Bobby Ávila
| Bobby Ávila | |||
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Ávila in about 1953.
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| Second baseman | |||
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Born: April 2, 1924 Veracruz City, Mexico |
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Died: October 26, 2004 (aged 80) Veracruz City, Mexico |
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| debut | |||
| April 30, 1949, for the Cleveland Indians | |||
| Last appearance | |||
| September 29, 1959, for the Milwaukee Braves | |||
| Career statistics | |||
| Batting average | .281 | ||
| Home runs | 80 | ||
| Runs batted in | 467 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
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| Member of the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame | |||
 Baseball Hall of Fame
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| Inducted | 1971 | ||
Roberto Francisco Ávila González (April 2, 1924 – October 26, 2004) was a Mexican professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a second baseman for the Cleveland Indians (1949–58), Baltimore Orioles (1959), Boston Red Sox (1959), Milwaukee Braves (1959) and Tigres del México (1960). Born in Veracruz City, Mexico to Maria Gonzalez and Jorge Avila, he had a medium frame at 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) and 175 pounds (79 kg). He was better known in his homeland and other Latin American countries as "Beto" and in the majors as "Bobby".
In 1954 Ávila won the American League Batting Championship, edging out Ted Williams and Minnie Miñoso with a .341 batting average, while playing almost the entire season with a broken thumb.Though by today's standards, Williams (with.345) would have been the champion, but he had so many walks (136), he didn't have enough official at bats to qualify. To keep this from happening again, the rule was changed shortly thereafter to plate appearances rather than official at bats to qualify as batting champion. He also registered career highs in home runs (15), runs (112) and runs batted in (67).
In that same season, the Indians faced the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series, which matched the two leagues' champion bats, Ávila and Willie Mays; it was the third time that top batters in the majors played each other in the Series. Other matchups were Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb in 1909; Al Simmons and Chick Hafey in 1931. The next time the two batting champions faced off in the Series would be 2012, when the Giants' Buster Posey and Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers met.
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