Rubén Amaro Sr.


Rubén Amaro Sr. was a Mexican professional baseball player. He played as a shortstop and first baseman in Major League Baseball from 1958 through 1969. He was the son of a Cuban, Santos Amaro, "El Canguro" and a Mexican, Josefina Mora.
He finished 21st in voting for the 1964 National League MVP for playing in 129 games and having 299 at-bats, 31 runs, 79 hits, 11 doubles, 4 home runs, 34 runs batted in, 16 walks, a.264 batting average, a.307 on-base percentage, and a.341 slugging percentage.
Shortly after joining the New York Yankees, Amaro suffered a knee ligament injury in a collision with left fielder Tom Tresh. The injury limited Amaro to just 14 games in 1966.
Amaro's father, Santos, was an outfielder in the Mexican League. His second son, Rubén Jr., was an outfielder in Major League Baseball in the 1990s, served as the General Manager of the Philadelphia Phillies from 2009–2015, and is currently the First Base Coach for the New York Mets. Amaro's third son, Luis, also played briefly for the Philadelphia Phillies in minor league baseball, and is currently the General Manager of the Aguilas del Zulia baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, recently winning the LVBP championship 2017. He also has a son David Amaro, a daughter Alayna Amaro, and his youngest son Ruben Andres Amaro.
Amaro served as a member of the board of the Baseball Assistance Team, a 501 non-profit organization dedicated to helping former Major League, Minor League, and Negro League players through financial and medical hardships.
Amaro died on March 31, 2017 of natural causes.

In popular culture

His son, Rubén Amaro Jr., portrayed him on two episodes of The Goldbergs, an ABC series which is set in the 1980s. His son attended William Penn Charter School, the same school as TV and film producer Adam F. Goldberg, on whose adolescence the show is based.