Trailblazing former Expos coach Virgil to turn 89 on Monday

Former Montreal Expos coach Ozzie Virgil turns 89 on Monday.

May 16, 2021

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

The date was Sept. 22, 1956 and Ozzie Virgil Sr. had finished playing that season with the Minneapolis Millers minor-league team when the parent New York Giants front office came calling.

Virgil had already flown back home to New York where he lived and had an inkling Giants owner Horace Stoneham and general manager Chub Feeney were going to promote him to the big-league club.

Not only was the third baseman being called up to the big leagues for the first time but he became the first player from the Dominican Republic to play in the majors.

It was history in the making.

Virgil, who spent some of his youth in the Bronx and served in the U.S. Marines, was naturally excited when he got the call. So on Sept. 23, he told me he got into his brand-new, maroon-coloured 1956 Oldsmobile 98 and drove 30 minutes to the Polo Grounds to play his first MLB game.

"It was the thrill of my life,'' Virgil said from his home in Monte Cristi in the Dominican in an interview in advance of his 89th birthday May 17.

"That was like Jackie Robinson for me,'' Virgil added, alluding to Robinson breaking the colour barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, although he actually broke the colour line in pro ball in 1946 with the Montreal Royals.

Virgil went 0-for-4 in his MLB debut as the Giants lost 6-2 to the Phillies. He chuckled about how tough it was to face Phillies pitcher Curt Simmons. The memories will remain forever. He got his first MLB hit off Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts on Sept. 30 when he went 3-for-4.

"The only place to play baseball is in the major leagues,'' Virgil said. "The toughest thing is to stay there. I had a great arm, I made good contact with the ball. I was not a power hitter. I hit the ball a lot to right field.''

Two years following his ground-breaking venture with the Giants, Virgil became the first player of African descent to suit up for the Detroit Tigers. That was an adventure he knew smacked of racism.

For awhile, the Tigers stalled on their decision under young GM John McHale, who later would cross paths with Virgil with the Expos. Eleven years after Jackie Robinson was promoted by Brooklyn, the Tigers brought in a black player on June 6: Virgil.

"They didn't have any black players,'' Virgil said. "They only used white players. They said they wanted me to get more experience. I knew that wasn't the reason. I knew that wasn't the case. You know, white or black, I was a good player.''

A part-timer most of his time in the majors, Virgil enjoyed a solid season with the Toronto Maple Leafs triple-A team in 1964 when he batted .270 with 11 homers and 48 RBI in 608 at-bats under playing manager Sparky Anderson.

"I'm trying to remember how I ended up with Toronto,'' Virgil said. "I had a couple of home runs to right field. I almost never hit a home to right field. They were always to left field.''

Virgil later embarked on a coaching career of close to 20 seasons in the majors, including a six-year stint from 1976 to 1981 with the Expos. Virgil had ran into 1976 Expos manager Karl Kuehl during Dominican winter league play and Kuehl asked Virgil if he wanted to be one of his coaches in 1976.

Then when Dick Williams took over as manager in 1977, Virgil stayed on and was one of Williams' coaches/confidantes for a total of 12 MLB seasons, including four with the Padres and three with the Mariners.

Virgil's biggest memory of his time with the Expos was, you guessed it, when they almost won the National League pennant in 1981.

"We were one way away from the World Series,'' Virgil said. "We had to play on the extra day. The weather was bad. If we had played on the Sunday, we would have won. The game was postponed and we had to face the great Mexican pitcher (Fernando) Valenzuela the next day. Rick Monday hit the home run off Steve Rogers.''

Virgil said Willie Mays was the "best all-round player'' he ever saw. They were teammates with the Giants in 1956-57.

Virgil has accumulated close to 30 years of MLB service so he gets a pretty good pension. Not to be forgotten in his countryland, the Osvaldo Virgil National Airport is named after him. It serves Monte Cristi Province in the northern part of the Dominican.

Virgil's son, Ozzie Jr., played more than 10 seasons in the majors, including a few games during the 1989 and 1990 seasons with the Blue Jays.

Virgil Sr. is in ''pretty good'' health and is able to be on his own in Monte Cristi, using a walker.

Happy birthday, Ozzie!