Luis Salazar is one of my all-time favorite Cubs. He was a mid-season acquisition by the Chicago Cubs in 1989 that put the Cubs over the top and and into the playoffs with his .325 batting average. Back in high school I had plans for starting a comic book called, “The Adventures of Luis and Domingo”. (Domingo being Luis’ sidekick on the Cubs, Domingo Ramos, of course.)
Just the other day my brother and I were wondering where Luis was imparting his great baseball knowledge nowadays. We both knew he was the first base coach for the Milwaukee Brewers a few years ago. Currently he is hitting coach for the Jacksonville Suns. In 1999, he was hitting coach for the then Louisville Riverbats (which since have been renamed as the Louisville Bats). I’m sure the city of Louisville is greatly honored to have Luis Salazar work in their town. In fact, I suggest they honor the greatness of Luis Salazar by renaming their town, Luisville.
I love this baseball card of Luis Salazar. It shows his incredible agility and blazing speed. He was a true marvel of his profession.
For the record, I think “Riverbats” is an awesome name for a baseball team and “Bats” is one of the dumbest names ever for a baseball team.
Luis was also the hitting coach for the 2006 World Baseball Classic Venezuela team. Sounds to me that he’s the world’s ultimate hitting coach.
I remember Luis Salazar well. He was no Jody Davis or Keith Moreland but a fine player nonetheless. On a slightly unrelated topic… while watching the Cubs/Padres game earlier this season, I noticed Michael Barrett was catching Greg Maddux. It occurred to me that I never recall seeing that happen when they were both with the Cubs. Anytime Maddux was on the mound, Paul Bako was doing the catching for him. My assumption at the time was that Maddux didn’t really care for Barrett as a catcher, and requested Bako as his personal backstop. Seeing them playing together, I was… Read more »
or maybe the other Padres catcher is even worse than Barrett at calling games. shiver me timbers.