Candy Maldonado
Template:Mlbretired Candido Maldonado Guadarrama (born September 5, 1960 in Humacao, Puerto Rico) was a Major League Baseball outfielder from 1981 to 1995 for the Los Angeles Dodgers 1981-1985, San Francisco Giants 1986-1989, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays (twice), Chicago Cubs, and Texas Rangers. Maldonado was noted as a good home run hitter who did not usually hit for a high batting average which was, as of 1989 a .251. Interestingly, he played in eight different postseason series for three of his teams and won the World Series with the Blue Jays in 1992. He most recently could be found providing color commentary for ESPN Deportes' coverage of the World Baseball Classic.
San Francisco
"The Candyman" was a major part of the Giants success in the late 1980's as a part of the 1987 NL West Champions and the 1989 National League Champions.
Although Maldonado had statistically good seasons in San Francisco, he was involved in one of the most infamous Giants plays ever. In game 6 of the 1987 National League Championship Series, he lost Tony Peña's 2nd inning fly ball in the lights. This play resulted in a triple for Peña. Peña scored on a sacrifice fly for the only run of the game, which the Cardinals won to tie the series at 3 games each, before going on to win Game 7.
Trivia
- Nicknamed The Candyman by Chris Berman.
- Candy was the only Giant to hit a triple in the 1989 World Series.
- On May 4, 1987, Candy became only the 16th player in San Francisco Giants franchise history to hit for the cycle.
- Candy scored the first Indians run in Jacobs Field.
- Candy's career batting average is 51 points higher on the road than at home.