(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen; Video by MLB FilmRoom)
IN MEMORIAM
...Julio Lugo...
(1975 - 2021) |
 Former Major League-infielder Julio Lugo passed away
Nederlands
 SANTO DOMINGO (Dominican Republic) -
Julio Lugo, who was a solid short stop, an effective hitter and played in twelve Major League-seasons for seven different teams, passed away unexpectedly on Monday (November 15), one day before his 46th birthday.
In 2007, Lugo won the World Series when he played for Boston Red Sox.
The news was first reported by ESPN-reporter Enrique Rojas, who was informed by Lugo's family with the sad news.
It was reported that the infielder had suffered a heart attack.
In his 12-year Major League-career, Lugo has been a teammate of Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk at Baltimore Orioles and of Curaçao-born pitcher Jair Jurrjens at Atlanta Braves.
Julio Cesar Lugo was born in the Dominican city of Barahona on November 16, 1975, but he moved to New York in the USA when he was 13 years old.
In Brooklyn, he went to High School and later, he attended Connors State College in Warner, Oklahoma.
There, Lugo played baseball and in 1994, he was drafted by Houston Astros, which became the first Major League-organization he played for.
Lugo signed with Houston in 1995 and later that year, he made his professional debut, playing in Single-A.
In the following years, Lugo showed that he had talent and climbed on the ladder in the Minor League.
In 2000, the infielder started the season in Triple-A, but shortly after the season had started, he was recalled to the Major League-team of Houston Astros.
He made his big league-debut on April 15, which was the start of a fine rookie-season.
Lugo played in 116 games and batted .283.
He collected 119 basehits, including ten homeruns, scored 78 runs and batted in 40.
Lugo again was a regular in the Houston-team in 2001, playing in 140 games, hitting 135 basehits.
In this season, Houston reached the National League Division Series, but was swept in three games by Atlanta Braves.
In 2002, Lugo, who sometimes also played in the outfield, again had a fine season.
However, on August 12, in a game against Chicago Cubs, he was hit by a pitch from Kerry Wood.
That broke his left arm and ended his season in which he had played in 88 games.
In 2003, Lugo played in only 22 games for Houston before he was released on May 9.
Amongst his teammates at Houston were Moises Alou, Brad Ausmus, Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman, Craig Biggio, Geoff Blum, Ken Caminiti, Richard Hidalgo, Orlando Merced, Scott Servais, Bill Spiers, José Vizcaino and Daryle Ward and pitchers Octavio Dotel, José Lima, Mike Maddux, Roy Oswalt, Yorkis Pérez, Joe Slusarski and Billy Wagner.
Six days after his release by Houston, Lugo was signed by Tampa Bay Devil Rays (which later changed its name to Tampa Bay Rays) for whom he played through 2006 and where he probably played his best seasons.
In his first season with Tampa Bay (2003), Lugo played in 117 games and batted .275 with 119 basehits, including 15 homeruns and batted in 53 runs.
In the following seasons, Lugo again was a regular player for the team from Florida, appearing in 157 and 158 games respectively in 2004 and 2005.
Again, he proved to be a solid hitter.
In 2004, he batted .275 with 160 basehits, seven homeruns and 75 runs batted in, the next season, he batted .295 with 182 basehits, six homeruns and 57 runs batted in.
In 2006, Lugo played in 73 games for Tampa Bay, hitting .308 with 12 homeruns, but then was traded halfway the season to Los Angeles Dodgers.
...Julio Lugo hit two homeruns for Tampa Bay in a...
...10-run rally against Baltimore on July 22, 2006...
(Video: MLB FilmRoom) |
While playing for Tampa Bay, Lugo had a highlight in his career on July 22, 2006.
Playing at home at Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay played against Baltimore Orioles.
Tampa Bay trailed 3-0 halfway the fifth inning, but then staged a 10-run rally on ten basehits.
The team added three runs in the sixth, but in the end won only 13-12, as Baltimore answered with a 9-run rally in the seventh inning.
In the 10-run rally in the fifth at bat, Julio Lugo belted two homeruns.
He first hit a 2-run homerun off of Rodrigo Lopez and later, with two outs, Lugo hit another 2-run homerun, this time off of Kurt Birkins.
Amongst his teammates at Tampa Bay were Rocco Baldelli, Geoff Blum, Jorge Cantu, Carl Crawford, Jonny Gomes, Toby Hall, Aubrey Huff, Travis Lee and Tino Martinez and pitchers Danys Baez, Lance Carter, Travis Harper, Scott Kazmir and Victor Zambrano.
In these years, Tampa Bay was led by wellknown Manager Lou Piniella, while the legendarry Don Zimmer was one of the coaches in two of the seasons.
Lugo completed the 2006 season with Los Angeles Dodgers, playing in 49 games.
With Los Angeles, he played in the National League Division Series, but again, Lugo's team was swept in three games, this time by New York Mets.
After the season, he was a Free Agent.
