Omar Vizquel went into today’s game not knowing that he was about to break a record. It wasn’t until halfway through the game that Vizquel was told by first base coach Omar Munoz that he had just broken the record for most games played by a foreign born player. The previous record was 2831 games and that was held by Rafael Palmeiro.
As stated before, Vizquel had no idea about the record and wasn’t told until first base coach Omar Munoz overheard Tigers’ first baseman Miguel Cabrera talk about it and decided that he should tell Vizquel.
The top 5 players in that category now go:
Omar Vizquel (2832)
Rafael Palmeiro (2831)
Tony Perez (2777)
Luis Aparicio (2601)
Julio Franco (2527)
Vizquel had this to say after the game about breaking the record,
“It’s hard to believe through all these years and talking about playing so many games I look back on my career and it looks like I just started playing five years ago. All of a sudden you find yourself with a lot of games on you, a lot of hits, a lot of records and I’m feeling very proud because I never thought I’d be in the big leagues for this long. And it’s been a very great road for me.”
This is even more unexpected because Vizquel came to the White Sox being under the impression that he was going to be a backup utility player. With the unexpected injury to Mark Teahen, Vizquel has played in 90 games this season and continues to start even though Teahen is healed and back on the roster.
Original Story:
http://www.whitesoxrant.com/2010/09/o...
