  hiram gabriel bithorn sosa (march 18, 1916 â december 29, 1951) was a puerto rican right-handed pitcher who became the first baseball player from puerto rico to play major league baseball. he was born in santurce, a heavily populated area of san juan. ==professional career== bithorn played for leones de ponce and at age 22, bithorn became the youngest manager in the history of puerto rican winter baseball. soon enough, he was pitching at wrigley field. on september 30, 1941, bithorn was drafted by the chicago cubs and debuted in the major leagues on april 15, 1942, making history as the first puerto rican to play in the major leagues. bithorn won 9 games and lost 14 in his first season, but he rebounded in 1943 by going 18â12 with an earned run average of 2.60 and completing 19 of his 30 starts, leading the league in shutouts with seven, establishing a record for puerto rican pitchers that still stands to this day. during this time, he also formed the second latin american pitcher-catcher combination along with cuban chico hernÃ¡ndez.david maraniss, clemente: the passion and grace of baseball's last hero (new york, ny: simon & schuster, 2006), p. 30. after his second season, bithorn fought for the united states military in world war ii. his promising start, though, did not last once he return
1916_births 1952_deaths Chicago_Cubs_players Chicago_White_Sox_players Deaths_by_firearm_in_Mexico Major_League_Baseball_players_from_Puerto_Rico Murdered_baseball_players People_murdered_in_Mexico Puerto_Rican_murder_victims Puerto_Rican_sportspeople