 and was a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1970s and the Montréal Expos during the 1980s.
LeMay died on March 19, 2018.

Bobby_Durnbaugh

Robert Eugene Durnbaugh (January 15, 1933 – September 20, 2023) was an American Major League Baseball player. He played in two games at shortstop for the Cincinnati Redlegs in 1957, and grounded out in his only major league at-bat.