Omar Vizquel

Omar Enrique (Gonzalez) Vizquel (April 24, 1967-) is Major League Baseball’s career hit leader among Venezuelan players, has the second most hits by a shortstop behind Derek Jeter and is considered one of the best fielding shortstops in history as he collected 11 Gold Gloves, including nine straight (1993-2001, 2005-2006). The Seattle Mariners signed Omar as a free agent in 1984 and he debuted in 1989 playing in 143 games at shortstop. Playing shortstop on six different teams, Vizquel was one half of double play duos that included Tony Fernandez, Ricky Gutierrez, Ray Durham and Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, among others, and is the all-time leader in double plays as a shortstop. Omar has played 24 years in the Major Leagues for the Mariners (1989-1993), the Cleveland Indians (1994-2004) San Francisco Giants (2005-2008), the Texas Rangers (2009), the Chicago White Sox (2010-2011) and the Toronto Blue Jays (2012). He has won nine Gold Gloves and has played in two World Series losing efforts (1995, 1997), but due to the focus on offensive performance, he has only appeared in three All-Star Games. Omar’s best season at the plate came in 1999 when he batted .333 with 191 hits including 36 doubles, stole 42 bases and drove in 66 runs. Vizquel has a .985 career fielding percentage with 4,092 putouts, 7,656 assists, 1,731 double plays and 183 errors in 11,931 chances. Through the 2011 season, Omar Vizquel has batted .272 with 2,841 hits including 451 doubles, has scored 1,433 runs, stolen 401 bases and driven in 944 runs in 24 years.