At Los Angeles, Lugo played with J.D. Drew, Andre Ethier, Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent, Kenny Lofton, Russell Martin and Olmedo Saenz and amongst pitchers were Derek Lowe, Brad Penny and Brett Tomko.
In early December 2006, Julio Lugo signed with Boston Red Sox.
In his first season with the BoSox (2007), Lugo initially struggled with his hitting, but halfway the season, it improved again and he had a 14-game hitting streak.
He also set a club-record by stealing 20 consecutive bases and closed the season with 33 steals.
With Boston, Lugo again played in the postseason.
This time, his team was more successful.
Boston swept Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in three games in the American League Division Series, then defeated Cleveland Indians 4-3 in the American League Championship Series to reach the World Series.
In the best-of-seven Final, Boston swept Colorado Rockies in four games.
In the World Series, Lugo batted .385.
2008 was a troublesome season for Lugo.
Although he batted .268, he struggled somewhat defensively and in July, his season ended when he sustained an injury.
In March of the following year, he underwent a knee-surgery, but returned to the field in April.
However, in July, he was traded to St. Louis Cardinals.
Amongst his teammates at Boston were Alex Cora (who is the current Boston-Manager), Coco Crisp, J.D. Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Lowell, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis.
The pitching-staff included Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz, Eric Gagne, Jon Lester, Javier Lopez, Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon, Curt Schilling, Mike Timlin and Tim Wakefield.
Manager then was Terry Francona, who is the current Manager of Cleveland Indians.
At St. Louis, he played in the remainder of the 2009 season, appearing in 51 games.
He again played in a postseason, as St. Louis reached the NLDS, but then was eliminated in a 3-game sweep by Los Angeles Dodgers.
Amongst his teammates at St. Louis were Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick, Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, Colby Rasmus and Skip Schumacher and pitchers Chris Carpenter, Kyle McClellan and Adam Wainwright.
The team was led by Tony La Russa, who this year came out of retirement to be the Manager of Chicago White Sox.
On April 1, 2010, the infielder was traded to Baltimore Orioles.
There, he mostly played at second base and appeared in 93 games.
Lugo batted .249 and collected 60 basehits.
At Baltimore, Lugo played together with Cesar Izturis, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Luke Scott, Miguel Tejada, Matt Wieters and Ty Wigginton.
Amongst the pitchers were Matt Albers, Jeremy Guthrie, Rick van den Hurk, Will Ohman and Koji Uehara.
During the 2010 season, Van den Hurk was recalled to the Major League-team of Baltimore halfway August and he went on to pitch in seven games in the remainder of the season.
In one of these seven games, Van den Hurk played together with Lugo.
In the game on September 2 against Boston Red Sox, Lugo entered the game as a pinch-runner.
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...Rick van den Hurk and Jair Jurrjens...
...played together with Julio Lugo...
...On these photos, they pitch for the...
...Netherlands Baseball Team during...
...the 2017 World Baseball Classic...
(© Both Photos: Henk Seppen) |
After the 2010 season, Lugo again became a Free Agent.
He then signed a Minor League-contract with Atlanta Braves in late May, 2011.
Lugo joined the Major League-team a month later, but mostly was a back-up player.
He played in 22 games and was released in early September.
At Atlanta, he played with Freddie Freeman, Alex Gonzalez, Jason Heyward, Eric Hinske, Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, Martin Prado and Dan Uggla and he also was a teammate of pitchers Jair Jurrjens, Craig Kimbrel and Derek Lowe.
When Lugo was on the Atlanta-roster, he played in three games in which Jair Jurrjens was the starting pitcher.
On July 17 against Washington Nationals, he was inserted as a pinch-hitter.
Playing for Washington in centerfield and leftfield in that game was Roger Bernadina.
In two others games, Lugo played at third base and at short stop when Jurrjens was the starter.
His games with Atlanta in 2011 were his last Major League-games.
In 12 seasons, Lugo played in 1,352 games and batted .269.
The infielder collected 1,279 basehits, including 238 doubles, 34 triples and 80 homeruns.
He scored 688 runs and batted in 475.
Lugo also was a speedy baserunner and stole 198 bases.
After not having played in 2012, Lugo played in an Independent League in 2013.
Before he made his debut in the Major League, Julio Lugo played in the Dominican Winter League for Estrellas Orientales in two seasons (1997-1998 and 1999-2000).
But after making his Major League-debut in 2000, the infielder played in three more Dominican seasons (2000-2001, 2001-2002 and 2002-2003).
Later in his career, Lugo briefly played for Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Winter League in three winter seasons between 2011 and 2014.
In 2013, Julio Lugo was inducted into the Connors State College Athletic Hall of Fame.
And in 2018, Lugo, together with his brother Ruddy and Mo Berry, was inducted into the All American Amateur Baseball Association Hall of Fame.
Ruddy Lugo also played in the Major League in two seasons (2006-2007) for Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Oakland Athletics.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News extends his condolences to the family of Julio Lugo and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(November 18)
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