Luis Ernesto Aparicio Montiel, nicknamed “Little Louie”, is a Venezuelan former professional baseball player who is notable for when in 1984 he became the first Venezuelan player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Aparicio won the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year Award in 1956. He helped the “Go-Go” White Sox win the AL championship in 1959 and was the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) runner-up that season (he led the AL in stolen bases, putouts, assists, and fielding as shortstop). He was an AL All-Star for ten seasons, an AL stolen base leader for 9 consecutive seasons, and an AL Gold Glove winner for 9 seasons.
MLB legend Ted Williams called Aparicio “the best shortstop he had ever seen”. He was nominated for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team (100 greatest players) in 1999.
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Don’t get to see much live footage of these older players playing defense…would be neat to see Aparicio vs other modern contemporaries.