| Manny Mota | |
|---|---|
 Mota in 1966 | |
| Outfielder | |
| Born: (1938-02-18)February 18, 1938 (age 87) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| April 16, 1962, for the San Francisco Giants | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 1, 1982, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .304 |
| Home runs | 31 |
| Runs batted in | 438 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
As player
As coach | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Member of the Caribbean | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1998 |
Manuel Rafael Mota Geronimo, more commonly known asManny Mota (born February 18, 1938), is aDominican formerMajor League Baseballoutfielder who played 20 seasons for theSan Francisco Giants,Pittsburgh Pirates andMontreal Expos, as well as being apinch hitting specialist with theLos Angeles Dodgers. He retired as a player at the age of 44.[1]
He served as acoach for the Dodgers from 1980 through 2013. His 34 consecutive seasons as a Dodger coach set a team record and is the second-longest such streak in MLB history, followingNick Altrock, who coached for 42 consecutive seasons with theWashington Senators. Mota currently works as a minor league hitting instructor and serves as a Spanish-language television broadcaster for the Dodgers.
At the age of 19, Mota signed as an amateur free agent with theNew York Giants on February 21, 1957. He began his minor league career that season with the Class-DMichigan City White Caps of theMidwest League, where he hit .314 in 126 games. In 1958, he was promoted to the Class-BDanville Leafs of theCarolina League, where he hit .301 in 103 games.
Mota began 1959 with the Class ASpringfield Giants of theEastern League and was later promoted to the AAAPhoenix Giants of thePacific Coast League. In 86 games combined, he hit .304. In 1960, he played in 141 games for the AARio Grande Valley Giants of theTexas League, hitting .307. In 1961, with the AAATacoma Giants, he hit .289 in 142 games.
After beginning 1962 with theEl Paso Sun Kings, Mota made his major league debut on April 16, 1962, for the San Francisco Giants against theLos Angeles Dodgers, and hit a fly ball to centerfield in his first at-bat. His first hit was a single offJim Brosnan of theCincinnati Reds on April 21, 1962. He had 13 hits in 74 at-bats for a .176 batting average in 47 games for the Giants.
On November 30, 1962, the Giants traded Mota to theHouston Colt .45's (withDick LeMay) forinfielderJoey Amalfitano.
Before he appeared in an official game with Houston, Mota was dealt to thePittsburgh Pirates for outfielderHowie Goss and cash on April 4, 1963, and he quickly established himself as one of the National League's premiere hitters. In six years with the Pirates, Mota appeared in 642 games and hit .297. His first career home run was hit offChris Short of thePhiladelphia Phillies on May 26, 1964.
On October 14, 1968, Mota was the second player selected in theexpansion draft by theMontreal Expos. In 31 games, he hit .315.
On June 11, 1969, Mota was traded to theLos Angeles Dodgers (along withMaury Wills) forRon Fairly andPaul Popovich.[2] Once in L.A., Mota became their number one pinch hitter and hit over .300 during the next five seasons.
On May 16, 1970, Mota hit the first batted ball in major league history to cause a fatality.[3] In the bottom of the third against the Giants atDodger Stadium, Mota fouled one off ofGaylord Perry along the first base line. The ball struck 14-year-old Alan Fish in the left temple. Four days later, Fish died of an inoperable head injury.[4]
In 1973, Mota was selected to theNational League All-Star team after leading the league in batting average. From 1974 through 1979, Mota was continuously called upon for late inning heroics, where he averaged 10 pinch hits for six straight seasons. The Dodgers appeared in the1974,1977, and1978 World Series. In 1979, he established his place in the record books by becoming the all-time leader inpinch hits. He had a compact swing and often half-swung just to push the ball beyond the reach of the first baseman for a hit.[citation needed]
In1981, Mota appeared in his fourth World Series, this time as a coach. Mota retired as a player from the Dodgers after the 1982 season, a year in which he had only one plate appearance. He ended his playing career holding the all-time major league record for career pinch-hits (149), which has since been broken byMark Sweeney andLenny Harris, an overall lifetime batting average of .304, and a .299 pinch-hitting average (149-498) along with four home runs and 115 RBI in that role.[5] His .315 batting average is second best (1,800 or more at bats) in Los Angeles Dodgers history, trailing onlyMike Piazza's .331.[citation needed]
Mota served as a player-coach for the Dodgers during his final seasons on the diamond, then remained a coach after retiring as a player. Mota coached Los Angeles in the1988 World Series, his fifth in a Dodger uniform. He retired as a coach in 2013 to become a full-time broadcaster (see below).
Mota's fame as a pinch-hitter was immortalized in the 1980 movieAirplane!, when Ted Stryker tries to "concentrate!" on flying the plane, then hears an echo in his head ("concentrate...!"), which morphs into a baseballpublic address announcer intoning, "Pinch-hitting forPedro Borbon...(Borbon)...Manny...(Manny)...Mota...(Mota)...!" (This did not occur in a real big-league game, as Mota and Borbon never played for the same major league team at the same time; however, theydid play together forTigres del Licey in theDominican Republic for several winter seasons.)
In the off-season, Mota and his wife Margarita resided in the Dominican Republic, where they ran the Manny Mota International Foundation. Established over 30 years ago, this humanitarian organization provided vital resources and other assistance to disadvantaged youth and their families in both the Dominican Republic and the United States.
Mota was inducted into theHispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame on August 23, 2003, in a pre-game on-field ceremony atDodger Stadium. Mota was inducted into theBaseball Reliquary'sShrine of the Eternals in 2013.[6]
Mota worked as acolor commentator on the Fox Sports en Espanol television broadcast of the2007 World Series and worked as a Spanish-language broadcaster for the Dodgers on selectPrimeTicket broadcasts; he became a full-time broadcaster on the Spanish-language feeds ofSportsNet LA in 2014.
Two of Mota's sons,Andy andJosé, also played in the major leagues. Manny's youngest son, Tony, played extensively through the minor leagues and also coached for the Dodgers organization. His son Jose was a Spanish language play by play broadcaster for the Los Angeles Angels for 20 years. He joined the Los Angeles Dodgers Spanish language broadcast team in 2022. Manny was married to Margarita Mota for 60 years. She died in September 2023.[7] Mota's nephew, Santiago Taveras, is an educator and former deputy chancellor in New York City, and was the principal ofDeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx until his ouster in a grade-fixing scandal in November 2016.[citation needed]
| Preceded by | Los Angeles Dodgers Hitting Coach 1980–1989 | Succeeded by |